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With the U.S. ready to face Honduras today at 7pm ET (4pm VST) with first place in their group on the line, Olympic qualifying is in utter chaos.

First, seven players defected from the Cuban National Team, leaving that squad completely crippled. Then, in a remarkable turn of events, Haiti defeated favored Canada 2-1 while Guatemala stunned their Mexican opponents by the same score. The group now stands with Guatemala in first with six points, Haiti in second with three and Canada and Mexico tied for third with just a single point.

The first place team in each group faces the second place team in each group in the semifinals, so now the only way a team possibly faces Mexico in the semis is remarkably by winning their group. Mexico cannot win their group and I believe Guatemala has already won it.

So now what the hell is the U.S. supposed to do? On the one hand, in this region you almost always want to avoid Mexico pretty much at all times. On the other hand, Guatemala has defeated second place Haiti and Mexico, do you really want to face them?

Once again the ridiculous qualifying format for the Olympics (an important tournament in this country) has left the U.S. in the very unsporting situation of having a win potentially be a bad thing for them.

The U.S. will know whether it has to do anything to advance by game time (the other game in the group is played beforehand, and unless Cuba wins the U.S. is in the next round), but I’m guessing the team should just go out there and try to win and let the chips fall where they may.