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The U.S. men’s national team is set to host Costa Rica in an important World Cup qualifier Friday night in Colorado. Many of the recent headlines surrounding the team recently, however, have involved this story from The Sporting News that a linked to yesterday. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

I asked Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid after Thursday’s practice if he had seen the article and had any reaction.

“I’ve just heard about it,” Schmid said. “I haven’t really read the article in detail, and you never know. When things don’t go as you expect them to go, there is always going to be something out there. … I read what Herculez Gomez said, ‘Maybe it’s great that the media is getting that involved. It shows that soccer is growing and more important.’ But on the same token, a team has got to deal with their issues inside the team.

“Whether this was positive or negative is really something now that the team will determine. They’ll either turn it into a positive or they can make it a negative. And hopefully the team will turn it into a positive, because for the U.S. to qualify is the most important thing.”