Rough World Cup qualification travel: U.S. faces many tricky Hex road trips

Ross Dyer recaps the latest from American footballers abroad before they join the national team for the Mexico clash.The formula to reach the World Cup from this part of the world is simple. In CONCACAF, it goes like this: win at home and try like hell not to lose everywhere else. So it was for the Yanks during the last four-year cycle, when they posted an 8-0 record stateside en route to Brazil 2014 and in five of the six Cups before that. (The U.S. received an automatic invite to the quadrennial party as host in 1994.) They have not lost a World Cup qualifier at home in 15 years.

Elsewhere, it's another story. Take Costa Rica, where Jurgen Klinsmann's team will play four days after opening…