FanHouse Usmnt

This much is simple for the U.S. national team's Saturday night 2010 World Cup qualifier at Honduras. If the U.S. leaves San Pedro Sula with three points, then it automatically qualifies for next June's World Cup in South Africa. Anything else? Well it's so confusing that the U.S. Soccer site has established a scenario generator to run through all the possible outcomes.

It's also known that a) the U.S. is stepping into a tricky road environment in a country in the midst of a political crisis, b) the U.S. won't have midfielder Clint Dempsey and c) the game will not be seen in America except for select closed circuit establishments.

For fans of the U.S. national team clamoring for midfielder Clint Dempsey to move from the right side of midfield to the right side of the bench, well, they've gotten their wish, though the circumstances aren't exactly ideal.

Dempsey has been ruled out for Saturday's 2010 World Cup qualifier at Honduras due to a shoulder sprain. Dempsey picked up the injury in the closing minutes of Fulham's 2-2 draw Sunday vs. West Ham United. His status for next Wednesday's final qualifier vs. Costa Rica in Washington is still unknown.

Much like an American sports columnist needing a punchline and relying on old standbys like, say, the Detroit Lions, their British equivalents can always fall back on some good old fashioned bashing on American soccer when needed. Lately, though, as America has improved across the board both internationally and with MLS, this old cliche doesn't ring as true.

Yet Friday afternoon the stodgy old Brit working the English language feed of the U-20 World Cup in Egypt wasn't far off with his relentless bashing and tweaking of the U.S. performance. Needing a result vs. South Korea to guarantee advancement to the knockout stages, the U.S. was instead thoroughly defeated 3-0 in Suez.

The U.S. now must wait for the final group stage matches Saturday to see if it's one of the top four third place finishers.

Whichever side of the fence you fall on in the matter of Bob Bradley coaching the U.S. men's national team, there's one thing both his supporters and detractors can agree upon -- the man is consistent.

Thursday Bradley selected his 22-man roster for the upcoming CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and Costa Rica. There is little, if any, surprise in the players Bradley recalled for the crucial games, which will determine if the U.S. qualifies for South Africa automatically.

Aside from the fact that they're both a) human beings, b) American international soccer players of African descent and c) from the greater Washington, D.C. area, there aren't too many similarities between Freddy Adu and Oguchi Onyewu, saying nothing of the pair's nearly one-foot height and seven-year age discrepancy.

Adu, as we all recall, entered MLS in 2004 with fanfare worthy of a Michael Bay special effects blockbuster and was supposed to set the league afire with his amazing skill and footwork -- all at 14 years of age. Since his arrival the pint-sized midfielder has played for two MLS clubs, made a much ballyhooed transfer to Portuguese giants Benfica and now at 20 years old finds himself loaned out for the second time in three years.

Meanwhile the same year Adu attempted to burst onto the MLS scene, Onyewu quietly moved from French club Metz to Belgian power Standard Liege, where he blossomed into a hulking central defender with a pair of Jupiler League crowns under his belt. Most American fans probably didn't even know of the alliterative defender's existence until his famous stare-down of Mexican forward Jared Borgetti in the U.S.'s 2-0 win over El Tri in Columbus, Ohio, which booked a place in the 2006 World Cup.

Chances are you don't need to have a degree in medicine to realize the words, "metal plate" and "soccer player" don't exactly mesh like peanut butter and jelly. Yet that's the situation facing would-be U.S. international Jermaine Jones, who still waiting to get onto the field for Schalke 04 of the German Bundesliga due to a hairline fracture in his left shin. The injury doesn't require another surgery but will keep him out the next three weeks.

Though born in Germany, Jones has the chance to play for the U.S. national team since his father is an American serviceman. Jones has suited up for the German national team, but only on a couple of friendlies which due to a new wrinkle in FIFA rules would allow him to switch allegiances.

If there's one edict that U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley has established since taking over the reigns from Bruce Arena at the end of the 2006, it's that if a player wants to be included in the U.S. squad he'd better be playing for his club team.

U.S. semi-regular left back Heath Pearce found this out the hard way when he was left off the 23-man roster for the upcoming crucial qualifiers against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago since he was out of contract and without a club to call home.

For what seems like the entire summer, Freddy Adu's Twitter account has been buzzing with transfer speculation. The one-time U.S. wunderkind had fallen out of favor at Portuguese super club Benfica and Adu openly pined for a move to Dutch team Eredivisie in July after he returned to Portugal to train after two games with the U.S. National Team during the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Anyway, score one for traditional journalists as the Washington Post's Steven Goff beat Adu to the punch, announcing his loan to Belenenses about 45 minutes before the 20-year-old American midfielder could break the news to his followers.

It's only a small sample size, but it's starting to look like some members of the U.S. national team were cursed following Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. Landon Donovan revealed last week he played the match with the H1N1 virus and over the weekend Tim Howard was in goal while Everton were thrashed 6-1 by Arsenal in the Premier League season opener.

We can safely say Charlie Davies didn't suffer from any post-Mexico hangover, even if on the mun2 English broadcast Marcelo Balboa repeatedly pronounced his name "Davis" during the telecast. In fact, the former Boston College standout carried his sizzling form into the weekend with his new club in France -- Sochaux -- were he scored twice in a second half loss to reigning Ligue 1 champions Bordeaux, 3-2.

As if Wednesday's hotly anticipated U.S./Mexico showdown at the Azteca Stadium didn't already have enough prematch buildup, Mexican midfielder Andres Guardado did his best to fan the flames by making a bold prediction. Monday the Deportivo La Coruna player not only predicted a win by El Tri, but told Goal.com that it would come by a 3-0 margin.

Guardado and the rest of the Mexican camp have plenty of reason to be confident for Wednesday's crucial 2010 CONCACAF World Cup qualifier in light of a 5-0 win over the U.S. at Giants Stadium last month in the Gold Cup final, even if the U.S. fielded a secondary 'B' lineup.