Three guesses for tonight's U.S.-Guadeloupe match

The United States has been here before. Kind of.

Bob Bradley and Landon Donovan sat down for a short press conference Monday prior to a brief day-before training at Livestrong Sporting Park. They were asked about being in “unchartered waters.” You could tell that it took a second for the player and coach to understand the question. Me, too.

Game time tonight is 8 p.m. CT. My preview at SI.com is here. Grant Wahl’s column on Bob Bradley and the mounting pressure is here. U.S. Soccer game notes are here.

The United States national team had never lost a first round Gold Cup match prior to Saturday’s clunker, the 2-1 loss to Panama. So, yeah, technically this game has precedent, I suppose.

On the other hand, flirting with crisis mode is practically a rite of summer around this team. Two years ago things were going south, and fast, at the Confederations Cup. But Bradley and his men were able to pull the plane out its stall before it crashed and the eventual Confed Cup triumph over Spain became a defining moment. A highly redemptive one, too, demonstrating the team’s fortitude and ability to rally.

Last summer in South Africa discontent was growing after two World Cup matches had produced no wins, leaving the United States in dire need of all three points in the final first-round contest. As we all know, Donovan nailed the late goal and the U.S. side hung the “Mission Accomplished” banner over the first round. I think it’s safe to say big changes would have been inevitable but for that magic moment so late against Algeria. So, crisis averted.

Back to the here and now: the United States needs a tie or win to advance. Guadeloupe has some talent, so it’s still a bit of tricky little mission. That said, let’s just not get carried away here.  It ain’t that tricky.

Read on for three guesses as to what we’ll see.

First, this version of USMNT has demonstrated a commendable ability to drown out the noise, to shut out the doom, gloom and criticism and just get on with it. It was probably a little easier the last two summers from half a world away. (Although the hyper connected world means U.S. players and coaches was certainly touched by the negative chatter while in South Africa in 2009 and 2010.) Now they’ve gotten beaten up some for dreary performances over the last two Saturdays. Still, I expect a good response tonight in suburban Kansas City.  Guadeloupe is talented but limited by tactical and individual indiscipline. I’d look for Bradley’s boys to win by two goals.

Second, I expect to see defender and captain Carlos Bocanegra back in the middle. Tim Ream and Clarence Goodson know how to direct a back line. Goodson, now a veteran at age 29, does it in Denmark. Ream has a big role in the back for the New York Red Bulls. So it’s not that they can’t do perform the communication and guidance expected of center backs  – they just can’t do it like Bocanegra. They don’t have the experience at the international level like the U.S. captain does. As for left back? I’d speculate that we’ll see Jonathan Bornstein, but that’s just a WAG (wild-ass guess). It could be Eric Lichaj, even if he didn’t look totally comfortable in his one outing there (a very tough ask, against Spain.)     

Lastly, there will be tactical adjustment in the attack. I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what it was; Clint Dempsey to forward, perhaps, with Sacha Kljestan or Alejandro Bedoya on the left. A team that has scored just 8 goals in 10 matches since South Africa needs to do something differently, and I think Bradley knows so. Best guess is that Juan Agudelo will be the starter removed if Dempsey moves forward in the arrangement.

Also, you can check out our instant analysis at SI.com. Enjoy.