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ORLANDO, Florida -- U.S. striker Jozy Altidore said that it's time for him and his teammates to step up and get a victory in Friday's crunch World Cup qualifier against Panama. The U.S. currently sits in fourth place out of six teams in the final round of World Cup qualifying, level on points with Honduras and a point behind Panama. That has created a situation where Friday's match is essentially a must-win match. "We have quality players here, that's never been a question," said Altidore in an exclusive interview with ESPN FC. "But as a team we haven't performed as we should this past three, four games. That has to be the goal for us on Friday night, to put in a complete performance and just get a result. That's the most important thing." More than anything, he said the U.S. needs to play with an aggression that leaves no doubt who the better team is on the night. "It's on us as players now to be protagonists and make sure that come Friday the intensity is there, the urgency I think is the biggest thing that needs to be there," he said. "Hopefully we can take care of business." Altidore said that the mood in the U.S. camp is more tense than at any other time in the last 18 months, though he doesn't think that's necessarily a negative. "It's tense in the sense that everybody understands what's at stake, which is good," he said. "I think everybody is ready and as prepared as we could possibly be for the game." Altidore added that the manner of the team's preparation for the match hasn't changed, but that there has been more attention to detail ahead of Friday's match in a bid to detect more of Panama's tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. "Obviously we're very prepared for every game you go into, but with this game, obviously, we're looking for any little advantage we can get in terms of how they play, what to expect from them, just to make sure we try to take advantage of the team that they put on the field," he said. Much has been made over the last year about how the teams in CONCACAF have improved. The difficulty of bringing in players from different club environments and the lack of time on the training field has also been brought up by manager Bruce Arena. Altidore insists those factors can't be used to explain away the U.S. team's inconsistent form throughout the final round Hexagonal. "It's not an excuse anymore at this point," he said. "Playing in CONCACAF, we have to make sure that in these games we push the bar so far in our favor that it's a 90/10 possibility. Obviously, it's not going to work that way every time, but if we want to be a top team we have to get to the point where when we step on the field, regardless of what team we're playing in CONCACAF, that we should feel like we're going to win the game."
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