SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- One by one, U.S. soccer players exited their celebration and came into the dark, narrow hallway outside the locker room of Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano.
They had qualified the United States for its sixth straight World Cup, rallying to beat Honduras 3-2 Saturday night in as thrilling a match as the U.S. has played in years. So they were filled with joy. They also were consumed with relief.
And immediately thoughts turned to an even tougher task -- getting out of the first round in South Africa next summer and wiping out the sting of 2006's disappointment.
"Hopefully, the sky's the limit for us," goalkeeper Tim Howard said. "We've played some big games in the last few years, and I'm hoping that we go down there and we're not afraid of, you know, what they throw at us."
Of the 19 teams that have qualified for next year's 32-nation field, the United States is among only six nations to have reached six straight World Cups, joined by Brazil, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain.
After the United States made an unexpected run to the quarterfinals in 2002, its best showing since the original World Cup in 1930, there were thoughts among some American soccer fans that the national team was ready to take its place among the powers. The first-round exit in Germany, with dismal losses to the Czech Republic and Ghana bookending a bloody tie against eventual champion Italy, led to a shake-up -- with Bob Bradley replacing Bruce Arena as coach after Juergen Klinsmann didn't take the job.
"Progress isn't linear," President Sunil Gulati of the U.S. Soccer Federation said yesterday. "Brazil goes to the World Cup expecting to win. Everyone else goes to get through the first round. It's an impossible situation to say we're going to get better at every World Cup. It's not a time trial. Others teams are getting better."
That said, expectations are growing in the United States -- especially after an exciting performance at June's Confederations Cup, where the United States ended the 35-game unbeaten streak of European champion Spain and took a two-goal lead against Brazil in the final before losing 3-2.
Supporters were uneasy when the United States went 0-2-1 in its first three road qualifiers of the regional finals. Even American players were impressed by Honduras' 8-0 home record in qualifying. When the Catrachos had a chance to tie the score on Carlos Pavon's 87th-minute penalty kick, they wondered whether qualification would come down to the final match -- against Costa Rica on Wednesday night at Washington's RFK Stadium.
"You just think, ‘Why is this happening to us?'" Landon Donovan said.
But then Pavon put his shot over the crossbar.
"You need a break now and then, and we got it," Gulati said.
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