The United States face an old rival in a daunting venue, and a tricky set of demands, in a decisive final week of World Cup qualifying.

After a disappointing autumn, the US enter a critical 2019 with plenty of questions.

Chief among them: what role will the old guard play in reshaping and rebuilding the team’s culture?

A US team playing with most of its young core was hammered by England in London Thursday afternoon.

The game was a reminder that for all the generation’s young promise, the Americans are still far behind.

It was also another example of why a US program in transition must find stability sooner and not later.

A major challenge for US Soccer in the aftermath of the catastrophe in Couva is expanding access and increasing participation in underserved communities.

A very diverse U20 team, coupled with the black and brown faces that dominate the quickly forming core of the next senior men’s national team, provide hope, even in a contemporary moment plagued by political tribalism.

Both the growth of the US player pool and its limitations were on display in the October friendlies.

We dive deeper into the pool as it stands and discuss the road forward.

The US again showed flashes of promise in its October friendlies against Colombia and Peru.

But the US have midfield questions to answer and will require more defensive consistency moving forward.

Our observations from the October friendlies.

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Tweet Neil W. Blackmon Almost Six Months have passed since the Collapse in Couva. In many ways, the US is… Read more »

Tweet Kartik and Neil met up Monday evening to discuss the U17s dominant win over Paraguay at the U17 World… Read more »