Official FIFA 2018 Russia World Cup

[jay santos]

I’m bummed that Chile was eliminated. Vidal, Sanchez and company would have a chance to beat anybody and had some bad luck. The US doesn’t deserve it.

I was bummed by Chile also.

[jay santos]

Shouldn't have said anything. I'm so depressed. Gulati needs to be fired tonight. This was his experiment and it exploded. Fusnik called this two years ago. I was blind.

Just curious what did fusnik have to say about it?

[Omaha 680]

Just curious what did fusnik have to say about it?

I'll have to find the posts. He said Klinnsmann was a potential disaster back when he was tinkering with lineups nonstop in early qualifying.

[jay santos]

If I was soccer God of USA I wouldn't obsess too much about the national team coaching or player development. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world for a reason. It's a great sport. We have the most professional level athletes of any country in the world. I would focus generally on increasing popularity of the sport and getting more young athletes playing it competitively longer and I think the professional level players would come organically from that.

[LiveCoug]

I can't believe this. We didn't qualify. I'm pissed.

[wuapinmon]

I can't believe this. We didn't qualify. I'm pissed.

It's not really fair that we had to play Trinidad AND Tobago at the same time. All kidding aside, I'm now 100% Tico.

[Omaha 680]

For me, next summer is going to be like trying to get into March Madness when your team is eliminated in the first round. Only a billion times worse.

[myboynoah]

It's not really fair that we had to play Trinidad AND Tobago at the same time. All kidding aside, I'm now 100% Tico.

That was funny.

[Omaha 680]

I don't feel any better this morning. This will sting for quite a while. I try to tell myself that it happens to everyone occasionally. France missed in 90 and 94, the Netherlands have multiple misses in recent memory, and Chile (the current South American champion) were eliminated last night. But as Jay points out, we are competing in an inferior region with no real excuse to miss qualifying. CONCACAF is top heavy, but with three guaranteed spots we should never miss. Maybe I'm coming around to the expanded world cup format. And if we win the 2026 world cup bid, at least we'll be guaranteed a spot then.

[jay santos]

I don't feel any better this morning. This will sting for quite a while. I try to tell myself that it happens to everyone occasionally. France missed in 90 and 94, the Netherlands have multiple misses in recent memory, and Chile (the current South American champion) were eliminated last night. But as Jay points out, we are competing in an inferior region with no real excuse to miss qualifying. CONCACAF is top heavy, but with three guaranteed spots we should never miss. Maybe I'm coming around to the expanded world cup format. And if we win the 2026 world cup bid, at least we'll be guaranteed a spot then.

Sucks. My two fav teams US and Chile are out. Beyond that, it's a bummer because the US performing in the World Cup always causes a huge surge in popularity for the sport.

[BlueK]

So Iceland, a country of 335,000 qualifies by winning its group, and the US is in danger of being in fourth place in CONCACAF. That makes perfect sense.

Iceland has a better team.

[BlueK]

I don't feel any better this morning. This will sting for quite a while. I try to tell myself that it happens to everyone occasionally. France missed in 90 and 94, the Netherlands have multiple misses in recent memory, and Chile (the current South American champion) were eliminated last night. But as Jay points out, we are competing in an inferior region with no real excuse to miss qualifying. CONCACAF is top heavy, but with three guaranteed spots we should never miss. Maybe I'm coming around to the expanded world cup format. And if we win the 2026 world cup bid, at least we'll be guaranteed a spot then.

The Netherlands missed in 2002 and 1986. Those are the last two times besides this one.

[LiveCoug]

I still can't believe it. 3 years of qualification down the drain. Uggh.

[The_Tick]

The problem in the US is the club system. Currently we have a "pay for play" development program. The spots where most of our pro athletes come from, inner cities, don't play soccer. They can't afford to play soccer. They don't have the environment supporting them to play soccer.

Listening to the Dan Patrick show...one guy called in from New Orleans. He has 2 kids in club/select soccer. It cost him minimum of $5,000 per year, per kid, to even be on a team. And then he put 350,000 miles on his Land Cruiser driving them to tournaments. Land Cruiser. That is an upper middle class family.

We have to have a cultural change to get more people access. College scouts and development teams don't go looking at the local AYSO to find people to develop.

[Shaka]

I'd like to join Frank and Bluek in blaming Trump for this disaster. Will the horror never end?

Might as well lump the demise of BYU football on him as well.