COMMERCE CITY, Colorado — Growing up on Oahu's North Shore, Brian Ching preferred breaking waves over breakaway goals. Surfing, not football, held his affection.

Now, the surfer dude who traded the sun and sand of Hawaii for the world's football fields leads a youthful lineup against Guatemala on Wednesday in a World Cup qualifying match, a spot in next year's regional finals already assured for the Americans.

"My first love growing up was surfing, and still really is," Ching said. "Along the way, I kind of fell in love with soccer."

Ching and Pablo Mastroeni are among the few veterans on a roster missing Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Tim Howard and all four starting defenders. The Americans (4-1) get a look at young players such as Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu.

"This is great. It goes to show how fast the talent is developing in this country," said Mastroeni, the roster's veteran with 61 international appearances. "It's exciting times. In the next 10 years, this country is headed in a direction that we should be one of the more elite teams in the world."

Guatemala can advance only with a victory and a loss by Trinidad and Tobago at home against Cuba.

The Americans are 26-1-7 in home qualifiers since May 1985, the only blemish a 3-2 loss to Honduras in Washington in September 2001.

"They're going to come out throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us," Mastroeni said. "We've got to impose our will on them. We've got to weather the storm."

As a kid, Ching's notion of weathering the storm was to grab his board and bust it to the beach. The bigger the storm, the bigger the set of waves.

Ching's favorites surfing spots were anywhere isolated, no tourists in sight. The most enormous wave he can recall catching was one with a 16-foot (5-meter) face.

"I wouldn't go near that now," said Ching, the first Hawaiian-born player to play for the United States. "With riding a wave, there's a sense of danger. The water's so powerful and unpredictable. I felt life flash before my eyes a few times."

Maybe that's why his mother persuaded him to give football a try, even offering to coach his first team. He listened, and liked the sport — as a backup to surfing, his intended pro career.

Ching soon wiped out that plan and got serious about football in his third year in high school.

"Just didn't develop quickly enough," he said, referring to his surfing aspirations.

Instead, he wound up at Gonzaga, finishing his university career tied for second on the school's points list.

Now, he's having a strong career in Major League Soccer, winning two championships with his current squad, the Houston Dynamo. Ching was the MVP of the '06 MLS Cup after scoring the tying goal, followed by the winning penalty kick in a shootout.

Playing for the national team, he inevitably draws comparisons to Brian McBride, one of the top forwards in American history.

"I don't look at it as filling the shoes of Brian McBride. I try to go out and do the things I'm good at and play within myself," said Ching, who has four goals in 2010 World Cup qualifying. "Hopefully, I can continue to get better."

The behind-the-scenes work makes Ching a formidable forward, details that may go unnoticed, just not to United States coach Bob Bradley.

"Brian is a forward who does a lot of little things to help your team: he fights for balls, he wins headers, he's strong and he's a real presence," Bradley said.

He also sets a mean block.

In a 1-0 qualifying win at Guatemala in August, Ching set up Carlos Bocanegra's goal not with a pass but a pick, clearing the way for Bocanegra to get open and head a Beasley feed into the net. It was the first time the United States had won in Guatemala in 20 years.

The match was physical — there were 40 fouls, two red cards and Eddie Lewis needed five stitches to close a wound to his head after a collision with Guatemala's Gustavo Cabrera.

"They're a tough team, a physical team — sometimes they do things that try to rile you up," Ching said. "Being a young team, we're going to have to watch out for that."

Guatemala is under the direction of a new coach. Benjamin Monterroso was hired in late October to replace Ramon Maradiaga, who was fired after a 2-1 loss at Cuba.

"In any sport you play, anytime there's a new coach, players seem to rally around that change," Mastroeni said. "They have a lot to prove. It's a clean slate for all their players."

Ching's not sure how much football he has left in him, intimating it's probably just a few more years. Then, it's back to the beach to catch more breaking waves.