USA Confident but Cautious Heading into Qualifier

The U.S. men's soccer team didn't seem like a team under pressure the day before a crucial World Cup qualifier against El Salvador (8 p.m. ET, ESPN Classic and TeleFutura).

Several players spent the last 15 minutes of Friday's training blasting shots from 30 yards out over the goal, reveling in the resounding thump of the ball in the seats.

The defensive end of the field, though, is where things will be different. Oguchi Onyewu is suspended for his second yellow card of this World Cup qualifying cycle -- one in the last game against Mexico, the first 14 months ago against Barbados. Jay DeMerit, who paired well with Onyewu in central defense at the Confederations Cup, has a groin injury.

That's not enough of a concern to worry the U.S. team against an El Salvador squad that doesn't concede many goals on the road but doesn't often threaten to score one.

"We have a pretty deep roster now," says captain Carlos Bocanegra, who has been playing at left back but could be needed in the middle. "It'll show tomorrow. Somebody's going to have to step in, and they're here because they can do the job."

"It's a not a game -- hopefully -- where we're going to be defending in our box for 90 minutes," Landon Donovan says. "It's a game where we just need to be smart, keep them in their end and break them down."

That's a game very much in coach Bob Bradley's style -- aggressive, yet never throwing caution to the wind.

"(El Salvador) will probably have a lot of guys behind the ball and counterattack," Bocanegra says. "We don't want to get overanxious and get overaggressive and leave ourselves exposed at the back."

In a brief session with reporters, Bradley was asked if it's time for the team to focus on style now rather than worrying about the points. Given the mathematical reality of four teams in a dogfight for three automatic qualifying spots, Bradley was in no mood to treat this as an exhibition game. Nor did Bocanegra care to look ahead to whether or not a win here Saturday and in Trinidad on Wednesday would be enough to assure qualification.

And so despite the relaxed atmosphere in training, the U.S. players know they have to focus on the job at hand Saturday.

"Latest I would Tweet? Probably a couple of hours before the game," says Jozy Altidore, one of the more prolific Twitter users on the team. "Maybe right when we arrive at the stadium, that'd be my last Tweet. I don't want to get on Bob's bad side."