World Cup qualifying is getting real and some serious games are at the ready for this weekend.

Grant Wahl has written about how Argentina and Portugal are both on the precipice of World Cup qualifying failure, which could deny fans of two of the best players in the world, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.   That would be a shame, and should make for an extra-exciting Argentina vs. Brazil game this weekend (that I won’t see), but in reality…

I don’t care.

I do care if the USA goes to Salt Lake City, and shows El Salvador and the world that they are for real.    And then does it again a few days later against Trinidad and Tobago.

Will it happen?

I hope so, but I also expected a lot more out of them when they were in Costa Rica and El Salvador.

There are no more excuses.

We are at home, we are in season, and we have some players grabbing roles in Europe.  There are no batteries or bags of bodily fluids flying at you.  And I cannot imagine there are rowdy away fans waking you up tonight at 3AM with a fire-alarm.

Of course, there ARE excuses like a decimated back line (Onyewu on suspension, DeMerit appears hurt), and H1N1 (who now?)…   Heck, Soccer America has us all doubting if we’ve filled the key holes left by Reyna, Pope and McBride from prior qualifying teams.  Good question.   We have some hopes… Feilhaber, Onyewu/DeMerit and Davies/Altidore… but not enough proof to be near an answer.

Well, here are two games that are should-wins, nearly must-wins.   Boys, go stake a claim to the holes that Soccer America worries remain unfilled.   It is time to get on the field against a team that we are seventy-some positions higher in the (admittedly sketchy) FIFA rankings . . . and show the world why that’s the case.

In other words . . . you are back in the good old USA, so get out there and Git-R-Done.