Hard to believe this was the same team that stunk up the joint in San Jose, Costa Rica, three days before.

Then again, it wasn’t the same team. Neither in its makeup nor its formation.

U.S. coach Bob Bradley made a half-dozen lineup changes that could be described as  “deeply inspired.” I prefer “stunningly obvious.” And those, along with a dollop of luck and an opponent, in Honduras, that seemed disinterested in going forward for about 70 consecutive minutes, to record a 2-1 World Cup qualifying victory in Chicago and get the Yanks back on track to move forward to South Africa 2010 without too much drama.

First, let’s review the changes made in the wake of the 3-1 disaster in Costa Rica.

–Jonathan Spector at right back and Jonathan Bornstein at left back, instead of Marvell Wynne and DaMarcus Beasley. This was one of those “colossal duh” moments, because nobody could play worse than did Wynne and Beaz in Costa Rica. But some coaches have been known to fail to acknowledge their mistakes, even the whoppers, and stubbornly persist in them. Bradley did not.

–Landon Donovan at left midfield and Clint Dempsey at right, instead of Jose Francisco Torres and Pablo Mastroeni. In Costa Rica, the Americans failed miserably in winning the ball and moving it to the attacking end, where Donovan and Dempsey, who played up top in that match, waited in vain for service. Bringing the country’s two best attacking players to the middle of the field was key — though I might have stuck one or the other at attacking mid to bring them even more directly into play.

–Ricardo Clark at central midfield. Instead of the suspended Michael Bradley. Clark has a high work rate and is fully fit, as are nearly all the Americans, but he also has a bit more speed to go with the occasional bright idea, going forward, that others lack. A good choice.

–Conor Casey at forward instead of Donovan or Dempsey. Casey has been something of a national team exile for the past year,  for reasons not entirely clear, but he has been scoring goals in MLS, and his insertion up top put a bigger body in place ahead of a smaller one and reinforced the one clear advantage the U.S. has over every Latin team in the region — size. Casey assumed the Brian Ching role, basically. Because Ching is hurt.

Bradley also made one other key decision. Again, obvious, but considering how stubborn some coaches are …

Junking the 4-3-3 formation (has anyone actually talked to the man about why he tried it, in the first place?) and going back to a 4-4-2 was important because the more traditional formation fits the U.S. personnel and also restored a sense of comfort and sanity to the team.

The only obvious correction from Costa Rica that Bradley failed to make was leaving Pablo Mastroeni on the field, even it were in a more comfortable (for him) role as a holding mid. At least, 1) Mastroeni wasn’t as disturbingly awful as he was in Costa Rica, where he didn’t seem to want to go down on the artificial turf to make a tackle, and 2) Bradley replaced him at halftime with Benny Feilhaber.

Feilhaber isn’t really a holding mid, but the U.S. needed offense, and got some defense, as well. Feilhaber played extremely well, his best performance for the national team, and probably deserves more time in the Confederations Cup next week. So, yes, by halftime Bob Bradley had corrected all his lineup errors from three days before, and we have to give him some credit for that.

OK, the match. Which was played before 55,000 fans that observers at Soldier Field described as “overwhelmingly pro-Honduras.” From television, it seemed as if American fans dominated the best seats in the lower bowl, where tickets are more expensive, and tens of thousands of Hondurans (30,000? 40,000?) took over the upper level and turned the place into (at best) a neutral venue. Playing in such a big stadium was a risk U.S. Soccer incurred, knowing it couldn’t sell even 30,000 tickets to American fans but it took on the risk of having its lads play in a vaguely hostile environment — in their own country — in exchange for a huge crowd, great atmosphere and a big payday for the federation.

In the early minutes, it looked like a bad idea. Dempsey was being cute with the ball just inside the U.S. half, pirouetting and considering one of those back-heel passes he likes so much … when he was stripped of the ball. As Dempsey flopped, hoping for a foul where none had been made, Honduras moved instantly to the attack. Carlos Costly took a pass in space (Dempsey had not caught up after his flop, and Oguchi Onyewu seemed content to watch) and rifled a left-footed shot into the upper left corner of the goal from about 22 yards.

Bang. U.S. down 1-0 in the fifth minute, and now it did sound as if they were playing in Teguchigalpa.

At that moment, it was fair to ask if this were going to be Costa Rica all over again. A night of roaring Latin fans, enormous gaffes and dissipating U.S. spirit — and, thence, a full-blown crisis in the World Cup campaign, stuck on seven points after five matches.

Turns out, it was none of that. Because two things happened.

–Honduras seemed almost instantly content with that one goal. The Hondurans have a batch of clever and skilled attacking players, veterans all, and they should have pressed their advantage. Instead, they seemed satisifed with it and perhaps thought it would be enough. For at least a tie.

–The U.S. team shifted into all-out-attack mode. I would call it desperation, except desperation generally involves some obviously bad decisions, and this wasn’t like that.

Instead, the U.S. mood seemed one of extreme urgency. (As well it should have been.) Which meant full sprints instead of half-hearted ones. A ratcheting up of the work rate so that the two Jonathans constantly were coming up the flanks and Donovan (especially) and Dempsey were running at Honduras with the ball at their feet, pulling apart the Honduran defense.

The Americans thoroughly dominated the next 40 minutes but seemed to be unrewarded because, as is so often the case, technical skill is in short supply in this country and “finishing” is something that Europeans and South Americans do, not Yanks. All those runs, and nothing to show for it beyond a batch of ineffectual attempts to cross and a half-volley by Casey that sailed high over the crossbar. And you had to wonder how much longer the Americans could keep it up, considering many of them had gone 90 minutes in Costa Rica only 72 hours before.

This is when the U.S. caught a break. There was no luck involved in yet another lung-busting dash to the attack. But there most certainly was when a pass intended for Donovan, who was angling through the box, turned into what looked entirely like an inadvertent hand ball by Honduran defender Mario Beata, inside the area.

Penalty kick. And Donovan drilled it authoritatively into the upper-right of the goal.

(Which reminds me; has any American ever been more skilled at penalties than Landon Donovan? I think not, and I couldn’t even tell you who might be his closest competitor for the title. Claudio Reyna? Eric Wynalda?)

Now, the Americans had a tie at halftime, which was a bloody good thing, because they had nearly run themselves into the ground from chasing the game.

The weariness was writ clear on the faces of the lads as the second half began. Feilhaber helped them work through it, because he was fresh, and Honduras helped as well, by continuing to lay back far more than it should have.

The match ultimately turned on the one clear American advantage, to which we already referred: Size.

Every U.S. restart in the attacking half of the field, in CONCACAF play, should represent a golden opportunity for the U.S. because it can put into the box five, six, seven guys who are taller than the people trying to stick with them. However, of late, that advantage has been muted because of Donovan’s curious (but rather comprehensive) inability to provide useful balls into the area. After a career in which he regularly excelled at it.

Donovan was awful on restarts in Costa Rica, and was struggling again in Chicago, when he stood over a corner kick in the 68th minute.

This time, he got it right. (Though it was a close thing.)

Donovan’s service sailed over the mob jostling in front of the goal mouth — and seemed at risk of landing untouched on the other side of the field. But Dempsey was waiting beyond the far post and got up high enough to head the ball back toward the crowd.

It took one bounce, in front of the goal, and suddenly there was captain Carlos Bocanegra, hurtling head-first toward the ball like he had been shot out of a cannon, and he headed it into the net from point-blank range.

It was reckless on Bocanegra’s part, because to launch yourself like that, so low to the ground, could easily yield a serious head or neck injury. And it also required skill, because he was redirecting a ball moving from right to left, and needed to strike it just so to move it forward. But it worked out marvelously. And just in time, too, because ‘Los had to leave the field barely five minutes later with a hamstring pull.

Honduras finally responded with some energy, and there were some dangerous moments in the next 15 minutes, including an episode where keeper Tim Howard ended up on the grass while parrying an attack — and the ball sitting five yards from an open net. But Rico Clark hustled back and cleared it before a Honduran could tap it into the net.

The final 5-10 minutes went down uneventfully. Either the Hondurans had run out of gas (they aren’t a young crew, and Latin teams aren’t known for their fitness) or they had accepted their fate in a sort of sulky, Central American sort of way.

So, yes, an important victory. A must-victory, almost, at home against one of the three teams in the final round off qualifying that actually could keep the Americans out of the three guaranteed berths to South Africa.

The standings: Costa Rica (12 points), U.S. (10 points), El Salvador (5), Honduras (4), Mexico (3), Trinidad & Tobago (2). And note: Costa Rican and the U.S. have played one more match than the other four; Mexico is home to T&T and Honduras is home to El Salvador on Wednesday.

If we go ahead and assume Costa Rica is in, and that T&T is out, that leaves the Yanks having to finish ahead of three of the other four for an automatic berth. That seems quite doable. Even with the almost-inevitable upcoming defeat at Mexico (Aug. 12, in Azteca) factored in. Home victories over Costa Rica (not at all the same team, on the road) and El Salvador should be enough to secure one of the three guaranteed berths. And there is some wiggle room, as well; a result at Trinidad is quite doable.

Had Bob Bradley’s team not won this match, however, that all would have been different, and we would be looking at the sort of excitement serious U.S. soccer fans don’t really need.