SAN JOSE, Calif. - The obstacles are lining up Spartan race-style for the U.S. men's national team.

A rash of injuries has eaten into the team's depth ahead of Friday's crunch World Cup qualifier against Honduras, one in which the U.S. will attempt to leave the Hexagonal cellar in which it currently resides. Forward Bobby Wood, midfielder Fabian Johnson and defenders Erich Lichaj and DeAndre Yedlin are among those rendered unavailable. Both Jermaine Jones and Timmy Chandler are suspended. Forward Jordan Morris is dealing with an ankle injury that has prevented him from training with the team all week, and now seems unlikely to play.

Yet all week, manager Bruce Arena has assumed the air of a man completely unconcerned about the state of his team and what lies ahead.

"It's kind of a next man up," he said at Thursday's press conference. "It's not a like-for-like kind of substitution when you lose players like [Wood], but our team has enough depth and experience to deal with any kind of losses. I'm confident that the players that play [Friday] night will get the job done."

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Even so, the match against Los Catrachos is carrying with it even more pressure than one normally associates with a World Cup qualifier. The U.S. lost its first two games in the Hex for the first since CONCACAF adopted the format for the 1998 World Cup. But it was the manner of the two defeats - a home loss to rivals Mexico and a 4-0 bludgeoning at the hands of Costa Rica -- that raised alarm bells, and cost former manager Jurgen Klinsmann his job.

"We understand the position we're in," captain Michael Bradley told reporters after Wednesday's training session. "There's no need for anybody on the outside to put any more pressure on us than we've already put on ourselves because we didn't start the Hex the right way, we put ourselves behind the eight-ball.

"We're honest and real enough with ourselves to understand that Friday night is the beginning of our chance to put things right and get ourselves back in a good position."

There have been concerns about chemistry, as well. The performance against Costa Rica revealed a side that didn't appear to be pulling in the same direction, and Tim Howard's subsequent comments about a lack of passion by some players raised eyebrows in the months following the loss, though he insisted they weren't directed solely at the team's contingent of foreign-born players.

Michael Bradley insists that the U.S. team is not focused on anything that happened to them in past qualifying matches.

A presumed twitter spat between forward Jozy Altidore and midfielder Alejandro Bedoya - in which Bedoya criticized Altidore for diving to win a penalty in an MLS match, and Altidore responding that Bedoya never says such things to a person's face -- brought more focus on the team.

Both Bedoya and Altidore later dismissed the alleged war of words as a joke between the two of them. Howard, for his part, insisted that there has been no blowback from teammates about his comments, and he didn't think there should have been.

"I didn't step out of my lane," he said in an exclusive interview with ESPN FC's Doug McIntyre. "The media took it and ran with it because it was the first thing that was said post-Jurgen, which I expected. But it wasn't something that I worried about. I didn't single anybody out, so there were no conversations that needed to be had. This team is firmly on the same page. We've got one objective, and it's very clear."

That objective is to beat a Honduras side that poses some considerable challenges to the U.S. team. Los Catrachos are likely to sit back and soak up pressure, and then unleash the attacking quartet of forward Alberth Elis along with midfielders Romell Quioto, Mario Martinez and Oscar Boniek Garcia on the counter-attack. That means the U.S. will need to have a good defensive shape both with and without the ball.

"It's just a matter of those key moments and making sure that you're aware and you're fully concentrated for 90 minutes and not taking a step off and not being in la-la land," said Geoff Cameron. "You have to be 100 percent focused because it only takes one play to be switched off and they're on a counter-attack."

In attack, the injuries to Wood and Morris almost demand that Clint Dempsey be in the lineup alongside Jozy Altidore. Given the long history the two have with one another, it makes the most sense, even if Morris is healthy. Who will be assigned with getting them the ball is more of an open issue. Christian Pulisic is guaranteed to be in the lineup, as is Bradley. The experience and work rate of Bedoya makes it likely he'll be in the lineup as well, though whether he mans the flank or the center of midfield is still unknown. That leaves one of Sebastian Lletget and Darlington Nagbe to take the last starting spot.

Regardless, the U.S. will need to be patient but aggressive as well, and one can expect that Pulisic will be at the heart of the Americans' best attacking moves. He's been in outstanding form for club side Borussia Dortmund, and the hope is that he'll reprise that form on Friday.

"[It's] just being relentless and attacking and going and just never stopping until the 90th minute," Pulisic told reporters prior to Thursday's training sessions.

If all goes well, then the U.S. team's path to the World Cup will have some clearer sailing at last.

Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreyCarlisle.