Match Preview: U.S. Men's National Team face Trinidad and Tobago at DSGP

In his three home matches against Trinidad and Tobago in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the USA’s first-choice goalkeeper, Tim Howard, has not yet been beaten.

Howard was in goal for the 4-0 win over T&T in Jacksonville last September, the 3-0 victory - courtesy of a Jozy Altidore hat-trick - in Nashville in 2009, when Pablo Mastroeni was among the starters, and the 3-0 success at Toyota Park near Chicago a year earlier.

Throw in the goalless draw (2015) and 1-0 win (2009) in Port-of-Spain, and Howard has stood defiant in five World Cup qualifiers against Thursday’s visitors. The Colorado Rapids’ number one will be hoping that streak continues inside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, as the US play game five of 10 in final qualifying for Russia 2018.

Having lost their first two matches of the Hexagonal, which led to the dismissal of Jürgen Klinsmann, the men’s national team have chalked-up a 6-0 win over Honduras in San Jose, and snatched a point from a 1-1 tie in Panama.

With only the top three guaranteed a place at next year’s World Cup, the US still have work to do. They lie fourth, ahead of Honduras on goal difference, but a point behind Panama, three behind Costa Rica, and six adrift of Mexico. T&T sit bottom of the Hex, with three points from four games.

The USA’s record against T&T is 17-2-4 all-time, with the first meeting being an international friendly on March 21, 1982. Goals from Juli Veee and Denver-born Rick Davis gave the USA a 2-1 win, with a side that included Tim Twellman, the father of Taylor.

Only once have the USA lost to the Soca Warriors in a World Cup qualifier, and that was in Port-of-Spain in 2008. In fact, so dominant have the US been on home soil against T&T, that they have kept clean sheets in the last six qualifiers in their own back yard. You have to go back to May 13, 1989 and a 1-1 tie at Murdock Stadium in California for the last time the US defenses were breached by T&T in a World Cup encounter. Former Rapids players Marcelo Balboa, Steve Trittschuh, and Peter Vermes wore the red, white and blue. Trittschuh scored for the US.

Mekeil Williams has played in T&T’s previous two meetings with the USA, including that 4-0 thumping in the fourth round of qualifying last September. Since that game, Trinidad and Tobago have bid farewell to two head coaches - Stephen Hart and Tom Saintfiet - and have placed their faith in Dennis Lawrence to try and get them to only their second World Cup finals.

Williams has been used a left-back, as well as a central defender by Lawrence, in a 1-0 victory over Panama and a 1-0 loss to Mexico. He has been in and out of the Rapids’ lineup this season, but his ability to cope at altitude may have Lawrence calling his number.

The USA head to Mexico on Sunday, with T&T in Costa Rica. The next time these two teams meet will be on October 10, and the final round of matches in the Hex. By then, all should be a little clearer.

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)