SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- When the United States last played in Costa Rica just over three years ago, the match was over almost before it began.
Michael Bradley, the Americans' beating heart in central midfield then and now, turned his ankle in the warm-up and had to be helped off the soggy Estadio Nacional field. Goals by Johnny Acosta and Celso Borges left the reeling Americans down 2-0 less than 10 minutes in. And when the final whistle blew a little less than two hours later, the visitors had suffered a 3-1 defeat, their eighth consecutive World Cup qualifying loss in San Jose.