Sep 5, 2013; San Jose, COSTA RICA; General view of Nike soccer balls at United States training session at Estadio Nacional in advance of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Costa Rica. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
CONCACAF World Cup qualifying resumes as the US Men’s National Team hosts their cross-border rivals, El Tri, Mexico. The US men just suffered a rough loss at the hands of Costa Rica in an emotionally charged match Friday night. They’re looking to rebound at home in this contest and remain atop the table.
Mexico let their manager go after an embarrassing loss and are taking on the US with a new manager at the helm.
The USA lost three men in the Costa Rica game due to yellow cards and Michael Bradley to injury before hand. The short handed US men were forced to call up reinforcements: defender Clarence Goodson and midfielders Joe Corona, Jose Torres and Brad Davis.
“We’re going to have to have guys step up, there’s no question,” U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said. “I think we’ve talked about it over the last three years: We build toward this every game, so a guy can step in and not miss a beat and get the cohesion right.”
“We need to have our four points at least to qualify. We will get those four points.”
Klinsmann suspected there could be foul play by the Mexican referees in the Costa Rica game knowing the match up on Tuesday was against their home country. Jozy Altidore was handed a yellow card for bumping a player right before time expired. That yellow was his second and forces him to sit out against Mexico who is barely qualified for the World Cup right now.
“It was absolutely not necessary,” Klinsmann said. “But it is what it is.”
“Qualifying is all about ups and downs. It’s never going to be easy. It never is. Every time is hard,” Donovan said. “So we’ve got to get ourselves recovered physically, recovered mentally, and we have to beat Mexico now on Tuesday.”
Date: September 10
Start Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Stadium: Columbus Crew Stadium
TV Info: ESPN, UniMás, ESPN Deportes
Radio Info: ESPN Deportes Radio
Live Stream: ESPN 3, ESPN Mobile TV, Watch ESPN App, Univision Deportes
CONCACAF Qualifying Stage Table:
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GD | PTS |
| Costa Rica* | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 14 |
| USA* | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
| Honduras* | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
| Mexico** | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
| Panama | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | -2 | 7 |
| Jamaica | 7 | 0 | 3 | 4 | -6 | 3 |
* – Qualifies for the World Cup: 1st , 2nd , 3rd
** – Play-off with New Zealand: 4th