US Survives vs. Trinidad and Tobago

It's a good thing that style points don't count for very much in international soccer. Wednesday night, in a must-win 2010 World Cup CONCACAF qualifier, the U.S. squeezed by Trinidad and Tobago in Port-of-Spain by the narrowest of 1-0 margins.

Ricardo Clark's bending blast from just outside the penalty area was the only moment of inspiration or brilliance for the U.S. on the night -- but it proved to be enough to secure the precious three points. The win temporarily pushes the U.S. to the top of the CONCACAF Hexagonal with 16 points, pending the result of Mexico/Honduras later Wednesday night.

After a listless first half, where Trinidad ended up with more shots on target -- including one off the crossbar, U.S. coach Bob Bradley appeared ready to make some changes, namely taking off Clark and bringing on Stuart Holden. On what could have been his final touch of the night, Clark struck gold after collecting a nice pass from the left side from Landon Donovan and ripping a wicked bending shot past Clayton Ince. Donovan, yet again, was the one shining light on the field for the U.S.

The U.S. made Clark's goal hold up for the final half hour as Trinidad never really pressed keeper Tim Howard. In fact, the closest the U.S. came to surrendering the equalizer came in the third minute of stoppage time when Jonathan Bornstein deflected a ball back at Howard, which he went down low to smother.

All-and-all, it wasn't exactly an awe-inspiring performance by the U.S., especially when coupled with a underwhelming 2-1 struggle over El Salvador at home last week.

The only thing Bradley might want to do with the game tape is burn it, as the U.S. struggled for large stretches to simply string more than one pass together. The only bright spot, aside from the three points, was the slew of U.S. players that brought yellow cards into the match avoided the referee's book and won't be suspended for accumulation.

That said, the U.S. did do what they had to do and won their first road match in this stage of qualification -- again, style points don't qualify you for the World Cup. Barring a total collapse in the final two matches -- Oct. 10 at Honduras; Oct. 14 vs. Costa Rica -- the U.S. should reserve its plane tickets to South Africa next June. The U.S. will likely avoid the prospect of a two-match playoff with the fifth-place South American team.

And speaking of the fifth place South American team, as forgettable as the U.S. performance was Wednesday night, at least it wasn't Argentina losing 1-0 at Paraguay (which qualified with the win) to fall into that dreaded fifth-place spot. (Diego Maradona, the Turk wants to see you.)