The American Home Guard, Major League Soccer players on the U.S. Men's National Team, stepped up big time in Tuesday night's Mexican cage match. The dos a cero score line would not have been possible without the Home Guard doing some very heavy lifting.

With the Americans missing Serie A midfielder Michael Bradley to a freak ankle sprain, and English Premier League players Jozy Altidore and Geoff Cameron plus 2012 MLS Defender of the Year Matt Besler to yellow cards, the depth of the American team pool was tested with a fathom-long measuring stick.

Six of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann's starting XI were members of the Home Guard and the measuring stick never hit bottom as they stood tall in the deep end of international soccer.

European-based players Alejandro Bedoya and Mix Diskerud also stepped in and made significant contributions to the final result. They too are evidence of the quality choices at Klinsmann's disposal.

In this edition of the Home Guard we'll look at the contributions made by MLS players in taking down El Tri.

All metrics courtesy of MLS soccer.

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