Not even a damn fool will read much into the last meeting between the two sides as the United States get ready to host Trinidad and Tobago this evening in the third series of games of the final phase of the CONCACAF journey to South Africa 2010.
Let's be honest about it, though. Not only was that game in the familiar surroundings of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, but American coach Bob Bradley rested several regular starters as his team's advancement to the decisive group of six had already been confirmed.
Yes, there was cause for celebration when the final whistle blew, and even moreso when a 3-0 whipping of Cuba at the same venue on November 19 confirmed our elevation to the next level.
However, as we've experienced already after just two fixtures of the ten-game schedule that determines the region's representatives next year, the battles are much more intense now, psychologically as well as technically.
Relaxing in San Salvador after taking a 2-0 lead cost us two points, while an error by Honduran goalkeeper Noel Valladares and the persistence of the home side salvaged a point last Saturday.
More than anything else, those two experiences should have reinforced in the minds of the players the importance of holding nothing back until the final whistle is blown, whatever the scoreline.
Given expectations of a tight battle right down to the wire for the top three automatic qualifying positions and then the fourth spot which earns a playoff with South American opponents, even taking it easy when 2-0 or 3-0 up could prove costly in the long run as what may appear to be nothing more than a late consolation goal could come back and bite you very, very hard if goal-difference becomes a factor in the final standings.
You won't have to remind the Americans of the need to play out to the very end, especially after they needed two late goals to give the Salvadoreans some of their own medicine, scrambling a point that moves them to the top of the standings.
So we can expect a full-strength USA team to be accelerating into overdrive almost from the opening whistle in the quest to catch us cold, as they did last September when goals by Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey inside the first 20 minutes at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois kept a lethargic Trinidad and Tobago squad on the back foot for the rest of the game.
And it will be cold--certainly by our standards--tonight in Nashville, Tennessee, with temperatures expected to be hovering very close to single figures (in degrees Celsius) by the time the teams run out onto LP Field.
That 3-0 loss was an especially distressing experience, not merely because of the scoreline, but also for the embarrassingly one-sided nature of the game with the ultra-defensive tactics employed by Francisco Maturana backfiring spectacularly, as anyone with even the faintest hint of Trinidad and Tobago footballing culture would have expected.
To ask players fundamentally lacking in the discipline and regimentation required to hold a solid defensive line for an entire game was a recipe for indigestion, and so it proved.
Our Colombian head coach seems to operate on the Jeff Thomson principle. It was once suggested that if the former Australian fast bowler, known in his prime for both fearsome pace and wayward direction, didn't know where the next thunderbolt was going, then it was impossible for the batsman in the firing line to have a clue as to what was coming up next.
There really is no clear pattern of thought to go on, other than maybe his plan is not to have a consistent plan. Who knows, maybe after all is said and done, we'll be praising Senor Maturana to the high heavens for getting us to a second consecutive World Cup finals and appreciating him as a genius after all.
For the moment, though, he continues to bewilder, especially after keeping Kenwyne Jones on the bench and, even with Dwight Yorke and Chris Birchall suspended, not introducing Latapy until midway into the second half against the Hondurans.
But--and it is very important to note this-Trinidad and Tobago's tally of two points from two games is two more than the squad under Bertille St Clair had managed at the corresponding stage four years ago in what proved ultimately to be a successful quest to get to Germany.
So, on paper, we are ahead of the curve and, as in 2005, we are awaiting the return of Yorke to national duty.
However, projecting our final position on the basis of this seemingly advantageous situation is about as reliable as any of our many economists correctly forecasting what the nation's financial status will be on the day we host Mexico in the final duel of the ten-game campaign on October 14.
There are two things we can be certain of tonight, though: the home side won't be taking strike action and our boys can expect some serious pressure from the first whistle. Let's hope we survive.