OT: USMNT losing big to Trinidad &Tobago

[eebmg]

Wow. USMNT just reached an all time low. Needing only a draw against Trinadad &Tobago (with nothing to play for and worst team in Group by far), they are down 2-0 at half time.

I do not see how Bruce Arena survives this.

Game being played on Univision only.

 

[triaddukefan]

So if the US loses... that means no World Cup ?

 

[JordyG]

The USNMT couldn't beat Trinidad or Tobago. The combination of the 2 is just too much of a "powerhouse".

 

[eebmg]

So if the US loses... that means no World Cup ?

US was in third in front of Honduras and Panama. US lost 2-1, Honduras beats Mexico 3-2 and Panama beats Costa Rica 2-1. US by means of an impossible set of circumstances is out. Pathetic.

 

[eebmg]

Quick summary of how unbelievable this loss was.

United States out of World Cup contention after loss to Trinidad

 

[Plebe]

So if the US loses... that means no World Cup ?

In the CONCACAF (Central and North American region), the top 3 teams qualify directly and the 4th-place team plays a home-and-away playoff with an Oceania team (this year Australia) for one of the play-in spots.

Coming into tonight, Mexico and Costa Rica had 1st and 2nd place locked up by a wide margin.

The U.S. was in 3rd, narrowly ahead of Panama and Honduras, and the only way the U.S. could've fallen to 5th place was if:
(a) the U.S. lost to Trinidad and Tobago; AND
(b) Mexico lost to Honduras; AND
(c) Costa Rica lost to Panama.

I read somewhere that the odds were 93% that at least one of those three things wouldn't happen tonight. But sure enough, they all did.

This wasn't the only shocker in World Cup qualifying tonight. Chile, winner of the past two Copa Americas, failed to qualify out of the South American region with their loss tonight.

 

[eebmg]

In the CONCACAF (Central and North American region), the top 3 teams qualify directly and the 4th-place team plays a home-and-away playoff with an Oceania team (this year Australia) for one of the play-in spots.

Coming into tonight, Mexico and Costa Rica had 1st and 2nd place locked up by a wide margin.

The U.S. was in 3rd, narrowly ahead of Panama and Honduras, and the only way the U.S. could've fallen to 5th place was if:
(a) the U.S. lost to Trinidad and Tobago; AND
(b) Mexico lost to Honduras; AND
(c) Costa Rica lost to Panama.

I read somewhere that the odds were 93% that at least one of those three things wouldn't happen tonight. But sure enough, they all did.

This wasn't the only shocker in World Cup qualifying tonight. Chile, winner of the past two Copa Americas, failed to qualify out of the South American region with their loss tonight.

More importantly, MESSI dragged Argentina into the World Cup with a hat trick beating Ecuador 3-1. Another chance for the most
beautiful player to shine on the biggest stage.

 

[Wbbfan1]

USA is in probably the EASIEST Region in FIBA Soccer and its inexcusable for TEAM USA not to make the World Cup. TEAM USA probably spends more money on USA Soccer then any other country in its region with the possible exception of Brazil. There's no excuse losing to a team like Trinidad and Tobago.

 

[eebmg]

I did watch the game in it's entirety and even though the 2 goals may be thought of as something of a fluke, the 1st half effort was atrocious. I have no doubt their mindset was to play for the tie and even after being one down, they thought their reputation was enough so why run. The second half, they did play with some urgency but too little too late. To come out at the beginning of the game so listless is demoralizing and atrocious. Anyway, forget the men, lets go USWNT.

 

[Trappa]

More importantly, MESSI dragged Argentina into the World Cup with a hat trick beating Ecuador 3-1. Another chance for the most
beautiful player to shine on the biggest stage.

I'm glad Argentina won so we don't have to go through the public meltdown of Messi "quitting" the national team. Again.

The USA men's team performance was embarrassing. They need to do some soul searching.

On the plus side, this can only help the USA women's team in their quest to even the paying field. One hopes, at least.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Perhaps even more shocking than the loss was the coach's reaction. Bruce Arena said that no major changes are needed, the U.S. has all the good players it needs, it was just one of those games.

Can anyone imagine Geno Auriemma saying something like that after a loss to the equivalent of Providence College? Could you imagine Coach Geno suggesting that nothing needs to change?

After Tina Charles was beaten to a basketball pulp by Sylvia Fowles in LSU's victory over UConn, Auriemma read the riot act to Tina. He didn't say that, well, Fowles is two inches taller, and, you know, she's really good. He told Tina that UConn didn't have a center right then, and if she wants to be a real center and a real All-American, she needs to dramatically up her act.

Tina did.

Do you think the US men's soccer team will? I'm guessing that there will be another coach soon, and that the head of US Soccer will soon resign, or face firing. This entire qualifying season has been an unmitigated disaster.

Geno would know what to do.

 

[CTyankee]

New thinking is needed in the management of USSF and MLS. Part of the problem has been attracting the best athletes to play and stay with soccer. There is not nearly the money at the professional level of soccer in the USA so the best athletes go to football and basketball.

Whoever is the national team coach has to work with whom he is given... The appointment of "old school" Bruce Arena may have been a mistake, but the front offices of USSF and MLS are just as culpable. The effort and game plan is on Arena; the players and development programs on USSF and MLS.

 

[Orangutan]

On the plus side, Taylor Twellman delivered a classic rant last night:

 

[j66kicker]

An ESPN commentator said in the rest of the world 17-19 year olds are playing with pro teams, but here they’re playing on their high school team and maybe a club team. Then they go to college and play 3 months of the year, so it’s no wonder we suck [sic].

So why doesn’t this inferior development system produce the same result with the women? My uneducated, non-soccer fan guess is that it does. But the rest of the world has not emphasized women’s soccer either, so they aren’t so ridiculously far ahead of us like they are with the men. ??

 

[Orangutan]

So why doesn’t this inferior development system produce the same result with the women? My uneducated, non-soccer fan guess is that it does. But the rest of the world has not emphasized women’s soccer either, so they aren’t so ridiculously far ahead of us like they are with the men. ??

I think (somehow) when it comes to women's sports, the US is less sexist than most other countries. Simply having Title IX and NCAA women's soccer puts us ahead of most countries. Women's soccer doesn't have the same robust club system in Europe that men's soccer does.

In the past 10 years that I've closely followed English soccer, I've seen a great increase in how much the big clubs care about and promote their ladies' teams.

 

[Big Mick]

On the plus side, Taylor Twellman delivered a classic rant last night:

Taylor's "classic rant" is the mindset that cost the US in this game.

According to that thinking:
1) There was no way that the US could/should lose to such an inferior team like Trinidad
2) How dare they embarrass the US like that.
3) We don't get the best athletes because of other sports and the resulting "slip pickings" from the remaining 300+ million US residents. (Stuff that one - Iceland qualified whilst picking from their measly 1 million residents)
4) and, other such tripe.

How about these:
1) RESPECT your opponent.
2) Stop thinking that it is a god given right to qualify for the World Cup.
3) Show a little humility
4) And for Christ Sakes - stop whinging

 

[eebmg]

Taylor's "classic rant" is the mindset that cost the US in this game.

According to that thinking:
1) There was no way that the US could/should lose to such an inferior team like Trinidad
2) How dare they embarrass the US like that.
3) We don't get the best athletes because of other sports and the resulting "slip pickings" from the remaining 300+ million US residents. (Stuff that one - Iceland qualified whilst picking from their measly 1 million residents)
4) and, other such tripe.

How about these:
1) RESPECT your opponent.
2) Stop thinking that it is a god given right to qualify for the World Cup.
3) Show a little humility
4) And for Christ Sakes - stop whinging

5) Play hard (not like coma victims)

 

[Orangutan]

Taylor's "classic rant" is the mindset that cost the US in this game.

According to that thinking:
1) There was no way that the US could/should lose to such an inferior team like Trinidad
2) How dare they embarrass the US like that.
3) We don't get the best athletes because of other sports and the resulting "slip pickings" from the remaining 300+ million US residents. (Stuff that one - Iceland qualified whilst picking from their measly 1 million residents)
4) and, other such tripe.

How about these:
1) RESPECT your opponent.
2) Stop thinking that it is a god given right to qualify for the World Cup.
3) Show a little humility
4) And for Christ Sakes - stop whinging

Find the full version of the rant - I just posted a snippet. He directly addresses #3 - noting the Iceland has approximately the same population as Corpus Christi, TX.

On the subject of population, it's not so much that Trinidad is bad (they are). It's that they have 1.3 million people and we have 323 million people. I'm sure our soccer federation has a heck of a lot more money, too. With all of our resources we can't figure out away to get a *DRAW* when we need one? And of course it's not just last night. It's that we put ourselves in this situation to begin with.

I don't see it as disrespecting the opponent. I see it as holding yourself to a certain standard. In 2014, US was in the knockout stages and gave serious tests to European powers. This kind of regression in 4 years' time is alarming and speaks to a total failure of player development.

 

[Plebe]

Taylor Twellman is nice to look at but he's also a big drama queen.

To be honest I'm happy for Panama and Honduras. Let's face it, qualifying for the World Cup means far more for the Honduran and Panamanian peoples than it does for people in the U.S. Four years ago, Panama lost in heartbreaking fashion in its final qualifying game and was left out of the World Cup. Now they've finally qualified for the first time.

Soccer has made some progress in the past 25 years in the United States, but it has a very long way to go, and as long as the triad of football-basketball-baseball commands the vast majority of the cultural sports imagination, it's going to be quite hard for soccer to ever have the groundswell of popular passion that it enjoys in most of the world.

 

[EricLA]

I did watch the game in it's entirety and even though the 2 goals may be thought of as something of a fluke, the 1st half effort was atrocious. I have no doubt their mindset was to play for the tie and even after being one down, they thought their reputation was enough so why run. The second half, they did play with some urgency but too little too late. To come out at the beginning of the game so listless is demoralizing and atrocious. Anyway, forget the men, lets go USWNT.

Just goes to show that's why you play the game. Doesn't matter the better team on paper. Doesn't matter that Team USA might beat T&T 9 times out of 10. The only game that matters is the one they play... I'm bummed. Tough loss to swallow if you are a soccer fan...

 

[Palatine]

They basically screwed up the whole ten games not just T&T. Their level of play was poor for the whole ten games. Yep, they won three times. But the competition sucked. They had the better team eight times out of the ten. And won three.

 

[Trappa]

I think (somehow) when it comes to women's sports, the US is less sexist than most other countries. Simply having Title IX and NCAA women's soccer puts us ahead of most countries. Women's soccer doesn't have the same robust club system in Europe that men's soccer does.

In the past 10 years that I've closely followed English soccer, I've seen a great increase in how much the big clubs care about and promote their ladies' teams.

Very few countries have the same amount of money going in their women’s programs that the USSF has developed in the US. That said, the US youth and senior system has a lot of very visible flaws in regards to women’s soccer (the most publicly well known is the money issue), which just goes to show how underfunded and undersupported a lot of the rest of the international field is.

 

[meyers7]

An ESPN commentator said in the rest of the world 17-19 year olds are playing with pro teams, but here they’re playing on their high school team and maybe a club team. Then they go to college and play 3 months of the year, so it’s no wonder we suck [sic].

So why doesn’t this inferior development system produce the same result with the women? My uneducated, non-soccer fan guess is that it does. But the rest of the world has not emphasized women’s soccer either, so they aren’t so ridiculously far ahead of us like they are with the men. ??

Yes the rest of the world does not emphasize women's soccer like the USA has done for years. However, they are beginning to and the the rest of the world is rapidly catching up with the USA.

The other thing is college for women is kind of like farm teams. The rest of the world for women don't have the clubs with the lower level teams. Most of them have a women's team, and that's pretty much it. In the men's world teams most of the major clubs have the 1st team, a U2o squad, a U17 squad, and then school age kids. And they all train pretty much 9-10 months a year. USA is starting to do that with Academies (although most kids leave the Academies and their next stop is college instead of pro teams). And they are starting Girls Academies this year I believe.

 

[eebmg]

Bruce Arena allowed to resign.

Bruce Arena resigns as United States manager after World Cup miss



Too bad Gulati did not follow.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said on a Friday conference call that he didn't plan to resign and added that a decision on a new coach would be forthcoming in the next week or so in time for U.S. friendlies in Europe in November. He said that it isn't just his decision to hire new coach, though he makes final call.

"I am not resigning because there are a lot of things to do. I am in the middle of a World Cup bid," he said. "It's not the right day for me to talk about my personal future plans in terms of the federation presidency."

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Bruce Arena allowed to resign.

Bruce Arena resigns as United States manager after World Cup miss



Too bad Gulati did not follow.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said on a Friday conference call that he didn't plan to resign and added that a decision on a new coach would be forthcoming in the next week or so in time for U.S. friendlies in Europe in November. He said that it isn't just his decision to hire new coach, though he makes final call.

"I am not resigning because there are a lot of things to do. I am in the middle of a World Cup bid," he said. "It's not the right day for me to talk about my personal future plans in terms of the federation presidency."

Gullet absolutely needs to go. And go now!

This decline in the men's team has gone on for years. We lost the opportunity to go to the Confederations Cup tournament. We crapped out of the past two Olympics. And the team played badly for months in this qualifying cycle.

Gullet needs to take responsibility and take off!