The U.S. Men’s National Team’s hopes of qualifying for the World Cup quickly turned into a nightmare on Tuesday night.
Two first half goals from Soca Warriors stunned the U.S., who fell 2-1 in T&T on Tuesday night. The loss eliminated the U.S. from World Cup qualifying due to wins from Panama and Honduras.
T&T opened the scoring 17 minutes in through an Omar Gonzalez own goal. On a cross into the box, Gonzalez battled with Soca Warriors forward Shahdon Winchester near the penalty spot. Gonzalez’s touch fired the ball back past Tim Howard, putting the U.S. in an early hole.
That hole got much, much deeper in the 37th minute on a stunner from Alvin Jones. The defender, younger brother of Seattle Sounders star Joevin Jones, unleashed a 35-yard missile up and over Howard, doubling the T&T advantage heading towards halftime.
Just a minute into the second half, the U.S. was back in the match through Christian Pulisic, who fired a shot from outside the box that deflected into the back of the net.
From there, the U.S. generated several chances, while T&T forced a few of their own as well. Tim Howard was called on for a big save on a Winchester shot while Dempsey saw a shot of his own stopped by T&T goalkeeper Adrian Foncette.
The best look came int he 77th from Dempsey as his long-range shot was pushed onto the post by Foncette. With just moments remaining, Foncette made another massive save, stopping a Feilhaber header on the doorstep.
That would be the closest the U.S. came as the team was eliminated from World Cup contention.
300 million people in the country and we can’t find 11 f’in guys to kick ball in the back of the net. Out with the old guard!!! Thank you for your service but don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out . I hope the federation heads revamp this is going to cost the program a lot of money in lost revenue. Winning bullshit Mickey mouse gold cups don’t cut it anymore we need to start as a fan base to put pressure on these guys
Yeah, just gonna say that this was not on Klinsmann for the shambolic display of football they showed against T&T. If they do want to go to the WC, they’ll have to dispute the Panama-CR game. Panama’s first goal never crossed the line as stated above.
I don’t think that will be possible. Remember France against Ireland and Henry’s goal a couple of WC qual back? Never gonna happen. We are out and it is reality.
You can still complain and see what happens. But besides that, the real focus for me is how did the USMNT not put in their full effort for 90 minutes. Disgraceful.
Gulati is up for re-election in February, unlikely he would be ousted before then. Because of that, it is unlikely we would look to hire a new manager before the president is set (which will probably be Gulati again hate to tell everyone). Arena will likely stay on as the caretaker until after Russia so that USSF has a full list of managers to choose from.
looking forward to seeing the young guys finally get their chances. Won’t miss the old guys…they should have bowed out at the beginning of the cycle instead of going for one last hurrah.
Couldn’t of happened to a more deserving pool of players, manager and federation. Everything about tonight was embarrassing and absolutely expected. It’s time for the culture of the sport to change and start putting some individuals in place with credibility, capability and culpability.
—-
Ironically, MLS has helped the entire region and contributed to potentially setting back our player pool. Far too many Jordan Morris’ and not enough Deandre Yedlin’s.
—-
Goodbye Gulati. Goodbye Arena, and while you’re at it: Goodbye Garber.
I remember watching in the 80s. I miss when all 11 players played the whole game…
I’m with you there! I’ve followed this team for a lot of years and this group was lazy and spoiled. Do remember when we’d celebrate when the US would string 4-5 passes together?
We still won on desire alone.
Altidore. You screamed “is that good enough” when you scored against Panama. The answer is NO. Winning 1 game is not good enough.
Everyone saying it’s Gulati’s fault, you are the real joke here. Michael Bradley didn’t show up again in a big game. When you people continue to sing his praises, there’s something wrong. This guy is the epitome of everything that sucks about American soccer. He is an overrated piece of trash. Everyone told you so but you wouldn’t listen. Tim Howard is over the hill. He’s lost us at least two games singlehandedly. There are better replacements and their names aren’t Guzan or Rimando. The inability to get rid of these two crappy players because of nostalgia or job security is why we lost. This team was only as good as Michael Bradley and a World Cup qualifying team it was not. There were any number of things that could have been done differently but I’d say not replacing Bradley and Howard were the biggest reasons.
totally agree on Howard and Bradley. Would add the other long time vet leaders to the list…Altidore, Dempsey, Gonzalez, Jones, all of whom should have bowed out after the last WC but wanted one last bit of glory without wanting to work for it.. Still, I’m chuffed that Arena left some of his best available players either in Europe or on the bench. Those guys are probably done too.
Lalas was right
WHAT THE?!?!?! Replays showing Blas Perez’s goal never crossed the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!….
Grant Wahl is showing the Panamian goal on his Twitter that NEVER crossed the line….Probably nothing USA can do but definitely have to lodge a complaint with FIFA….This team still played like crap but that is freaking crazy that Panama was given the goal
AC- Doesn’t matter it was ruled a goal its a goal.
What we need is to limit foreign players in MLS to four per team and three playing at any time. Most these CONCACAF players that beat us were developed in MLS or refined in MLS.
Just looked flat, looks like most are just picking out their least favorite player and blaming them, really I can’t think of anyone who had even a decent game. Dempsey maybe, but he wasn’t able to score. And Gulati is not getting fired and Bruce may even finish out his contract.
Hate to have to say it but f–king told you so johnny. BA should been fired last window. No fight or intensity because bruce not light their ass on fire. Instead he talks shit about euro teams having it easier, guy was mental. Call up and tactics and lack of motivation cause auto starters never losing their place.
perhaps something this huge will cause a complete -badly needed- overhaul. The complacency of qualifying for every world cup caused us to sleepwalk for years. Now it’s time to wake up. ICELAND qualifies in UEFA but the US doesn’t get out of CONCACAF? wow.
Bruce and Sunil need to go.
Well, Chile didn’t make it either………….but in CONMEBOL.
Clean house! Get rid of everyone who played except Pulisic and maybe Yedlin. Gulati should resign effective immediately. Bruce will retire. And f@(k Trump!
Do you really think that Cankles was going to be better?
6 minutes in Jozy has all the time in the world in the box, then fires high. Then OG has his gaffe (could have been two if the PK was called). Huge early killer swing. How many minutes of actual soccer were played in the second half? We let it get down to butt puckering time and then couldn’t handle it. It’s a sport. It shouldn’t be the end of the world but I’m absolutely gutted.
I have no words to express my disappointment and
my anger, but this was a predictable script if we
analyze the football and the mistakes made during
the cycle, but the biggest was to give Bruce Arena
the function of leading us to the world
championship, what we have left is the lesson that
experienced players are needed when there are no
better youngsters and now it is to think of the restart
and analyze the failures not to make them again
We are not going because Arena did not give playing time to Miguel Ibarra and Julian Green.
I was hoping Iqouldnt have to be the one to point that out. Thank you.
El Comandante….. this actually made me laugh. Thanks.
The US had their chances and almost tied it, but it should have never come to this. What kind of a team is this that can play so well at times at home and play soooo terrible on the road?
Arena needs to be fired along with Gulati. I cannot believe Arena did not bring FJ or Chandler. Arena did say, “One day the US will not make the WC.” Today was the day.
and Donovan keeps his scoring title….
What an utter embarrassment.
This team is exactly what Lalas said. No heart, no fight, no work rate, no World Cup. Time to see the youth come up. Start bringing up seargent, McKinnie, CCV, Carleton. Make a push for Tata from Atlanta united to coach.
exactly. lalas was right
I’ve literally never seen Nagbe do anything… He seems like a good idea but at the end of the day never score or creates any goals… total waste of space.
Really feel for players left off the squad….Not the young up and coming ones, but Fabian Johnson, Chandler, or Cameron not being played….Right now, this is one of the most embarrassing moments in the program’s history, if not the most….Freaking Panama and Honduras played like it was their last chance while the USA looked like a freaking bunch of scared amateurs….
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!!!!!!!
Absolutely pathetic display from the players tonight.. no urgency at all and gave up garbage goals.
Absolutely no fight in them until the very end.
Thanks to T&T for being cheats too. Really class.
Thanks for helping out Mexico and Costa Rica… USA got the short end of the stick with the tough matches early. The already qualified teams at the end rolled over.
How did t&t cheat?
JK put us in a hole..
Arena filled it in with his big ugly stubborn huge myopic head…
At least maybe now Sunil Gulati will be fired.
FIRST HALF
Howard has lost his step, timing and reflexes!!!!!
USMNT doesn’t have ANY THREAT IN midfield
We put no pressure on the ball
Our players seem to be a step or two late to the ball
Our passing was full of heavy first touches / bad touches
Not enough shots on goal
SECOND HALF
Nagbe’s hustle and Pulisic’s finishing ability produced the first goal
Regain possession but lack the speed and finishing touch
Dempsey coming in and Pulisic on the wing (with Nagbe central) help a lot with controlling the game
Absolutely no finishers…..nobody seems hungry or wants the ball
Nobody trying to draw fouls in the 18 yrd box
BEATEN BY T&T????
USMNT DOESN’T DESERVE TO MAKE IT TO RUSSIA
The Mls/sum control of ussf must be outed and ended. Questionable call ups and extreme mls bias. Cameron on the bench and no FJ. Fuck you bruce. FUCK YOU GULATI. FUCK YOU BRADLEY. FUCK YOU GARBER.
Yeah because Cameron and FJ set the world on fire in there last matches. We’re just not good enough.
BA left an epl starter on the bench and 2 bundesliga starters not even called in. Gutted but lack of pool talent is not why we lost. Tnt starter a striker in Winchester who plays in the Usl. Talent is there but on the bench or at home. FUCK YOU BRUCE.
i think Martino came to Atlanta for more than coaching Atlanta United FC.
Who’s the next coach?
I said this when USSoccer fired Klinsmann and I’ll say it again. This is the least talented group of US National Team players since at least 2002.
USA beat Panama because Baloy & Torres.
“I would love to see a ‘hotshot’ team from Europe come over and experience the juggernaut that is the T&T U-21 team.”
The first world cup I followed was ’78 in Argentina. We had a teacher’s strike so went to school well into the summer. I kid I knew would bring in the Wall Street Journal and we would look at the scores. There was no USA in ’78, ’82, and ’86. The latter being the first two WC’s I saw on TV with commercial interruptions and all. I still enjoyed those three very much even though the USA wasn’t there. Maybe our players shouldn’t take a trip to the WC as a given and fight like hell to get there next cycle.
wtf
USNT can’t lose home games! Damn, we need a Colombian!
Heads will roll for this. Can’t wait to hear Alexi pipe off about this.
Is it ok to start worrying about soccer in the USA now??? Mediocre MLS ruined the nats
Martha didn’t mean to like your comment either. It was time to worry about US soccer when we fired a man who, from experience, knows what it takes and hired a man who got lucky against Portugal one year. Then couldn’t make the decisions required to win basic games to qualify. It’s not time to worry now, it’s too late and he will be gone. Blaming MLS is an ignorant comment and that’s all there is to say about that.
Lalas was right. What a joke.
He sure as hell was I now agree that a total overhaul of USSF is needed. Excuse me! They call themselves US Soccer now. Altidore was nothing! Bradley was nothing! Look at their MLS salaries!
Pretty much the end of Jozy and Bradley’s US career. No need to continue with them.
Gulati will be out in the next election now. His hope was hinging on this game. Time to revamp the program.
@AC
—
i’ll believe it when i see it. think he’s still going to win.
—
i know this isn’t a popular opinion, but i’m not too upset about this. we don’t *need* this world cup; what we need is a major structural change, and this is our best hope for one, even if gulati remains.
@nate, I didn’t mean to like your comment. It is absurd to say we needed this. If you honestly believe that, you have real issues. You can fix a problem without missing a World Cup. Even if we were to show poorly in Russia it would be VALUABLE time for the the squad, especially the next generation that would inevitably be called in. You can not mimic the atmosphere, competition, pressure and camps of the World Cup. Get out of here with that bologna. This is a disgrace. JK shouldn’t have been fired and IF his firing was the right decision it should have never EVER been Bruce arena that was called in. His post game was cringeworthy. Fuck Bruce and Sunil.
@wham
—
of course you *can* change things without missing a world cup; however, for major change to happen, a major catalyst is needed. missing the world cup is a big a catalyst as you can get for a national team.
—
and we just disagree on how much of an impact missing the cup will have on our players. it’s a month of games every four years, and the international game—compared to the club game—has been in decline for years; some of our players (pulisic, cameron, yedlin, mckennie now) are probably playing in higher-level games almost weekly.
—
so basically what we’ll be missing from russia is $$$ and the attention of casual americans. it’ll hurt, but again, i think it could easily be worth it if it spurs some systemic change.
—
lastly, it’s hilarious that people are bringing klinsmann up again, as if they’ve already forgotten how much of a disaster we looked under him. he was never a good enough coach; we needed (and still need) someone who will actually make the team better.
USNT played for draw & lost!
Let’s ‘tar & feather’ Gulati!
The women don’t produce the money the men but Gulati focus more women & giving more games to mexico.
Unbelievable.
Don’t even know what to say.
Wow, no words honestly. Something that hasn’t happened in decades. What a set back to US Soccer.
Gulati out
Speechless….Just speechless
Fire Gulati and Arena tonight.
This was Michael Bradley’s team. Period. He was horrendous as a captain and was just as as bad as a player. All those people claiming that MB getting special treatment all these years was going to backfire on USSOCCER, were right.
All of these need to go:
Howard
Bradley
Dempsey
Gonzales
Nagbe
Arena
Gulati
Its all youth from here forward. No more of these guys running the program.
Turn it over to the kids and bring in a coach for them. Oscar Pareja would be a decent choice.
You forgot Guzan he sucks.