An American team that cycled through strikers during the qualifying period needs to settle on one before heading to Qatar. The good news is some of the options are hitting their stride.

Spain’s federation rejected the players’ demand to fire the coach, Jorge Vilda, and said the players must apologize as a condition of their return to the team.

The team had a scoreless draw with Saudi Arabia to follow a 2-0 loss to Japan. In more ways than one, they were atypical of the send-off matches in World Cup years.