It has been established quite emphatically that it's going to be cold. Nearly half of the squad is out of season. Some key players are hurt. Others have their club careers in the balance, with MLS trades and potential European transfers swirling. One player has had travel issues just getting to camp. Generally speaking, the conditions are not ideal for the U.S. men's national team entering the penultimate World Cup qualifying window.
It's not a vacuum, though. The U.S.'s fortunes over the course of the next three matches are tied to those of their opponents as well. And those opponents are not exactly operating under optimum circumstances, either.
Take Thursday's opponent El Salvador, for instance, a team that held the U.S. to a scoreless draw in the opening match of World Cup qualifying but has only five points since and has been all but reduced to playing spoiler. It's not going to be accustomed to the frigid temperatures of Ohio, nor is it slated to be entirely at full strength (El Gráfico reports the two center backs who started vs. the U.S. in September may not be available Thursday). Last-place Honduras, which the U.S. will play to close the window, is also all but eliminated, is on its second coach of the Concacaf Octagonal and, like its fellow Central American nation, should not be playing at its peak in the Minnesota cold. That's the logic from the USMNT side, which systematically chose its two home locations for this window by prioritizing shorter travel for the middle match—at first-place Canada, in Hamilton, Ontario—while creating layers of complications for its other opponents and ensuring a partisan crowd.
