With J Hutcherson -- Does anybody wan to have a go at expressing the importance of Saturday night in San Pedro Sula? Some new Romanticism meets military wordplay on 'big game,' 'must win,' etc? Or are we all clear that the US needs a result just as much as the other teams trying to avoid finishing fourth in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying.
If this was the National Football League, they would be shooting the game on film, with the austere voice-over writing itself. Ok, let's be honest. If the NFL faced meaningful away dates in other countries, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves. There's no getting around that the US is attempting to play spoiler on a night of Honduran solidarity.
For sports as representative of everything else in life, this is as big picture as it gets. Professionals trying to do their job with their immediate future on the line in an environment that will refuse to be downplayed, much less ignored.
For the US fans, it's an odd circumstance. Big game, closed-circuit only, and a 10pm start on the East Coast. The old days for those of us around long enough to remember when getting an away game on closed-circuit was a very big deal.
As retro nights go, the relative appeal of camaraderie is probably falling short of inconvenience. After all, this is the era of easily accessible internet television not to mention multiple tiers of television. Yet here we are, a somewhat subtle reminder of how it used to be to follow the United States even on big nights.
Personally, I miss it. My early years in soccer were without the relative wonder of cable television. Some of my best memories in this sport were shared with people I didn't know at some soccer-friendly establishment that had the game on. There's something to be said for having to make the trip.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
