Star Spangled Sadness: Breakdown of the Broken Down USMNT
by: Kevin Amerlan on October 16, 2017
Here’s some good banter for you: What do the USMNT and my dogs have in common? Neither are going to Russia in 2018 and neither can beat Trinidad and Tobago in a soccer match. One thing that the United States can do that my dogs can’t, however, is swing wildly at a low cross and accidentally chip a bewildered Tim Howard. Howard was not informed that Tuesday night, he’d be up against Trinidad AND Tobago AND United States.
Ah, that would be really funny if my wounds weren’t so fresh.
In a must win OR draw game Tuesday night in Ato Boldon stadium, the United States picked what was behind door number 3 and LOST. And in a perfect storm of unfortunate events, this is what happened in the Hex: After coming from behind twice, Honduras stunned Mexico in the 60th minute with a go-ahead goal and held on to win the game. The Panamanians also took care of business by scoring a late (and unlikely) goal to steal a seat at the table. Oh and also by scoring goal that never even went in… But, when the dust fell, the USMNT did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986. Now, we can argue all day about the controversial “Phantom” goal awarded to Panama by the referee, but that doesn’t change the fact that the United States simply did not get it done.
T&T came in to this game with one single win and was not expected to do much against the heavily favored away side, but when the whistle blew for kick-off, we saw a much different plot unfold. The US looked sloppy (among many other poor qualities) and at first I thought maybe they just needed to settle in. Then after a dismal first 16 minutes, the unthinkable. A low cross is sent into the US penalty area (not a dangerous one I might add) and Omar Gonzalez, looking like this was the first football match he’s ever played in his life, swung at it without care and chipped Tim Howard. Calling it a “terrible defensive effort” would be giving him too much credit. The only thing that may have been worse, was Howard’s horrible excuse for an attempted save.
Things went from bad to worse in the 35th minute when Alvin Jones of T&T let a bullet fly from roughly 40 yards out to find the side netting of the US goal. I can count the times I’ve seen that happen on one of my hands, but T&T did it to the US in one of the most important WCQ games in our nation’s history. Wow.
Early in the second half, the United States was able to grab a goal that came in the form of a Pulisic strike from just beyond the penalty area. The goal would turn out to be purely consolation for the 19-year-old Dortmund striker and not to mention for the rest of the country.
So where do we go from here? With Bruce Arena resigning as head coach and the USMNT in utter shambles, your guess is as good as mine. One thing is certain, however, and that is if something doesn’t change about the way that the United States plays soccer from the top down, we should just count ourselves out for 2022 as well. And with the international break finally coming to a conclusion, we can look back and remember why we all dreaded it in the first place.
Cheers!
