The US made it out of the first qualifying window with the minimum points required to call it a success. The general rule for qualifying in CONCACAF is to win your home games and draw your away games. That usually gets you at least in knocking distance if not all the way in. For this set of matches, the US had two away games and one home. If they won their home game and drew their away games, then that’s 5 points.
The US chose the harder path to 5 points. They drew one away game and their home game.