USMNT keeps World Cup hopes alive with shutout win over Honduras

The U.S. national team proved Wednesday that it’s possible to play soccer at the North Pole. What it didn’t establish, however, is why you would want to.

Playing in weather more suitable to polar bears, penguins and popsicles, the U.S. warmed its cooling World Cup hopes with a 3-0 win over Honduras that kept it second in the eight-team CONCACAF qualifying tournament with three games remaining, placing a ticket to this fall’s competition in Qatar well within its grasp.

Weston McKennie, Walker Zimmerman and Christian Pulisic stormed across the frozen tundra at Allianz Field to score on three set pieces, sending the U.S. on to its most one-sided shutout win since last spring.

But it wasn’t attractive, it wasn’t artful and it probably wasn’t all that smart to be running around in shorts in 2-degree weather and a wind chill of -13, temperatures which made Wednesday’s kickoff the coldest for a U.S. qualifier this century by a wide margin.

How cold is a temperature of 2 degrees?

So cold that infrared heaters hung from aluminum frames over both benches, hot air was pumped in at feet level and the substitutes and coaches sat on heated seats, wore heated vests and drank hot apple cider and tea. But even that couldn’t entice two Honduran players to leave the warmth of the locker room for the second half.

How cold is a wind chill of -13?

So cold that the 19,202 fans brave enough to risk hypothermia found disposable hand warmers in the cup holders at their seats. Frostbite can occur within minutes in the conditions Wednesday’s game was played in, so roving medical teams circulated throughout the stadium checking on the paying customers while additional medical stations were set up to treat those who needed help.

And those were the highs Wednesday night. By the time the game ended the temperature was -1 and the wind chill -17.

Players on both teams, as well as the referees, worn compression shirts and tights as well as Nike hypertherm headcovers and gloves. U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner, who looked more like a cross-country skier than a soccer player, took the field with a quarterback-style handwarmer provided by the Minnesota Vikings. After a protest from the Honduran bench, referee Oshane Nation made the keeper take it off, leaving Turner to warm his gloved hands inside his shorts.

Playing in the Artic conditions, U.S. Soccer said, was meant to give its team a home-field advantage. Being the much-better team, apparently, wasn’t advantage enough: the U.S. started Wednesday ranked 13^th in the world by FIFA, 50 places ahead of Honduras, and has lost just eight of 47 matches under coach Gregg Berhalter.

Honduras is still looking for its first victory since last July – it has been outscored 29-6 in14 games since then — and hasn’t won at all under manager Hernán Darío Gómez.

United States’ Weston McKennie (8) heads in a goal past Honduras’ Rommel Quioto (12) and Juan Delgado (6) with United States’ Walker Zimmerman (3) and Honduras goalkeeper Luis Lopez (22) looking on during the first half of a FIFA World Cup qualifying match Wednesday in St. Paul, Minn.

(Andy Clayton-King / Associated Press)

The Central Americans, 0-8-3 in qualifying, played their previous match Sunday in 87% humidity and had been eliminated from contention for a World Cup berth before their even got to snow-covered Minnesota. But they gamely played on in conditions that left its frozen players bluer than their indigo warm-up jackets.

This match would have been a mismatch regardless of where it was played. And while the Americans (6-2-3 in qualifying) struggled — especially with their continued inability to score from the run of play – they got what they wanted when they scheduled the game in the coldest of the country’s 51 largest urban centers, beating Honduras by the same three-goal margin they won by in the heat of humidity of San Pedro Sula in September.

McKennie put the U.S. ahead to stay in the eighth minute, heading a long Kellyn Acosta free kick from the right side just inside the near post for the team’s first set-piece score in 11 qualifiers. It would get another 29 minutes later when Zimmerman got on the end of another Acosta cross, this one from the left wing, then spun and redirected it past former LAFC teammate Luis López with his right foot.

The two goals also doubled the number of first-half scores for the U.S. in qualifying. Pulisic got the final score two minutes after coming off the bench, banging in a loose ball that fell to his feet following an Acosta corner in the 67^th minute.