OK, I saw about 80 percent of the United States qualifying match with El Salvador. I had to watch it in the middle of the French night on some streaming video that may have been pirated. Or had to be? I’ll let you know if my machine comes down with a batch of viruses or ESPN comes after me.

Anyway, it was the U.S. 2, El Salvador 1, in a game so ugly only Bob Bradley could love it — because it means three points for the Yanks and a big step toward the 2010 World Cup.

The Americans actually trailed, 1-0, in the 32nd minute, when an awful clearance by left back Jonathan Bornstein popped feebly into the air and back into the U.S. box, where it was collected by a Manuel Zelaya and headed home by Christian Castillo.

But the U.S. got even, then pulled ahead, on a pair of header goals off Landon Donovan services, as the Yanks took advantage of their height advantage over the tiny Salvadorans.

Goal No. 1 came in the 41st minute, when Donovan got a nice loft on a restart ball from 35 yards out. Several U.S. players were offside, but Clint Dempsey was not one of them, and he launched himself horizontally to power the ball into the net.

The Yanks moved ahead in the second minute of extra time at the end of the first half. Donovan caught up to a ball near the touchline, about even with the 18-yard line, and curled a pass perfectly onto the head of Jozy Altidore, who drove it into the net with a violent wrenching of his neck.

And there you were.

The rest of the match wasn’t much to watch, frankly.

The officiating was just shy of atrocious, but it damaged both sides about equally, so it probably worked out. Salvador thought Dempsey was offside, and thought it deserved a penalty late in the first half … and Altidore apparently scored in the 58th minute, but the Honduran referee decided Dempsey had fouled a defender while making the pass that sprung Altidore. A very curious call.

The U.S. was very sloppy in the back, failing to make clean clearances oh, about 25 times, and that gave El Salvador all sorts of chances it shouldn’t have gotten.

Which perhaps demonstrates how important Oguchi Onyewu (suspended for the game for accumulated warnings) and Jay DeMerit (injured) have become. Chad Marshall and Carlos Bocanegra moved into the middle, in Onyewu’s and DeMerit’s absences, and they did not have an easy time of it. They didn’t get much help from the outside backs, the Jonathans (Bornstein, whose huge gaffe already was mentioned, and Spector. At least not on defense.

The midfield of Dempsey, Donovan, Benny Feilhaber and Michael Bradley didn’t cover itself with glory on the defensive end. Well, except for Donovan, who worked back so hard and so often that he was bent over in exhaustion late in the game — and he’s the best-conditioned player on the  field.

Dempsey had the one goal, but missed a batch of great opportunities and also wrecked some buildups in the attacking end … as well as not working back, which is par for the course for him. Bradley fils was nearly invisible, which is not want you want from a midfielder. (Who is the playmaking mid of the future? Is there one? Does Landon have to go in there and risk being swallowed up, as he was as the withdrawn forward at the 2006 World Cup?)

Altidore and Charlie Davies were scary up front but also missed some finishing chances.

El Salvador kept plugging away, because it needed a victory to rekindle the team’s nearly dead World Cup hopes. And the Cuscatlecos found some gaps, all right. Howard made a very nice save on a point-blank shot by Williams Reyes in the 87th minute, the most dangerous of the batch.

Anyway, three points is three points. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Which is good, because these three were not.

Now it’s on to Trinidad & Tobago, which just got drilled by Honduras and is out of it. A perfect opportunity for the Yanks to pick up a key point (or three) on the road. Almost have to count on T&T being down, because the Americans haven’t been consistent enough to know they can go in there, stay organized and convert their scoring chances. They just haven’t been doing that.

El Salvador, at altitude in Utah, shouldn’t have been a problem. The Salvadorans are dinky, and half of them play in leagues that make Major League Soccer look like the EPL. But they kept hanging around because of all the mental and physical mistakes the Americans made.

Next game is on Wednesday. Short turnaround.

Anyway, an ugly game … but a winning ugly game. And it’s 5 a.m., and I suppose I ought to sleep. Lotta soccer today.