MLS and the USMNT have helped each other out down the years. But the domestic league deserves at least some time under the microscopeA full week has passed since a dreadful 90 minutes took the USA from part of the World Cup furniture to tournament spectators. A lot of blame has understandably fallen on the coaches this cycle, the system that developed the players and the federation’s leadership, namely its president, Sunil Gulati.However, the influence of Major League Soccer deserves its time under the microscope too. MLS is very much indebted to the US men’s soccer program, having been founded as a condition to the country’s successful bid to host the 1994 World Cup. Ever since the league’s post-expansion revival...
The veteran coach could not right the systemic failure within the game in America. Maybe it’s time to look at the structure itselfBruce Arena’s failure was not an individual failure. It’s a systemic failure that shows the United States does not yet have the soccer culture tens of millions of its citizens want.US Soccer could not be “fixed” in Arena’s 11-month stint as the men’s national team coach. The realistic hope was that he could do what he did at the 2002 World Cup – get the most out of a couple of exceptional talents, paper over the team’s weaknesses and hope for the best. Related: Six candidates who could succeed Bruce Arena as USA coach Continue reading...
The worst defeat in the history of the US national team is a catastrophe for the sport’s growth in America, but should come as no surpriseThe worst defeat in the history of the United States national team, the record will show, played out over an hour and a half on a sweltering weeknight before a few hundred spectators at Ato Boldon Stadium, confines so modest even its namesake questioned why it was chosen for a World Cup qualifier, and ended with the Americans walking off in a soft parade of stunned silence and thousand-yard stares. But truthfully Tuesday night’s loss to Trinidad & Tobago was a failure years in the making, an outcome undeserving of the surprise it elicited. Not...
Bruce Arena’s team will not be at Russia 2018. It doesn’t take long to discover why they failed so badly in their bid to qualify for the tournamentThe shock is just now beginning to subside after the US men’s national team was eliminated from contention for the next summer’s World Cup in Russia. Every result that could have doomed them on Tuesday night came about, with Honduras and Panama’s respective wins combining with the US’s own 2-1 loss at already eliminated Trinidad & Tobago to knock Bruce Arena’s men out.The list of what didn’t doom the United States’ qualifying campaign is lengthy – vastly greater resources and spending power relative to the rest of the Concacaf region, first and foremost...
Tim Howard is still the first-choice keeper, Darlington Nagbe shone in midfield and Jozy Altidore remains the team’s focal point ahead of next year’s World CupTo the USA got what they needed out of the Gold Cup. If there was ever any doubt that Bruce Arena was playing to lift the trophy, the call-up of some of his biggest players after the group stage demonstrated absolutely that Arena knew what was at stake here. Arena had entered the US job damned with faint praise as the safest pair of hands to help the US fight its way out of World Cup qualifying trouble, but over the course of what’s now 14 unbeaten games he has carved out something like a...