text: It’s been 31 years since May 31, 1986 — the last World Cup that didn’t feature the United States. That’s 11,456 days of progress for a sport that’s come so far in a country that still hasn’t fully embraced it. 
   
   All of that gone. 
   
   With U.S. soccer’s dreadful 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago on the final day of CONCACAF’s qualifying hexagonal for the 2018 World Cup, next summer’s tournament will not feature the USMNT. No Christian Pulisic. No Tim Howard. No Michael Bradley. With that loss, the USMNT gave a nation the lowest point in its sporting history, and it’s not really close. 
   
   CONCACAF is a grind, but compared to the other qualifying regions, the 3.5 World Cup spots out of six teams mean that the United States should be a lock to qualify. When it beat Panama, 4-0, on Friday, the U.S. put itself in position to escape a lackluster qualifying round with a spot in the tournament. All it really needed to do was take care of business at lowly Trinidad and Tobago. 
   
   They couldn’t even do that. With no sense of urgency, USMNT players and coaches had to watch as their CONCACAF counterparts did them no favors. Four years after the USMNT saved Mexico’s World Cup dreams, El Tri instead blew a lead to Honduras and helped seal the USMNT’s fate. Costa Rica also blew a lead to Panama on a goal that shouldn’t have counted and gave up a late winner as the U.S. decided to score-watch rather than take matters into its own hands. A mostly empty stadium in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago, felt even emptier on this night. 
   
   It’s really difficult to quantify how bad this loss was for U.S. Soccer. Sunil Gulati and Bruce Arena should both be gone. Tim Howard, whose last World Cup appearance was a legendary performance, will likely leave U.S. Soccer with the lasting image of his worst performance with the national team. As bad as things got for the USMNT, the possibility of missing the World Cup didn’t actually seem real. It’s that arrogance that likely brought the team to where it is right now — out of the World Cup. When U.S. soccer legend Alexi Lalas called out the USMNT, its biggest star, Pulisic, laughed off the attempted gut-check rant. 
   
   But when it comes down to it, though, the sport of soccer in the U.S. is going to feel the lasting effects the most. Every World Cup is an opportunity to grow the sport on the biggest stage. 
   
   Even the growth from 2010, to 2014, to now has been tremendous. A nation went crazy when Landon Donovan sent the USMNT into the Round of 16 with his late winner in 2010 (a loss would have meant an early trip home). A nation went crazy when John Brooks put the U.S. ahead against Ghana in 2014, as he ran around not fully processing what he had done. 
   
   Those moments forge memories and make lifelong fans of the sport. It creates momentum that makes it possible for an MLS team to draw 71,000 fans for a regular season match. Those moments inspire a young fan to kick around a soccer ball rather than throw a football. Those moments make it possible for a 19-year-old wonderkid to break through into the next level of international stardom. 
   
   That’s not happening anymore. It’s five years — at best — of the USMNT out of the forefront of American sports. All because U.S. soccer let 95 minutes of arrogance erase 31 years of progress. 
   
   And that is truly a shame. ||||| Ashley Allen/Getty Images 
   
   The United States Men's National Team lost to Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, on Tuesday night and were eliminated from the 2018 World Cup as a result. 
   
   There is plenty of blame to go around, including to a phantom goal that helped Panama jump the Americans in the standings, but the brunt of it should and will be placed on the players and coaches who underperformed for the better part of a year of CONCACAF qualifying play. 
   
   The loss is devastating to the US men's soccer program, which had not missed a World Cup since 1986. But some executives at Fox Sports are surely just as upset with the result as coach Bruce Arena and his players. 
   
   To win a bidding war with ESPN, Fox agreed to pay $400 million for the English-broadcast rights to the World Cup in 2018 and 2022. With the Americans eliminated from 2018 contention, those broadcasts are most likely significantly less valuable than previously imagined. 
   
   If the US had made next year's finals, Fox would've gotten the chance to broadcast three group-stage games for the US side, with the possibility of more if the Americans were able to make a run into the knockout round. Instead, Fox will have to dig a bit deeper to find compelling storylines for American fans in the biggest tournament in the world. 
   
   While there will still be plenty of interest in Russia 2018, it's no doubt disappointing to both American soccer fans and Fox that the US will not be a part of the competition. USMNT supporters had hoped that this World Cup would be a swan song for some of the stars who had brought so them much joy, including Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard. It was also supposed to serve as a coming-out party and passing of the torch for the American wunderkind Christian Pulisic, the 19-year-old who scored the Americans' lone goal Tuesday night and who is clearly the future of the team's success if it's to have any. 
   
   But rather than a final goodbye to beloved superstars and a grand welcome to the future of the sport, the American men's soccer machine will have to collect itself, lick its wounds, and figure out a way to recover. 
   
   And for Fox's initial investment to be worth anywhere near what it had anticipated, the USMNT must find a way to figure itself out ahead of 2022. ||||| On the final day of World Cup qualification Tuesday, Argentina needed a win in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, to advance to Russia. With everything to lose and a soccer mad country on pins and needles, the legendary Lionel Messi recorded a hat trick and Argentina was safe. 
   
   It’s crazy to compare Argentina to the United States because one country has the history and youth system to remain an international force. And we certainly don’t have and perhaps never will have a player on the level of Messi. 
   
   But the mission and the pressure were the same. And all Bruce Arena’s team had to do was earn a tie against tiny Trinidad and Tobago to keep the USA’s World Cup dream alive. 
   
   And we failed. 
   
   Spectacularly. 
   
   A shocking 2-1 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, the worst team in the final round of CONCACAF regional qualifying and already eliminated, means no 2018 World Cup for the Red, White and Blue next summer. No trip to Russia. No grand stage for Christian Pulisic. And no luck for Fox Sports, which paid a fortune for the television rights. 
   
   It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years. 
   
   “It’s a blemish for us,” U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. “We should not be staying home for the World Cup.” 
   
   The U.S. finished fifth in the group. CONCACAF sends three teams automatically to the World Cup: Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth, Honduras, heads to a playoff against an Asian confederation team, Australia. 
   
   It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years. (Ashley Allen/Getty Images) 
   
   The political backdrop was impossible to ignore. Mexico gave up an 88th minute goal and lost, 3-2, to Honduras. A Mexico draw would have moved the U.S. into fourth place and a playoff with Australia. The United States needed help from Mexico. Imagine that. We didn’t get it. 
   
   But really, the United States has only itself to blame. A tie would have secured third place and spot in Russia. It wasn’t asking much. 
   
   “We had everything there for us today,” Arena said. “No excuses for us not getting a second goal and at least a point.” 
   
   The U.S. was poor throughout qualifying. Jurgen Klinsmann was fired as coach 11 months ago after losing at home to Mexico and getting embarrassed, 4-0, in a loss at Costa Rica over a four-day stretch. Arena, who led the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, was installed as head coach. But a home loss to Costa Rica, followed by a draw against Honduras, put the team in the danger zone. 
   
   The U.S. last missed the World Cup in 1986. It clinched a berth in 1990 by winning at Trinidad and Tobago on the last day of qualification. That watershed victory sparked a growth for soccer in this country. Youth participation exploded, Major League Soccer started in 1996 and the popularity of the sport grew. 
   
   Even our player development improved. The best example is Pulisic, the 19-year-old budding star who scored the lone goal after the U.S. had fallen behind, 2-0, in the first half. 
   
   But we didn’t have enough players to replace some of our aging stars. Tim Howard, a world class goalie five years ago, simply doesn’t have it anymore. Clint Dempsey is no longer capable of playing 90 minutes. Michael Bradley has lost a step. 
   
   And our center back play was abysmal. Poor Omar Gonzalez, burned last month for Honduras’ goal, had his attempted clearance sail over Howard and into the net for an own goal. 
   
   The U.S. last missed the World Cup in 1986. (Ashley Allen/Getty Images) 
   
   “It’s one that will haunt me forever,” Gonzalez said. 
   
   The fallout from this will be epic. Heads will roll. Arena is done. Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, could be in trouble. 
   
   Maybe the United States needed a major setback to move forward. Good teams, even great teams, have missed the World Cup. England and France didn’t qualify in 1994. The Netherlands is out of the 2018 World Cup. Italy has to win a playoff to get in. 
   
   But it’s also much tougher to qualify in Europe. Same with South America. The United States has a geographic advantage, especially with the financial resources and population. 
   
   The players are here. We just haven’t discovered enough of them. And we haven’t developed enough of them. 
   
   It’s time for a reboot. 
   
   And now we have until 2022 to get it right. ||||| COUVA, Trinidad and Tobago — On the most surreal and embarrassing night in U.S. soccer history, the U.S. men’s national team lost 2-1 to Trinidad and Tobago (the worst team in the CONCACAF Hexagonal) and was eliminated from contention for World Cup 2018. 
   
   The doomsday scenario happened. 
   
   All the U.S. needed to do to qualify for the World Cup was to win or tie. And they lost, a deserving defeat that ended a miserable qualifying campaign—three wins in 10 Hexagonal games—and will raise enormous questions about the overall direction of the U.S. Soccer Federation, the players and coach Bruce Arena. The U.S. loss opened the door to Panama and Honduras, which both needed to win to ensure the U.S. elimination, which was exactly what happened. Honduras rallied from two deficits to beat Mexico in San Pedro Sula, while Panama rode a controversial Blas Perez opener and a Roman Torres late winner to beat Costa Rica in Panama City. 
   
   Here are three thoughts on the USA's ouster: 
   
   The U.S. should be utterly embarrassed 
   
   On a night when Arena’s team had control of its own destiny, the Americans had one of the most infamous belly-flops in U.S. soccer history, losing to the already-eliminated Trinis with everything on the line for the United States. 
   
   In a pitiful first-half performance, the U.S. lacked urgency and went through the motions while the hosts looked like the ones who had a chance to qualify for the World Cup. Trinidad and Tobago took a 2-0 halftime lead on an own-goal by Omar Gonzalez and a golazo from distance by Alvin Jones, and the U.S. response was tepid at best. This was a team with players acting like they thought they had already qualified for the World Cup, and it showed. 
   
   Only one U.S. player had a decent game 
   
   Christian Pulisic pulled one back for the Americans early in the second half with a laser from outside the box. Pulisic was largely bottled up otherwise, but at least he had one dazzling moment. His teammates could hardly say the same. Forwards Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood were nonexistent. Wings Darlington Nagbe and Paul Arriola were invisible. Goalkeeper Tim Howard could have been in better position on both goals. And Gonzalez showed with his own-goal and what should have been called a penalty soon thereafter that he was a poor choice by Arena to be on the field, especially with Premier League starter Geoff Cameron on the bench. 
   
   Tear it all down 
   
   The far-reaching impacts of this colossal failure will be felt for a long time, not just by the figures on the field on Tuesday but also by the millions and millions of dollars lost by any number of stakeholders in the sport in the United States. The men’s World Cup only comes around once every four years, and the missed opportunity to create millions of new soccer fans in the U.S. is a crushing blow. Missing the World Cup won’t cripple the sport in the U.S., but it will be a huge step back for a sport that had been on the rise for a long time. ||||| So the U.S. men's national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup on Tuesday, but there is reason to believe they shouldn't have been eliminated. Panama beat Costa Rica 2-1 to clinch the final spot and send the U.S. crashing out, but the Panamanian's first goal didn't even go in. As to whether it can be appealed remained to be seen. 
   
   CBS Sports reached out to U.S. Soccer about whether an appeal could be filed. Press Officer Michael Kammarman said in an email, "As far as I know there is no recourse. Decisions of the referee are final." 
   
   It all comes from Gabriel Torres's phantom goal that made it 1-1. You'll see here, the ball never crossed the line: 
   
   Estados Unidos se queda fuera del Mundial por un gol de Panamá que ni entró pic.twitter.com/k2JojPf7bq — Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) October 11, 2017 
   
   Shocking. No goal-line technology, and this is what happens. An unbelievable scene, and certainly unfair. Yes, there's the human error part in any officiated match, but what recourse does the U.S. have? Rules from CONCACAF say an appeal can be filed for "parties directly affected by a decision" and that there are 21 days to file it -- whether this would fall under that remains to be seen: 
   
   Article 54. Jurisdiction of CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland) as an appeals arbitration body 
   
   1. As an appeals arbitration body, CAS shall be entitled to hear appeals against final decisions passed by CONCACAF. 
   
   2. Only parties directly affected by a decision may appeal to CAS. However, where doping-related decisions are concerned, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may appeal to CAS. 
   
   3. The time limit for appeal to CAS shall be twenty-one (21) days from the receipt of the 
   
   decision in question. 
   
   4. An appeal before CAS may only be brought after CONCACAF's or FIFA's internal 
   
   procedures and remedies have been exhausted. 
   
   5. An appeal shall not have any suspensory effect as a stay of execution of a disciplinary 
   
   sanction, subject to the power of CAS to order that any disciplinary sanction be stayed 
   
   pending the arbitration. 
   
   6. CAS shall not take into account facts or evidence which the appellant could have 
   
   submitted to an internal CONCACAF body by acting 
   
   Now, it's certainly a long shot for anything like this to be overturned. CAS usually sees more cases about doping and was involved in CONMEBOL qualifying. The goal will almost certainly stand, but the U.S. would be wise to do whatever it takes to have its voice heard after this decision. It's the difference between the U.S. going still having a chance to go to the World Cup or sitting at home and watching it. ||||| The biggest failure in American soccer history is as complex as it is damaging. There is no one source, no single target for blame. The list of culprits exceeds five, 10, 20 and even 100. The building blocks of a national soccer team are nearly infinite. 
   
   Every single one of those building blocks will be smashed to bits by criticism following Team USA’s 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago, a defeat that eliminated it from World Cup contention. And rightly so. Much of the criticism is long overdue. 
   
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   But some of the blocks that will crumble are bigger than others. Some are massive. Here are the five most blameworthy culprits of a failure that touched every level of the sport in the United States, in descending order, beginning with the least culpable of the five. 
   
   5. Jurgen Klinsmann 
   
   The former national team boss is far from the biggest culprit. But he’s not exempt here. He dug the U.S. a qualifying hole with losses to Mexico and Costa Rica 11 months ago. 
   
   But Klinsmann’s faults were spread out over much more than 180 minutes last November. He ran the program into the ground with aimless tactics, a stale vision and constant ill-preparedness. He stunted players’ development by playing them out of position, and generally didn’t fulfill the promises he made when he took over as manager in 2011. 
   
   Despite all that, though, his team cruised through qualification last time around, and outperformed expectations at the World Cup. His successor couldn’t even get there … 
   
   4. Bruce Arena 
   
   Arena, previously in charge of the national team from 1998 to 2006, was brought in to dig the U.S. out of Klinsmann’s hole. And the odd thing is that, well, he did. He got eight points from his first four qualifiers, and had the U.S. in position to qualify with ease. 
   
   Story continues 
   
   Then it all went wrong. Horribly, painfully, catastrophically wrong. 
   
   Not all of the wrongdoing was Arena’s. In fact, not much of it was even when the U.S. picked up just one point from two September games against Costa Rica and Honduras. Those were primarily on the players. Perhaps all of this is primarily on the players. But more on them later. 
   
   Arena cleaned up some of Klinsmann’s mess. But he created messes of his own, and those messes caught fire in Trinidad. His close-mindedness when it came to squad selection – his outright refusal to even care about replenishing an aging squad – came back to haunt him. 
   
   His lineup philosophies were also two-faced. He seemingly believed in rotation and freshness over consistency, which worked in Mexico City in June, and barely did again in Honduras in September. But then he stuck with an unchanged starting 11 Tuesday in Trinidad, presumably thinking he had found a winning formula. He hadn’t. Instead, he found a tactically naive method to engineer the U.S.’ failure. 
   
   Tuesday’s task was fundamentally different from Friday’s in every possible way. On Friday, Arena went all-out attack at home with the U.S. needing a win against Panama. Understandable. On Tuesday, with the U.S. needing only a point in substandard conditions away from home, he inexplicably chose attack again over solidity and control. He effectively played three strikers and two wingers, leaving the U.S. disjointed as a unit. 
   
   He also benched his best center back – a center back who played 90 minutes the previous weekend for Stoke City in the English Premier League, and who has been doing just that, and doing it well, consistently for a while now. With that center back, Geoff Cameron, sitting on the bench, the mistake-prone Omar Gonzalez made a horrendous error that ultimately cost the U.S. a spot at the World Cup. But he never should have been in that position in the first place. 
   
   Arena had one job. He didn’t do it. And he’s now coached his last game with the national team. 
   
   U.S. Soccer Sunil Gulati has his first contested election coming up in February – if he decides to run. (Getty) 
   
   3. Sunil Gulati 
   
   It is impossible to shy away from criticism of the man who hired No. 4 and No. 5 on this list as well. The head honcho. United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati. 
   
   His hires aren’t the only issue. But they’re the most easily identifiable. He had courted Klinsmann basically ever since the former German World Cup-winning striker managed his native land to third at the 2006 tournament on home soil. Gulati finally got him in 2011. It was an ambitious choice. A pricey one too. But it was probably always misguided. 
   
   Nonetheless, Klinsmann performed somewhat admirably, at least initially. The issue was that the allure of his stature in world soccer was too much for Gulati to assess his performances accurately. The president, for some reason, rewarded his manager with a long-term contract extension before the 2014 World Cup, then clung to the coattails of a regime going backward for too long thereafter. When he did pull the trigger and axe Klinsmann 11 months ago, Arena was the right choice. The wrong choice was letting Klinsmann survive as long as he did. 
   
   The wrong choices were also many other things. Gulati’s presence in powerful positions has probably been a net positive for soccer in America. But, among other failures, one of them the mishandling of Klinsmann, he has not adequately invested in youth development. In the building blocks that allow a national team to sustain consistent success. He and the federation have invested in them, but haven’t devoted enough attention to actually solving real problems. They are sitting on millions of dollars that could be used to address the problems. Those dollars haven’t been used for that purpose. 
   
   And Gulati himself could pay. A U.S. Soccer presidential election looms in four months. Gulati, for the first time, has challengers. There will be louder calls for change than ever before. 
   
   2. The players 
   
   Gulati, though, didn’t make defensive errors. Arena didn’t misplace passes in midfield. Klinsmann didn’t waste chances in front of goal. 
   
   The players, in the end, are to blame for what just transpired. They were deserving of praise on several specific occasions. On the whole, they, as a collective, were sub-par. And then on Tuesday, they were worse than that. Far worse. 
   
   Not all of them were at fault. Christian Pulisic is and was special. Michael Bradley carried a massive burden and handled it fairly well. But the rest … most of them were mediocre at best. Jozy Altidore was too inconsistent. The back four were disorganized and generally underwhelming, whoever the four were. Darlington Nagbe didn’t live up to his creative billing. Tim Howard made several mistakes throughout the Hex, and in his prime might have kept out both of Tuesday’s goals. 
   
   The players did not perform up to the standard expected of them. At times, circumstances could be used as legitimate excuses. But none of them excuse 12 points from 10 games against mostly inferior opposition. 
   
   The natural follow-up question, then, is this: Did the players underperform? Or are they simply not good enough? 
   
   1. A broken system 
   
   The answer is both. The second item on this list speaks to the underperformance. The first, this one, speaks to the inadequacy. 
   
   The U.S. player pool is strong. Stronger than it was two decades ago. But the obvious point is the broad one: That player pool is nowhere near what a nation of 325 million should be able to produce. The reasons for this are deep-seated and poisonous. 
   
   The main one is the youth soccer model that was established in the U.S. decades ago. Whereas talented young players in many other countries are given scholarships to soccer academies, the vast majority of children in the U.S. “pay to play.” This slashes the size of the player pool into a fraction of what it could be, because kids from low-income families can’t afford the hefty registration fees and travel-related costs. Elite coaching eludes them. The issue is far too complex for this forum, but it’s a major hindrance. 
   
   Talent identification and youth coaching have also been severely lacking. Scouting efforts ignore many under-served communities. Potential pros slip through the cracks at young ages. In many cases, kids aren’t educated properly, because they’re taught by teammates’ dads who don’t know the game. The kids, therefore, don’t develop the most relevant and applicable skills. Again, the root causes are impossible to explain in two paragraphs. But they’ve plagued the U.S. for years. 
   
   The symptoms of the problems are easier to explain. As American Soccer Now’s Brian Sciaretta explored just last week, there is a glaring gap in the age profile of the current U.S. squad. There are talented youngsters and accomplished veterans. But the 23-27 age range – made up of players born in the years 1990-1994, players who came through the system before youth development reform truly took effect – is alarmingly bereft. A generation of players that should be spearheading the national team is absent. 
   
   The “Missing Years,” as Sciaretta called them, more than anything else, explain why the U.S. shockingly couldn’t beat Trinidad and Tobago, a nation 1/230 its size. With MLS academies growing, other revamped youth systems producing and problems gradually – very gradually; too gradually – being addressed, this won’t happen again. Or at least it shouldn’t. 
   
   But the failures in scouting and coaching have left a massive hole in the men’s national team. A hole that not even Klinsmann could dig. And one that the U.S. finally tripped into Tuesday in Trinidad. 
   
   – – – – – – – 
   
   Henry Bushnell covers soccer – the U.S. national teams, the Premier League, and much, much more – for FC Yahoo and Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Question? Comment? Email him at henrydbushnell@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @HenryBushnell. 
   
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target: – The short version is easy enough: Trinidad and Tobago upset the US Mens National Team in soccer Tuesday night, and the 2-1 loss means that the Americans won't qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. But just how bad a loss is this? The defeat is "the most surreal and embarrassing night in US soccer history," writes Grant Wahl for Sports Illustrated. "Unthinkable," declares the New York Times. "With that loss, the USMNT gave a nation the lowest point in its sporting history, and it’s not really close," writes Andrew Joseph for USA Today. "It took 90-plus minutes for United States soccer to regress 30 years," writes Frank Isola at the Daily News. The kicker is that two other games fell the wrong way in unexpected fashion, one on a "phantom goal," sealing the US fate. Honduras rallied from two goals down to beat Mexico, and Panama rallied from one goal back to beat Costa Rica. Had either of those games gone the other way, or had the US even tied Trinidad and Tobago (which had previously been eliminated from qualifying), the Americans would have secured a spot in Russia for the 2018 competition. Of note: Phantom goal: The winning goal scored by Panama against Costa Rica didn't cross the goal line, per CBS Sports, which has video here. The story raises the faint hope that the US could appeal the goal ruling, but it seems unlikely. "As far as I know, there is no recourse," says a US soccer official. Pity Fox Sports: The network paid $200 million, outbidding ESPN, for the rights to televise the 2018 World Cup and showcase teen phenom Christian Pulisic, notes Business Insider. It's now going to be tough for that investment to pay off. Five culprits: Yahoo Sports looks at what went wrong in the US game, and why Bruce Arena has almost certainly coached his last game for the team.