USMNT can breathe sigh of relief after getting World Cup qualifying campaign back on track

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The United States men's national soccer team can breathe again. It can feel its fingers and toes again too, as a 3-0 win over Honduras in frigid conditions has the Americans' World Cup qualifying campaign back on track.

It's a win that is most welcome for the players and manager Gregg Berhalter, because let's face it, the current World Cup qualifying window had been a brutal slog. The 1-0 win against El Salvador was labored, the 2-0 loss against Canada deflating. Berhalter's side looked to be regressing, rather than getting stronger. With the Honduras match scheduled for Minnesota in the dead of winter, it seemed an unnecessary complication for a more talented U.S. side.

— How United States can qualify for the World Cup — <a href="/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/3860182/2022-world-cup-how-qualifying-works-around-the-world?src=" https: www.espn.com target="_blank">World Cup 2022 qualifying: How it works around the world

Yet the U.S. regrouped thanks to goals from Weston McKennie, Walker Zimmerman and substitute Christian Pulisic.

It was a game that was about survival. Honduras might have already been eliminated, but as the 2018 cycle showed, such opponents (read: Trinidad & Tobago) can spring a nasty surprise. The U.S. had to endure the elements, with temperatures at kickoff around 1 degree, and minus 14 with the wind chill. By game's end, the wind chill had sunk to minus 16.

The U.S. also had to cope with its own self-doubt. The American attack has struggled of late, and a single stumble at home would have not only sent their qualifying campaign off the rails, it would've increased the already rising pressure on the players and Berhalter.

And yet the U.S. surmounted all of those obstacles, and it did it