Our failures, ourselves: Missing the World Cup

I am disappointed.

There is still an ache in the part of my heart that loves soccer, and loves my team, and I understand how our players must feel. I am disappointed for so many US Soccer servants who may never see a World Cup again: Bradley, Howard, Dempsey, Guzan, Beasley, Wondolowski, Zusi, Cameron, Bedoya, Jones and McCarty are all 30+ and could retire before Qatar in 2022. I am disappointed for my friend Donald and many members of American Outlaws who pour their heart and soul into following our USMNT around the country and across the water, who scream and cheer and push us to "believe that we will win." I am disappointed for the young players who missed two Olympics and will now miss a World Cup.

U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard lies in the goal area after being scored upon by Trinidad and Tobago at a World Cup qualifying match at Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

I’m also angry. I have never played at a professional or international level, so I don’t understand how this happened, but I am pissed off. And who am I, even? Just a fan who wants to see the red, white, and blue tested against the world’s best. A fan who expects that, when our players put on that shirt, they know I am watching and they want to do right by me because I am an American, and they represent me on that field. They represent all of us. The USA shirt is heavy --but they know that every time they pull it on. They go to work. They make their money. They play under the floodlights, they see little kids wearing their name and number, they live out the childhood dreams of millions.

They carry the weight and expectations of a nation as they run across that green grass.

That weight is different now.

So, what happened? We can blame the loss on a lot of things. Cockiness. Lack of rest. Field conditions. Formation. Bruce Arena. Jurgen Klinsmann. Sunil Gulati. The referees. Our 2-1 loss to Trinidad is the focal point right now, but look back and see that this was of our own making. Of our games in the Hex, we won 3, tied 3, and lost 4. We didn’t deserve to go through. A tie in Trinidad or some goals in another match should not have shaped our destiny. We failed.

United States' Clint Dempsey reacts during a 2018 World Cup qualifying soccer match against Trinidad and Tobago in Couva, Trinidad, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

CONCACAF is not a surprise or a great mystery. Our players and other CONCACAF member players meet in the MLS weekly. We were crowned Gold Cup champions against these same opponents mere months ago. Before and after the Gold Cup, we failed to win our World Cup qualifiers in Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, and Trinidad. Was the Gold Cup win (and our fourth place finish in Copa America the year before) because we only played on American soil in front of US Soccer faithful?

Why, then, did I stumble dumbly out of Columbus’s MAPFRE Stadium last November after a 2-1 loss to Mexico, freezing cold and covered in someone else’s beer, having seen the magic of “Dos a Cero” fail us? Why were we embarrassed in New Jersey in September, when Costa Rica put us down 2-0 in New Jersey? Bruce Arena can comment all he wants about how hard it is to qualify through CONCACAF. We proved his point this week, I suppose. Anyone can blame the field in Trinidad, can't they? Even as our US Women and our NWSL still struggle to get equal field condition footing with the men, on turf or on grass? Even as Belgium defeated Bosnia on a field that wasn't any better this week? Surely we didn’t lose because these US boys forgot how to get their boots wet, right?

Look, teams miss the Cup. Germany’s missed it. England’s missed it. The Netherlands aren’t going this year. It happens. It’s embarrassing. I hope the discussion among fans and pundits does not stop. The men’s game needs to be shocked into action. Why didn’t our young players qualify for the last two Olympics? They are the vanguard now, and they have missed out on three incredible opportunities to play at the highest level of competition. What will this team look like by then? Who will be the manager? Will we still be reliant on one man, one star who can shine abroad, one “secret” weapon we desperately can’t stop talking about? Will we see players like Brooks, Wood, Green, Johannsson, and Yedlin making bigger names for themselves outside of the MLS?

A thought on CP: We should not have to rely on the skills of one young man to pull us through. Pulisic is brilliant, and he is the future of US Soccer, but the entire weight of the country cannot sit on one teenager’s shoulders. We cannot expect him to pull us out of every situation, Messi-like, rising like a god to save our skins and do what everyone else on the pitch cannot. It is a heavy weight to bear. A team that revolves around and relies upon one player is not a team. Pulisic probably won’t go the way of Freddy Adu, our last young phenom, but it worries me how we look to him as a savior.

Perhaps Pulisic and some of our younger players are lucky. They have four years to get ready for this again. They have time to grow, and find success, and let this disappointment fester. They have time to crave the taste of WC competition, time to think about how to get there and breathe that rare air. So do we, the fans. So does the USSF. Nothing matters now but 2022. We need to be ready for it. The time starts now.