U.S. routs St. Vincent 6-1 in World Cup qualifying opener (Video)

The United States men's national team began its long and winding march to the 2018 World Cup in Russia with a stumble, going behind early against the world's 129th-ranked team St. Vincent and the Grenadines. But the Americans scraped themselves off the sod laid atop Busch Stadium's infield dirt in St. Louis and put six unanswered goals past the Caribbean islanders to claim the first three points on offer in the two-year qualifying process with a 6-1 win.

[FC Yahoo: Look back on USA vs. St. Vincent & the Grenadines as it happened]

Some 31 months before the elite of international soccer will reassemble in Russia, a scrappy band of part-timers put a scare into the Yanks, who last failed to make it to a World Cup in 1986. Inauspiciously, they began the fourth qualifying phase – and the first in which they have participated – by conceding a goal to an opponent considered hopelessly overmatched.

That played into the angst that has been building in recent months, as head coach Jurgen Klinsmann's team has descended into something of a tailspin, recently crashing out of the Gold Cup prematurely and losing a playoff for a spot at the next Confederations Cup to Mexico. In all, five of the last six games were lost – two of them in extra time or penalties – and the performances had mostly been unsightly.

In just the fifth minute, a simple ball over the top by St. Vincent was cleared poorly and reached Oalex Anderson, the barely 20-year-old Seattle Sounders prospect. He ran away from DeAndre Yedlin all too easily and beat Brad Guzan with his low finish.

But not six minutes later, Yedlin redeemed himself. He made a savvy run off a combination by Gyasi Zardes and Michael Bradley, the latter of whom found him in a pocket of space by the end line. Yedlin then dinked the ball back for Bobby Wood, whose subtle header equalized.

The Americans would forge another half dozen good chances in the half. And they would convert two of them. Before the half hour, Fabian Johnson's free kick took a big deflection and sailed into the net.

Then, a mere two minutes later, Jermaine Jones headed a corner kick at the near post on a pre-planned play. It arced to Jozy Altidore, who found himself wide-open at the far post, having run off something of a pick-and-roll, and headed the ball home for a 3-1 lead.

By that point, the Americans were firmly in control. They gobbled up an astounding 83 percent possession in the first half, tapping the ball around unchallenged and untroubled. St. Vincent simply weren't able to compete. They are men with day jobs, who couldn't match the USA's conditioning – made all the worse by the endlessly chasing after the ball. The yellow jerseys were mostly pinned back into their half, if not their own third. And whenever they did manage to win the ball, they seldom managed to connect with more than a few consecutive touches before giving it away.

The second half was even more one-sided as the first.

In the 51st minute, Geoff Cameron deposited a header into the far upper 90 when another corner was headed on by the near post to make it 4-1 U.S.

Altidore played a tricky through ball between the legs of a defender and into the path of Zardes, who in turn slid his finish between goalkeeper Winslow McDowall's legs to make it five in the 58th minute.

And finally, in the 74th minute, Altidore made it six. He turned his defender inside out in the box and watched his finish take a big deflection and settle into the net for his second of the game and 31st in his USA career.

In the second half, the highly touted defender Matt Miazga and much-hyped midfielder Darlington Nagbe made their national team debuts, ensuring that the former can't represent Poland, which had declared an interest, and the latter is ineligible to play for Liberia, where he was born.

Klinsmann, however, will have been happy to do more than lock up two major prospects and three points. With the convincing win, he got a reprieve from the building pressure and swelling scrutiny of his body of work, no matter how shaky things looked in the first few minutes. After looking glum in the first half, he smiled broadly in the second.

Yet for the Americans, the big game of this international break comes on Tuesday when they travel to Trinidad and Tobago for their first away game. The Soca Warriors will present a challenge of an entirely different magnitude.

It would behoove Klinsmann to retain much of his lineup and try to finally build some momentum and continuity, something he has seldom done historically in more than four years in charge. There was a lot that functioned well in his flat 4-4-2 formation.

Johnson, brought back after being ostracized from the team for asking out of the Mexico game in extra time, was strong on the left flank, as he has often been there. Wood and Altidore made for a very complementary striker pairing. The back four settled down well after giving up the goal. Bradley resumed his regularly scheduled dominance in midfield, after dropping into his more natural deeper role, covering and distributing and linking up with the attack.

It's hard to tell, of course, how much of their impressive performance to credit the Americans and what part of it came courtesy of exceedingly weak opposition. But regardless of that caveat, all was suddenly well again for the USA on Friday.

Four days later, though, there will be yet another referendum on the United States' fragile state. And that game figures to be much tighter.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.