Who’s Hot?

Brad Guzan: The United States No. 2 is rolling and not a moment too soon. His standout performance in Aston Villa’s 1-0 loss to Manchester City set the tone for the rest of the month. Villa topped fellow relegation rivals Reading, in which Guzan made three saves, and Queens Park Rangers to claw out of the drop zone. The experience of making stunning stops after a shaky, inexperienced back line hangs him out to dry could come in handy soon.

Maurice Edu: A loan from Stoke to Turkish club Bursaspor has done the defensive midfielder a world of good. He became a regular starter almost immediately and—barring a suspect sending off after getting two soft yellows in a late February match—has excelled. This week, Edu helped the Crocodiles to a win against Trabzonspor that pushed them up to fourth and was named to the Super Lig Best XI by an English-language site that covers Turkish soccer. With Edu again with the national team, the real question is if he’ll factor into Jurgen Klinsmann’s XI this weekend. He’s come on as a substitute midfielder recently, but there’s also the potential he’ll reprise his center back role.

Jozy Altidore: The forward’s season has earned him a quasi-permanent place in the positive side of this feature, and this week is no different. While AZ dropped its weekend match against Ajax, Altidore came alive in the second half and scored in the 74th minute of the 3-2 defeat. It’s hard to remember the last time a player has been in such good form when joining up with the U.S.—Herculez Gomez before the 2010 World Cup, perhaps?—but he was similarly hot in February and couldn’t score against Honduras. We’ll see if the 23-year-old can get on the board in this set of qualifiers.

Who’s not?

There are a lot of things that could go here, and you know what they are. This week, we’re going to leave you with only positives. Our incisive criticism will return next time.

Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) is a writer based in Arizona and is ASN's CONCACAF correspondent.