Another year, another USMNT Failure.
Our country was in the midst of the biggest fork in the road a country has ever faced. Option A: You can go left and be well on your way to be a respectable footballing country. Option B: Go right and still be on the way of becoming a respectable footballing country but with a bumpier and longer road. OR. You can go Option C: Fall on your ass, break your tailbone and delay the rise of this teams success.
Jason Kreis and the U-23 MNT choose option C. If you aren’t aware of it the U.S. Men’s National Team has failed to qualify for the Olympic soccer tournament later this year. A truly crushing day. A second consecutive major tournament that the US fails to qualify.
Where do we go from here? How do we stop shitting the bed in big games? Who is to blame? Why am I on this obscure website?
All fair questions.
Look, there are plenty of excuses to be made. Shitty coach, bad decision making, it’s our B-Team, shitty coach… etc. None of that here please. You just gotta be better. Gotta want it more. Honduras wanted it more. Honduras played the game they wanted. Honduras put in the work. So congrats to Honduras for going to the Olympics for the 4th consecutive Olympics.
The biggest takeaway from Sunday was that this was a giant reality check. This was a giant punch in the mouth. Just when we thought we as a nation were ready to retake the throne of CONCACAF, BAM RIGHT ON OUR ASS. That Tokyo door slammed in our face hurts bad. I was genuinely sad Sunday afternoon.
How could this happen? How could a nation and a team with all the resources in the world not make the Olympics? It’s just so pathetic. To be almost 4 years removed from the TnT disaster and still fail to qualify for a major tournament.
I’m heart broken. I’m devastated. More importantly, hopeful?
Hopeful that our U-23 GOATS abroad are popping off. Hopeful that this team can actually be something. Hopeful that when we get to see a fully healthy best XI (not you Lleget), we’ll be able to compete with the best of them. There is work to be done, but the MNT performance in Europe is saving me from going back to the Mexican NT.
What this ultimately means….
We’re all in on the women’s national team!!! The time to be all doom and gloom is over. It’s not Sunday afternoon anymore. It’s Monday morning and we have a slam-dunk, number one, uber-talented team that is ready to DOMINATE in Tokyo. As much as I want to bash Kreis and the incredibly lack of determination in this team, we have to shift our energy to a team that can make history! No team has ever won a World Cup and a Gold Medal back-to-back. The USWNT can do so!
As far as the USMNT, I won’t accept anything less than a Gold Cup Championship, and AT LEAST 5 wins in World Cup Qualifying later this year. And from me, a personal statement: