As things stand, we’re not going to the World Cup. We’re going to the inter-confederation playoffs. Yes, it’s only two games down and 12 to go, but we’ve already messed with the formula. Don't ever mess with the formula: win at home and draw away.

The scoreless stalemate against El Salvador at Estadio Cuscatlán last Thursday could be forgiven as part of the plan, but not this. Not like this. Not Alphonso Davies skinning DeAndre Yedlin out wide to silence Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Four years ago, in the midst of his team’s ill-fated quest to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, USMNT coach Bruce Arena challenged any European nation to try to qualify for the World Cup in Concacaf. Arena compared Concacaf World Cup qualifying to a season of Survivor, I think.

Win at home; draw on the road — that’s long been said to be the formula for success in Concacaf World Cup qualifying. If true, the U.S. is at least on track to book a trip to Qatar, but it wasn’t exactly the barnstorming start to World Cup qualifying many U.S. fans were hoping for after a summer full of trophies.

Aron Jóhannsson has endured a difficult few years following a move to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen that did not work out as the striker would have hoped. 

You had to feel a bit bad for ESPN. The Worldwide Leader shelled out a significant fee to obtain the U.S. TV rights to LaLiga, only for the league’s best player to leave soon thereafter. Fortunately, a Matthew Hoppe transfer is here to save the day.

After two Gold Cups and one Nations League, now is when the USMNT finally gets to show where it’s at and how it’s grown over the last four years. Now is when World Cup qualifying begins. Now is when the matches really count. Now is when we try to figure out what in the heck Gregg Berhalter is going to do with this team, and for us to predict a USMNT potential starting 11 for World Cup qualifiers. 

Erik Palmer-Brown's latest loan move has been confirmed. The 24-year old will spend the 2021/22 campaign on loan with Troyes in Ligue 1. 

The USMNT center back has been shipped around the continent on loan since joining Manchester City's U23 side back in 2018, first joining Belgium's Kortrijk before spending a season in Holland with NAC Breda. He made 18 appearances for the Eredivisie side before moving on to Austria for the the 2019 season with FK Austria Vienna. The Violets liked what they saw in Palmer-Brown and brought him back for another season.