The United States Men’s National Team travelled to Mexico City on Thursday night for a match with huge consequences in terms of both qualifying for the World Cup and confirming fans’ biases. The Americans would be once again trying to find an illusive victory in the Mexican capital, while El Tri would be hoping to make the most of two home games remaining in qualifying as Panama and Costa Rica hoped either would falter.
There was much discussion in the days and weeks prior to the match about the best options for lining up the team. This included whether or not it was better to treat the game like a mid-week MLS match and hope that playing a weakened lineup and focus on getting the win against Panama was best or if the team should try and win at Mexico since winning is the point of sports.