US Faces Costa Rica in World Cup Qualifier Amid Davies Distraction

Already rendered anticlimactic by last Saturday's clinching victory in Honduras, Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier between the United States against Costa Rica in Washington now will be played in the shadow of the car accident that claimed the life of a Maryland woman and likely cost forward Charlie Davies the opportunity to play in next summer's tournament.

The game means everything, however, to both the visitors and Honduras, which trails Costa Rica by two points for the region's final automatic berth. For that reason, and because of the "great deal of pride in the ongoing competition to be the best team in CONCACAF," according to U.S. coach Bob Bradley, the Americans claimed they will play to win on Wednesday night (8 PM ET, ESPN2).

"We have a job to do, go out there and put our best team on the field and try to win because there is still points out there to be taken by other teams," captain Carlos Bocanegra said at a Tuesday news conference just a couple of hours after the team learned of Davies' accident. "It's not really fair to go out there and not give our best effort because if we were in the reverse situation, we'd be pretty angry at the other teams....It's our last home game of qualifying. We're in the nation's capital and we want to go out with a win as well and keep our home record intact."

To do that, they'll have to hold off the desperate Ticos and put Davies' situation out of their minds for a couple of hours. Updates on the forward's condition and details of the accident have been slow to trickle in. On Wednesday morning, a U.S. Park Police spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post's Steven Goff that neither Davies nor the woman who died was driving the SUV that crashed at around 3 AM Tuesday morning. The unidentified driver's injuries reportedly were not as serious. Davies suffered fractures to his leg, elbow and face, as well as a lacerated bladder.

Jozy Altidore likely will get the start in place of Davies and play alongside Honduras hero Conor Casey, who scored twice in Saturday's win in San Pedro Sula. A first XI spot in South Africa now seems to be Altidore's to lose.

Otherwise, not much is at stake on Wednesday. Bradley mentioned the possibility that a victory might help the Americans' seeding prospects for December's World Cup draw, but that seems unlikely. With a first-round exit in two of the past three tournaments and FIFA's tendency to come up with last-minute procedures that favor the traditional powers, it's hard to imagine a scenario under which the U.S. will be among the top six qualifiers (South Africa and champion Italy should be seeded.) FIFA currently ranks Bradley's team 11th in the world, behind a few big names whose participation next summer is not assured -- Russia, Argentina and France have left it late and Croatia was eliminated Wednesday afternoon.

Players also have mentioned the motivation of finishing first in the CONCACAF hexagonal, but those bragging rights are fleeting. The U.S. was the region's top team in 2005 and came in third in 2001. Obviously the respective World Cup finals performances that followed weren't related.

Also worth watching for: The team's response to the Davies tragedy and its ability to focus on the task at hand should provide a test, but not one they'll be forced to replicate in South Africa; The continued integration of Houston Dynamo midfielder Stuart Holden; Whether Jose Francisco Torres gets another opportunity and whether Casey can be the target forward the U.S. has been waiting for since the international retirement of Brian McBride.

Separately, the US announced a friendly against Denmark on Nov. 18. The game will be played in Aarhus, home to midfielder Benny Feilhaber.