It's funny, because my brother and I were literally just discussing how the United States and Mexico had essentially reached a point where they are shoe in's to qualify for the World Cup. We were talking at the time about Canada's perennial failure to qualify, and that the relative dominance of the United States and Mexico was the reason.
Well, as it turns out, that wound up being funny timing.
Why?
Because the United States just suffered a shocking defeat, and what amounts to an epic failure, as they lost a World Cup qualifying match that they simply could not afford to lose, at any cost.
The United States needed either a win or a tie to qualify. The only way that they could fail to qualify would be to lose.
Yet, the American national team was defeated, 2-1, by tiny Trinidad and Tobago. As a result, the United States will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
It has actually been kind of a long decline for the United States, going on for years. Back in 2002, the American team seemed to be on the rise, and about to break out into remarkable success. They got to the second round, and then shut out Mexico to advance to the quarterfinal. Once there, though, they were humbled by powerhouse Germany.
Still, many were excited, and it seemed to be a sign of good things to come. In April of 2006, the United States officially reached the number 4 ranking in the world FIFA rankings, although many felt that this was greatly exaggerated. But in Word Cup later that year, the Americans had considerably less success, and failed to qualify for the second round of the tournament.
However, the team had a strong recovery. In 2009, the United States briefly reached a ranking as number 9 in the Elo ranking. There was considerable excitement around the American team heading into the 2010 tournament, although many were disappointed when the American team was knocked out by Ghana. It was sweet revenge for Ghana, a team that had lost to the United States not long before. But for the U.S. national team, it was a major step back.
That led to the hiring of former German football great Jürgen Klinsmann as the head coach. And again, at first, he seemed to be leading the team to success, and there was considerable enthusiasm surrounding the team. Klinsmann was given the distinction of receiving the CONCACAF Coach of the Year 2013 award.
Then, in 2014, they once again got past the round robin of play, and played tough against Belgium, but ultimately fell short, 2-1.
But slowly but surely, the momentum seemed to slow down. The team struggled, and by November of last year, he was fired.
Bruce Arena, a familiar face for American soccer/football, took over. But the slide continued, until this new low point, where the United States team has now been eliminated from being able to play in Russia in 2018 for the World Cup.
You know, it's funny. Maybe the soccer Gods are punishing the United States for electing a man like Donald Trump to be the president, much like they punished the English national team by sending them down to defeat against Iceland in last year's Euro tournament, in what proved to be one of the greatest upsets in the sport's history.
I used the Wikepedia link, as well as the article below, in writing this particular blog entry about the American national team's fortunes:
USA's Haunting World Cup Qualifying Failure Emits Blame, Shock and Calls for Change by Grant Wahl October 11, 2017:
I couldn't believe it, frankly. I knew that the current US team wasn't exactly the best ever, but I didn't think they'd fail to qualify for the World Cup. I'm convinced that it's a fluke, and that they'll qualify for the next one, but this is still a major step in the wrong direction for Bruce Arena's men. What a buzzkill. They're in good company, though: the Netherlands failed to qualify as well, which seldom happens. England failed to qualify in 1994, as did France. And Les Bleus of course didn't qualify in 1990 either. None of which will provide much comfort to the US team, of course...
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