Somewhere aSaprissa midst the chewed-up fake grass, hostile atmosphere and sweltering heat of Estadio Ricardo in San Jose, Costa Rica, lies a rare commodity for the United States national team.
Opportunity.
Bob Bradley's side faces one of its toughest tests in CONCACAF qualifying on Wednesday, an imposing away date against one of the strongest teams in the region.
Yet while history would suggest Bradley and his players should approach this contest with a sense of foreboding, it also presents a rare chance to shine and produce something unexpected. Plaudits come few and far between for the USA. Such is the nature of the CONCACAF zone.
The team is expected to win its home games. Check. Comfortably reach the World Cup finals. Check. And lose away to Mexico and Costa Rica. Check.
Victories over Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador are hardly likely to get the elite nations of world soccer quivering with fear, and it often feels as if Bradley's troops are on a hiding to nothing.
Win, and it is nothing more than expected. Anything less, and catastrophe beckons.
Wednesday's game, plus the trip to Mexico City's Estadio Azteca on Aug.12, are perhaps the only two out of 10 final-round qualification games in which there is a chance to make a real impression.
Certainly, it won't be easy. USA has only claimed one point in seven visits to Costa Rica and lost all six matches at Saprissa.
Things have gotten even more testing in recent years, when Costa Rica successfully applied to FIFA to be allowed to install artificial turf because of problems in keeping the field in good condition due to tropical rains.
The USA players are not fans of the surface, which, when combined with a fervently patriotic environment makes for a big home advantage.
"Costa Rica has had great success at Saprissa Stadium," Bradley said. "It's loud and it is a different game on turf. They're very comfortable there. They have great confidence there, and we are aware that we've never won there, so when we look at different challenges and talk about things that we still want to achieve, this is a good example.
"We know that these kinds of games require a real commitment as a team, a good game plan, and finally just good efforts on the day. It's a big challenge but one that we're very excited about."
Goalkeeper Tim Howard, just returned from reaching the FA Cup final and finishing fifth in the English Premier League with Everton, agreed.
"It is a difficult place to go, no doubt about it," Howard said. "But we have more experience in our squad now, and I think we are in good shape to handle the challenge. We know that to make people sit up and take notice we need to go to places like this and win games."
Costa Rica sits in second place in the table, a point behind USA, which tops the six-team pool with three games gone.
The top three finishers can book their flights to South Africa next year, with the fourth-place team facing a playoff with a South American nation.
Following the Costa Rica clash will be a home fixture with Honduras in Chicago, before the team jets to South Africa for the Confederations Cup. Bradley and USA fans will be anxious to get qualifying taken care of quickly, to avoid a late scramble for points.
A positive result in Costa Rica would go a long way toward passage to South Africa next year and provide a welcome morale boost for the team.
USA has a chance to add meaning to what otherwise is merely a means to an end.
