United States moves to verge of 6th straight World Cup berth with 1-0 win at Trinidad

US moves to verge of 6th straight World Cup berth

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — With yet another one-goal win, the United States put itself in position to clinch its sixth straight World Cup berth when it plays at Honduras on Oct. 10.

“The win was crucial. We’ve got a very difficult game coming up in Honduras and Costa Rica will be tough as well,” Landon Donovan said following Wednesday night’s 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago.

Ricardo Clark scored in the 62nd minute, putting the United States in first place in World Cup qualifying group with two games remaining.

“It’s huge. It’s huge. It gives a little bit of space when things are getting tight in our group,” Clark said. “We knew we had to come out in this game and get a win.”

The United States failed to win its first three road qualifiers this year and played a listless first half. The Americans went ahead when Clint Dempsey played the ball wide to Donovan, who cut the ball back to Clark.

Clark took a touch and let loose a bending 26-yard shot that swerved past goalkeeper Clayton Ince. It was just the second goal in 25 international appearances for the Houston Dynamo midfielder, who also scored against Paraguay in the Copa America two years ago.

He had an important fan in the stands — his father, Lance, who was born in Trinidad.

“It was special to score a goal while he was watching,” Clark said. “I just let it rip, and I hit it on frame and it went in,”

The United States (5-2-1), which beat El Salvador 2-1 at home last weekend, leads the final round of North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying with 16 points, one ahead of Mexico (5-3), three in front of Honduras (4-3-1) and four ahead Costa Rica (4-4).

Results of Wednesday’s other two games helped the Americans, with Mexico beating visiting Honduras 1-0 and Costa Rica losing 1-0 at El Salvador.

“This will obviously give us a lot of confidence, getting two big results,” American goalkeeper Tim Howard said. “We came in talking about getting six points and this is the first time we did in the final round. It’s obviously important, the way results are going, to get six points and put pressure on the guys below us.”

If the Americans don’t clinch at Honduras, they’ll have a second chance four days later against Costa Rica in Washington, D.C. The United States is 17-0-1 at home in qualifying since a 3-2 loss to Honduras in September 2001 at RFK Stadium.

The top three teams qualify for the World Cup, and the No. 4 nation goes to a playoff against the fifth-place team in South America.

“Honduras has more to play for, and we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Donovan said.

In its previous three road qualifiers, the U.S. tied 2-2 at El Salvador, lost 3-1 at Costa Rica and 2-1 at Mexico.

“I know people like to look at teams on paper and say, ‘This should be an easy win.’ These games are not easy anywhere in the world,” Donovan said. “There are a lot of teams that struggle to get through these games. We played well — we didn’t play perfect — but we got the result we needed.”