The US does not currently control its own fate. As the qualification round is halfway over (meaning everyone will play each team in the group once more), a theoretical perfect record by all teams currently in first place and the US, and keeping the current last place teams the same, would leave the US last among the first place teams, missing out on the qualification playoffs. It's a long way to go, though, so a lot is in the air still.

The US does control its fate; if we go undefeated we are in.

Home vs Honduras will help. I am going to have to get creative with the lineup though. Having some issues with top players on the team sharing positions. 3 of my top 4 defenders are L only.

ranks, winning the group isn't enough. There are 7 groups but only 6 playoff spots. Right now we're tied on points with Guadaloupe but we do have an advantage in goal difference.

Obviously there is still a lot of time, though.

Not planning on managing again next season. Time for some new blood. Start planning your speeches!

I got locked out of my account for like 4 days so I wasn't able to set a lineup in the last match.

Why's that happening?

Not sure, I had to stop logging in through facebook.

We did get a solid win today. Our fate is in our hands. 2 home and 1 away match to go. Pretty sure if we win at least 2 of 3 (including needing to beat nicaragua) we will get through.

The United States also needs to have one of the top 6 records among first place teams (excluding games against the last place team for the 6 team groups) and then win a playoff series. Meanwhile, in Europe, half of each division makes it to the playoffs.

Yeah, our playoff structure doesn't mirror the hexagonal at all. It would be great if RS could mirror CONCACAF's actual qualifying method. It's especially egregious that one of the group winners doesn't have a chance to qualify.

As of right now, the US is 7th among 1st place teams and has already had its bye week. The other teams currently in 1st that have a bye coming up are Sint Maarten, then (counting the 6th place team in the group as a bye week) Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia. Only Haiti is within 3 points, and we have the edge on goal difference by 2 right now, so while we control our own destiny (somewhat, see below), it may come down to goal difference and each point is very valuable right now. The other bad news is that Cuba is likely to finish 1st overall and would play whoever is in 6th.

Then there is the consideration of how the last place team affects the 1st place team.
Haiti: v Mex 1-1-0, v Berm 1-0-0, v US V. Isl. 1-0-0

St. Kitts: v. Nicaragua 2-0-0, v French Guayana 1-0-0

St. Lucia: v. Bahamas 1-0-0, v Barbados 1-0-0

So if Mexico were to finish last in group 1 and Haiti wins the rest of the way, Haiti would actually gain 2 points over the US by virtue of their draw not counting against them.

I highly doubt that all of the current teams in 1st will win the rest of their games, so as long as we keep getting points we will hopefully earn a playoff spot!

It's not 1 vs 6 btw. It's 6 team random draw, so cuba opponent is random.

A tough draw today puts the US in a very precarious situation. Need lots of help at this point.

Disagree. It's win and in at this point. Fate is in our hands.

I would think a loss probably knocks us out but that's not 100%. A win is a guaranteed bErth. We have all but locked up our group but need to make sure we have enough points to not take 7th place overall.

My fault, I was looking at the standings and saw the US as the worst first-place team but didn't realize St. Kitts and Nevis had played 2 more matches. Keep on winning!

Well, we made it out of the group stage. Sorry for scaring you all.