The U.S. has already booked its ticket to next year's World Cup in Brazil. England still needs a win Tuesday against Poland (Fox Sports 1, 3 p.m. ET) to clinch its spot.

So any American who wants to make the average English soccer fan's head explode only needs to brag about Team U. S. A's six consecutive World Cup qualifications, the 13th ranking in the latest FIFA table, four spots ahead of the inventors of the game, and the mostly smooth run to the top spot in its regional confederation.

Really, though, compared with the traditional soccer powers, how good is this U.S. team, which wraps up World Cup qualifying against Panama Tuesday night (beIN, 9:25 p.m. ET).

The U.S. competes mostly against small, poor, Central American and Caribbean island nations, and the question of its quality is similar to what vexes college sports aficionados each December and March when they have to decide what to do with those mid-major powerhouses with sexy records.

The Jurgen Klinsmann-led U.S. side could well be soccer's version of the 2012 Northern Illinois football squad, destined for the sort of 31-10 Orange Bowl thrashing the Mid-American Conference Huskies endured after a 12-1 run through the regular season. But could they be more like the 2009-10 Butler Bulldogs, 18-0 in the cream-puff Horizon Conference, 33-5 overall, a heave away from beating Duke in the national championship game?