What are the USMNT's chances to qualify for the World Cup after Panama draw?
The United States woke up on Friday morning with zero points in the final round of World Cup qualifying, sick of answering questions about whether they'd qualify for Russia. Four days later, they have four points, are up to fourth place and, while they have work to do, must be starting to feel pretty good.
It's been quite a turnaround for the Americans, who lost their opening two matches of the round and saw Jurgen Klinsmann fired. Bruce Arena was hired to rescue their qualifying campaign, and it looks like he's on the way to doing just that.
Table via CONCACAF
Fourth place isn't where the Americans want to be -- it would only put them in an inter-confederation playoff for a spot in the World Cup -- but it's much better than sixth place, where they started the week.
Also, if the U.S. can pick up four points from every two games, as they did in the last week, that should be enough to get them in the top three. That would qualify them for the World Cup automatically.
What's also encouraging for the U.S. is that the two teams ahead of them they're most likely to catch -- Costa Rica and Panama -- both have to play on American soil still. That makes the U.S. big favorites for those matches and puts them in position to leap them both.
All of this doesn't take into account the fact that the Americans are more talented than Costa Rica, and certainly more talented than Panama. This on top of the fact that they can very well go down to Honduras and Trinidad, and walk away with wins.
Klinsmann was fired, in large part, because of the hole he dug the U.S. in qualifying. Now Arena has nearly gotten them dug out of it. Nearly, of course. There's still work to do, but the it was only last week that the U.S. looked like they were in deep trouble. Now they're favorites to qualify again. Things are looking up, and all it took was four points.
