U.S. Men’s National Team legend Landon Donovan is the latest to sound off on the team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup next summer.
“You can lose games, that’s all part of it. But the lack of urgency to really understand what was at stake was really disheartening. Candidly, it was really hard to watch,” Donovan told the Dan Patrick Show.
The U.S. went out after the disaster scenario that required an American loss combined with Honduras and Panama wins played out and kept them out of Russia.
“It should never come down to having to score one goal in Trinidad to get to the World Cup, although we in our history have had to do that,” Donovan said. “I think we’re past those days where that should happen.
“The reality is we’ve lost two games at home in qualifying — I’m not a statistician, but I don’t know the last time that happened. And we lost a game in Trinidad against a team that had nothing to play for.
“That’s sort of the reality of the situation, and it’s unacceptable in every way and it’s disappointing. We got what we deserved.”
Donovan, like most who follow the USMNT, is aware of the need for changes. He, again like most who follow this team, doesn’t have any specific answers. He wants to avoid a situation like this ever happening again and calls for U.S. Soccer to take a look inward as they sit in this low point.
“So are we worse off? Yeah, probably,” he said. “Sometimes in situations like this — not today, but in the long run — maybe this is the best thing that can happen so we can all take a step back and re-evaluate and re-assess and make sure this never happens again.”