I don't think a chronology of events surrounding the U.S. qualifying failure is useful. We always seem to get into the cup, but that is because of our relatively weak N. American region. If we tried qualifying in Europe or S. America, forget about it!
Coaches do have an impact on a team's performance, but if the team does not have sufficient talent, it doesn't matter. Not a great fan of Arena, but again, only so much he can do, and he'll be shown The door again.
The bigger question is how to develop talent that gets us to the top tier in the world. It goes back to youth. And how they play. When you see kids at an organized practice standing in a line waiting to touch a ball, there is something wrong. When you see coaches more concerned with kicking the ball downfield than developing ball skills (trapping, passing, etc), then there is something wrong. Creative players become that way on their own, and over involved coaches stifle that creativity. Youth coaches need to create an environment that is fun, and one where kids are not always being evaluated with every touch of the ball.
I can't wait until the NYT does a minute-by-minute recap about how the US soccer team wins the World Cup. But of course the headline will specify gender in that scenario.
The US Women's team consistently makes it to the World Cup and has won it three times. Let's stop pretending that men are all we have to represent this country on the global soccer stage.
The women's team deserves equal (or let's be real, more) pay than the continually failing men's team. The women's World Cup final brought in more ad revenue ($40 million) than the Stanley Cup, World Series, and NBA Finals. US youth soccer participation is only surpassed by basketball. Let's celebrate all the women's team has done for this country.
5
When USA fired Klinsmann that was a brexit move. USA being out of world cup. Poetic Justice for USA pulling out of paris accords. God is round.
I think the Team USA did not lose the qualification not in the 77th, 87th or the 88th minute for that matter. The qualification was lost years ago. Considering that the US Team is representing a country that is very capable of having their own Major League, one would think that the national team has a competent coach that has plenty of skilled US American players to choose from. The Major League should also have a sufficient supply of younger players from Junior Leagues. Instead more than 20 years after hosting the Worldcup in 1994, the US is still struggling to establish soccer as a mainstream sport in their home country. Soccer is still ranked behind Football, Basketball and Baseball as this becomes evident by the limited number of soccer specific stadiums. Large stadiums are non existent. But the real way you can tell that Americans don't care about soccer is how the "US Worldcup Kickout" was ranked on google news. It never made the top 3. In other countries a Kickout will beat any natural disaster but definitely some tweet of their leader.
It BRIEFLY made #3 on Google news, but your point is well taken!
Matthias, Yes soccer ranks behind all of the other major sports in popularity in the US. Yes most of the rest of the world puts a huge priority on this game above all else. The US is not, I repeat not, "struggling to establish soccer as a mainstream sport", so perhaps you should speak about what you know. In fact, if you spoke out less and listened more, you would have heard the factual comments that in fact US MLS is one reason that Concacaf as a region has an elevated level of play, i.e. those MLS players in the US play for their national teams all through the Concacaf region.
2
NYT 11/10/07 " But the change in development is never easy. Szymanski’s research of international teams, dating to 1950, has found a sobering truth. While the least developed nations are closing the gap on the most developed nations, those teams stuck in the middle, like the United States, are struggling to make the leap to the top."
From a recent NYT article quoted above, I've found the most interesting argument to contextualize the US soccer team failure in getting a place for the next World Cup in Russia.
The US soccer national team is stuck in the middle, unable to make the leap to the elite teams like Brazil or Germany.
Brazil -- the only team to be present in all 20 world cup tournaments and win 5 times -- is caught in the midlle income per capita income trap. Despite efforts, the country is unable to make the leap to the exclusive club of high income and prosperous countries.
Trading places. The US is Brazil in economics and Brazil is the US in soccer. One thing for sure. Millions of Brazilians would love to trade soccer for American wealth. Would Trump accept the deal?
2
Gulati is incompetent and did incredibly stupid things. The stupidest thing he did was derail the momentum the USNMT gained when Bob Bradley was coach; Bradley achieved the incredible feat of eliminating Spain from the 2009 Confederations Cup, and ALMOST beat Brazil in the final, playing tit-for-tat, as if they were Brazil’s equal! It was the most incredible performance in the history of U.S. soccer.
But Gulati did not SEE, understand or comprehend the importance of Bradley’s achievements. Whatever Bradley was doing, it was working –USMNT were on the right track- INSTEAD, what Gulati did was sack Bradley after the hiccup of losing against Mexico in the irrelevant Gold Cup (2011). In S. America and Europe, you don’t sack the manager just because of one game or one bad result: occasional losses and mishaps are considered par for the course in international soccer (The Germans had the habit of making the national manager role a lifetime appointment: the only time they got a new one was when the current one dropped dead).
Like when New York lost old Penn Station, Gulati demolished what Bradley made: He thought “Okay, time for a new start: we’ll just destroy everything and Start From Scratch!” IF IT WERE THAT SIMPLE!
Gulati is NOT a soccer guy, he just pretends to be one: He is an imposter. He is not knowledgeable in the sport he presides. He is clueless. Doesn’t know what he’s doing. He sacked Bob Bradley. He sacked Jurgen Klinsman. It is high time Gulati sack himself. NOW.
It's fairly apparent that most of the commenters here haven't got a clue. If you're actually interested in the details about some of the long-standing problems and opportunities in US Soccer, read:
http://americansoccernow.com/articles/the-missing-years-u-s-soccer-s-dev...
Or:
http://www.yanksarecoming.com/following-qualifying-failure-us-soccer-req...
Or:
http://www.espn.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/7468594/prominent-us-coache...
Or:
http://www.espnfc.com/team/united-states/660/blog/post/2884481/the-state...
If you know something about the game, get out there and coach or referee, particularly at the 6-10 age groups where good coaching is lacking. Don't sit behind your keyboard lobbing bombs at straw men.
3
It looks good on both the USA and Russia.
Thank god for the women's team!
3
I find most of the denigrating comments here noxious. In a country where Arod and Barry Bonds are celebrated for their ability to stuff drugs in their systems, I have little appreciation and zero respect for the majority of sports fans opinions. The hyperbole mounts on either side. If you win you are amazing and incredible and if you lose you are incompetent and an idiot. Just like in American politics, Americans seem virtually unable to stick to facts. The facts are that the US has always had a poor defense and few if any superstarts on our national team. The facts are that a combination of bad luck, poor reffing and less than stellar play led to the US departure from the World Cup. The facts are that MLS has brought up the level of US soccer but also much of Concacaf. The facts are that Chile is not going to the World Cup either. One more fact, Trinidad and Tobago might have won, but they humiliated themselves by spending the 2nd 45 lying down on the pitch.
5
I watched the highlights of the games the current USA U-17 Men's team is playing for the U-17 World Cup. It's a good team and has great promise.
If they start now, in 10 years they can be a formidable team for the Men's World Cup. I wish them the very best.
I have also watched the 2015 Women's World cup. The US Women's team is among the very best, and I recall still their matches against Germany and Japan. They played a forward game in the finals to win the World Cup. Great play!
1
Another excuse for the US to go insular. Just stick to the World Series and a National Anthem at games between two franchise cities. Forget real World sporting events and anthems of each country before kickoff. That's for the real world.
I watched the highlights of the games the current USA U-17 Men's team is playing for the U-17 World Cup. It's a good team and has great promise.
If they start now, in 10 years they can be a formidable team for the World Cup. I wish them the very best.
I have also watched the 2015 Women's World cup. The US Women's team is among the very best, and I recall still their matches against Germany and Japan. They played a forward game in the finals to win the World Cup. Great play!
What disappointed me most was the clear lack of urgency on the US team even after Trinidad scored.
The second greatest disappointment is the realization that despite the enormous sums spent on Klinsmann and supposed player development, Pulisic is the only American who might be ranked in the top 100 worldwide at his position.
4
Too bad this happens just as the NFL is collapsing. If soccer was having an exciting, triumphant year, it could rise in the vacuum created by the failing NFL. An opportunity missed.
4
The US Men's Team does not not deserve to go the World Cup. That is not debatable. The whole program is a disgrace, seemingly content with sustained mediocrity. Gulati and everyone involved should be sent packing, and people brought in who know how to run a European-style program that will bring the best athletes America has to the soccer pitch---maybe a lot of those inner-city parents who don't want their kids playing football anymore.
That said, does anyone seriously believe that Mexico and Costa Rica, who had their places already decided and were playing for nothing, does anyone seriously believe that they didn't go into the tank and allow Honduras and Panama, two squads as mediocre as the US, to score late goals that eliminated Los Gringos del Norte from the tournament?
2
The World what..?
1
As soon as I heard this team complaining about the quality of the fields, I knew they were doomed.
2
The field was surrounded by a river partially on the pitch the day before a critical match. Anyone who is not a complete idiot would have complained about the field. What does that say about you?
2
No one rioted, no mass expressions of public grief. Life in the United States went on today in a way it probably won't if Italy doesn't make it.
Thus, another proof that soccer has not truly made it in the US.
4
I see several comments noting how much better the US women's team is than the men's.
This is a completely wrong observation. The men's team compete against teams with a very long tradition, close to a hundred years in some cases. Although it must be noted that the USA plays in a very weak division.
On the case of the women's game, the picture is completely reversed, as in most countries women's soccer is fairly new and, in most cases, the US has the advantage in terms of tradition and organization. In most of South America women's soccer is not supported and their leagues are not existing. The situation in Europe is similar, although there is stronger club play there.
It is no wonder then that the women have a much easier time getting good results against their opposition.
5
Current decline started with the confusion over the coaching style and methods of Jurgen Klinsmann.
The fortune of men's soccer in the US will always swing like a yo-yo because of the lack of a grass roots level organization and the reluctance of young boys to take up the game willingly as opposed to "Soccer parents" imposing their will on the young children. If you cannot find the passion to kick a soccer ball around in your cul-de-sac with a bunch of other young kids, then the system will always rely on the occasional miracle to make it big. That is also a big reason why major league soccer is still hanging somewhere between being humdrum and rampantly boring.
Compare that with the women's game. Look at how many girls invade the soccer fields on a weekend morning compared to their male counterparts. And you have the results to show for it.
Go Ladies. Go get 'em.
Sunil Gulati - please quit the lectern and get to work. Managing soccer is a full time profession, not a part time obsession.
7
Watching the US Men's National Soccer Team has become a repetitive boring activity. It is always the same - great goalkeeping and ZERO creativity in the goal scoring department. It has been that way since the 1990s with a few exceptions like Landon Donovan and now Pulisic. The Women's Team is much better ! Of course the TV commentators and analysts dare not state this obvious fact because it shows they are selling a defective product. Time to do a Trump on them, top (Gulati, Arena) to bottom and fire them all except for Pulisic and Tim Howard, who may retire anyway.
6
Very angry. US cannot bring the same players over and over with weak performance and no energy and expect a good result. Altidore is the worst player, Bradly, and even Howard. US needed to play young players and give them the experience. These old guys from the last WC are really bad.
There are many good young and hungry players. let them play and fight for the position. There has to be compitition and each player has to fight for it. These current players had no incentive to play aggressive because no matter how bad they played, the coach brought them back.
Most embarrassing part of the loss was Players were afraid of water and they had to be carried over one inch of water to the practice. Spoiled.
Fire the coach, most of the players, and Sunil Gulati (the part time leader of US Soccer). Pay women players more for better soccer they play.
12
For some Chinese soccer fans, this reminds us the humiliating 1984 qualifying game for the Chinese team against Hong Kong, when the team lost by exactly what it needed to be sent home (and devastatingly, within the last three minute). The US men's soccer team is getting eerily similar to their Chinese counterpart: huge achievement gap relative to the women's team, inability to deliver the goals at the last seconds, vicious cycle of failure and nerves breakdown under the spell of Murphy's law ("anything that could go wrong will go wrong"). Judging by the chronically underperforming Chinese team, it may take a generation or more to get out of this slump. We are still waiting. Don't hold your breath. Take a long view (think Cubs).
4
Time for Gulati to go. The fish stinks from the head down. There is so much potential from a country of 300 million people where soccer is one of the most popular game at the youth level. Totally unacceptable
4
America isn’t in the business of sending its athletes on leisurely vacations to Trinidad and Tobago. Anything short of victory is a shameful disappointment.
3
The US soccer has always been in the easiest and weakest group (North America) when it comes to FIFA qualifiers... the team would never make it out of the European or a South American or even Asian group period!
14
Agreed. The final CONCACAF bracket would be the equivalent of one of the UEFA brackets. The difference being that the top 3.5 teams of the CONCACAF go to the World Cup, while a UEFA bracket sends only the top 1.5.
To put it another way, the US had to work very hard not to qualify (tie against the 60th ranked team in the world, tie the 74th ranked team in the wolrd, and lose to the 99th team in the world)
To put it yet another way, the World Cup will feature the 60th team in the world, and the 74th (if Honduras makes it through) while leaving behind many top 32 teams from Europe.
I think it is a good idea for FIFA to practice affirmative action when it comes to making the world cup, a truly world cup, but the CONCACAF clearly has one more berth than it deserves.
2
At the end of the day it's just a game...No big whoop.
Missing out on the 'fun' going to Russia...Puhlease!
Have a beer and celebrate mediocrity.
Did I mention cold, cold, cold beer? Yeah you guys!
Tell me the truth: USA just wanted to boycott Russia's World Cup. Amiright? =P
6
You can't boycott if you don't qualify to attend.
4
If you have been involved in US mens' soccer as long as I have, it is impossible not to see the improvement of the US. When I was in college 50 years ago, soccer was a sport played by a few eastern prep schools, St. Louis Catholic schools and some colleges. It could be best described as a 50 yards and a cloud of dust with players who charged about.
By the time my kids were small, a game between UVA and Stanford in the College final, 2 teams played soccer that involved lots of possession and some skill though one of the 2 goals scored resulted from a booming kick by Tony Meola. It was still quite a way from the skill Brazil was displaying at the time, but it at least resembled it in some way. And the US had finally qualified for the WC by beating T&T.
Now when the US plays most of its CONCACAF opponents, it is able to dominate possession and when it plays better teams it is able to counter-attack and occasionally get a win.
20 years from now, when my son's children are college age, the US will be even better since those kids will be the offspring of parents who understand soccer and have a passion for it. Whether my grandchildren's generation will be the one to finally achieve the long sought goal of making the US men be among soccer elites remains to be seen, but the US men will be closer to that then it is now.
But today, the skill level is not what it needs to be and the US must still rely upon athleticism to succeed with the uncertainty inherent in that approach.
5
The US has indeed come a long way in soccer since the day you searched the UHF dials for Univision and the World Cup. But it peaked in 2002.
2
I love to watch the US women soccer team play, they play with "attitude" (a good thing)! US women soccer team is well, and talented. This is in great deal attributed to the talent and hard work of these women athletes, and helped in part with Title IX. Thank you!
5
I watched the match, and couldn't quite believe what I was seeing - a fairly anemic US team barely able to string passes together. If you can't beat the worst team in your group, then you don't deserve to make it to the WC. With few exceptions, all players were found wanting (Yedlin, Gonzalez, Howard, et. al. looked nervous; Howard, if better positioned, should have saved the second goal; he was also lucky a few times when he spilled easy shots and parried shots to opposing players). Even worse, just look at the teams which did qualify - Panama, hardly a power in football; Honduras, not a bad side, but still not a world beater. Back to the drawing board - nothing short of a complete revamp will suffice . . .
9
From T&T's perspective this is just pay-back for 1989 when the U.S. came to Trinidad on the last day of the last qualifying round. To go to the 1990 World Cup, Trinidad just needed a draw. The U.S. beat Trinidad on an arguably fluke goal from Paul Caligiuri kicking Trinidad out of the World Cup and starting the U.S.'s seven straight World Cup appearances. (Trinidad did make the World Cup in 2006.)
What goes around comes around.
5
Trump's latest tweet: "The U.S. didn't lose! It's boycotting!"
7
I'm glad they lost! This is a tired and stale team with no creativity, poor passing, poor communication and a very bad head coach. This team couldn't hang with Spain or Germany for a minute. We need to develop our youth for once. As I coach middle school kids for 11 years, I can attest to poor coaching and training. All these club and spa youth teams just pick pocket parents for lots of money without any quality training. More importantly, there seems to be a lack of fundamental knowledge about how the sport should be played on a international level. Americans think they are better than everyone else and brawn and brutality just doesn't cut it in international soccer. We have no Mesi. No Rinaldo. No Pirlo. We have a goalie who let a goal in that my 8th grader would've stopped. I'm not trying to be mean but watching team USA play really is painful. I could field a better team from Brooklyn alone.
19
Get rid of pay to play at the elementary, middle and high school. It's corrosive, elitist, causes burn out, and keeps out kids of color. Those kiddie soccer coaches who insist your second grader needs to be coached in his $1500/semester club are lining their pockets with your insecurities and killing sports.
21
Your comment is spot on!
4
With the way POTUS is presenting America the rest of the world will not miss the US at all.
9
Time for some serious change. Why did we take Arena back in the first place? Klinsmann took them a little further, and then we went backward by taking Big Bruce back. Time for some wholesale change within American soccer. More proof here that this silly focus on NOT winning at the youth level has some real negative consequences.
3
Time for a massive housecleaning at US Soccer starting with the President and Board.
6
The Times reporter mistakenly states in the article that the own goal by US defender Omar Gonzalez deflected off of the forward he was defending. Not true. The ball never even came close to touching the striker. So this was a catastrophic blunder that was the principal reason the US will not be in the World Cup.
1
No ! The main reason the US is out is inability to score goals.
4
You can’t blame this one goal for not qualifying. So many chances were missed before this game was ever played.
5
Trinidad and Tobago get to go home, having salvaged a poor showing by whipping the USA. They are a very small country, nobody expected them to progress out of this qualifier. The USA made them look great, gave them something to talk about for years.
Soccer is a flukey and heart-breaking sport, but still ... this loss is humiliating. Many people are saying that the US simply doesn't have the talent to compete in the men's game at this level, and I am afraid that this was made entirely evident here.
6
Sorry, Michael Bradley: it wasn't Gonzalez' own goal that was "a killer", but the team's lethargic performance -- with the notable exceptions of Pulisic and Dempsey, and intermittent flashes of energy from a few others. Even the doughty Tim Howard was on shaky form.
Could they really have still been tired from their thrashing of Panama? Or are they really so unable to deal with hot, humid conditions? Over the course of the qualifying, it was the poor US performances on the road that made most of the difference -- a matter of athlete conditioning, or a psychological barrier?
Arena had been doing reasonably well up to this point; I think he should be given a chance to show he can rebuild the team's character in preparation for the next international competitions.
2
Bradley is part of the systemic problems the USA face. Time for him to go with his father.
1
No, no no more Arena. Somehow the thrashing of Panama made you forget the home loss to Costa Rica, and barely escaping Honduras with a point on a late scramble equalizer?
His team choices of midfielders who can’t pass, and his choice of defenders was indefensible. He chose Howard and Guzan, more than 70 years old between them, and never looked at younger keepers.
I would rather see Caleb Porter get a look. Arena was still putting DaMarcus Beasley on the squad, and would still be choosing Landon Donovan if he still could.
5
If Bradley had shown only a glimpse of his form during the 2009 Confed Cup and 2010 World Cups during the qualifying campaign the U.S. would’ve qualified easily. Remember the pure determination goal against Slovenia? What happened to that Bradley?
2
Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise. I mean, who would want to go to Russia anyway. Our president will surely be cheering for the Russians over the US.
5
Pathetic. When you don't play you're A team and constantly yank lineups wth ins and outs of players. They didn't deserve to qualify even if they had beat T&T.
1
This was a bad team from the beginning of qualification stage and the results speaks for itself. Its not just the coach( granted Arena is not world class coach) its the whole U.S soccer system including MLS that needs to revamped and reenergized.
2
Chile didn't make it, they have Alexis Sanchez. Netherlands didn't make it, even with Robben. Ghana didn't make it. Ukraine didn't. Wales with Bale didn't.
Actually there are a lot of countries better than the US that didn't make it.
8
True. but they didn't lose 2-1 to Trinidad
10
True, but they arguably play much harder competition.
7
Bale was out injured and watched the Wales-Ireland match from the stands. That might have been the difference. Argentina, with Lionel Messi, qualified on the last day, only through Messi's hat trick. after an 0-0 draw against Peru. And Argentina only tied Venezuela 1-1 earlier because of an own goal. Things happen in futbol, like an own goal, or T&T scoring from 35 yards with not a U.S. defender in sight. But it is never just one thing (so don't blame Omar); the fact that the U.S. couldn't qualify until the very last day (like Argentina) and then didn't because of the proverbial perfect storm, speaks to all ten matches, including Klinsman's 0-2 and Arena's 3-3-2. One issue is that after Klinsman's departure Gulati apparently only made one phone call. CONCACAF's regional qualification system is what it is. If North, Central, and South America were in one massive qualification pool things would be even more dire for the U.S. side. But if the U.S. had to play the South Americans they would (eventually) be better for it. And face it, how well was this U.S. MNT going to do in the World Cup against Germany and the other world powerhouses? The U.S. needs to build a futbol ecosystem, like Germany did after 1990 Unification. Germany now has the results of refitting their entire program top to bottom, a sustainable national program. The U.S. needs to build a national program, not just a national team. Expect another decade.
2
One other thing - the rights to show this game were sold to a network I've never heard of, still don't know the name, but it's not on my Comcast listing.
Ordinarily I'd say that choice of the English-language channel was a disastrous preference for money over viewers but, given the poor performance of the USA team last night, that may have been a good thing.
Fortunately, by searching through the entire lineup I found it on a Spanish-language channel, UVNO it said but with what looked like an NBC logo, and not HD. I couldn't even tell whether that channel is Univision, Telemundo, or something else. It wasn't available over the air in SoFla, apparently not one of the digital subchannels. So last night's disaster didn't turn off as many viewers as it could have.
1
The media rights are controlled by the home team. The US home matches have all been on Faux Sports or ESPN. BeInSport, owned by Qatar, has aggressively moved to buy the US broadcast rights for all the countries except the US and Mexico. They also own the US broadcast rights for La Liga, Serie A and Ligue Un, even though they only have one channel and can’t broadcast anywhere near what they own, which includes African and South American qualifiers, and the African Cup of Nations.
2
Such complaints. Go back to 1986 and the qualifiers weren't shown (mercifully), and the World Cup itself, well, you just tuned the UHF dial to Channel 41 or whatever seemed clearer and resigned yourself to the fact that everything was in Spanish.
1
High expectations.
Higher hopes.
Dashed on the rocks.
Heavy hearts.
Hours of sweat.
Minutes of tears.
A lifetime of regret.
"The country’s president gives everyone Wednesday off, declaring it a national holiday."
Now that is excitement! And that is why they deserve to go, and we don't.
6
I'm a patriot, but soccer fans will now be able to watch and enjoy what they are hungry and waiting for - true great teams in the World Cup without all the patriotic distraction of the mediocre US.
14
There is the irony: Not counting play-offs, the strong S America group sends four teams to the World Cup and the much weaker N and Central America Group sends three--the only explanation for this is that FIFA wants to make sure the US team competes, for TV money's sake. And now they can't even take advantage of this...
6
@ UFlemm — Irony only if you look at numbers simplistically, ignoring the other half of each equation. CONMEBOL has 10 member associations; CONCACAF had 41. So, 40% of CONMEBOL members qualify directly for the World Cup; only 7% of CONCACAF’s do.
Is that just? Obviously, the South America region is enormously strong. In the 2014 World Cup, six CONMEBOL teams qualified; Ecuador was the only one that failed (barely) to advance from the group stage. Three of those teams finished in the tournament’s top five. So, we could rationally argue that S. America deserves more spots on a regular basis (as does Europe).
But are CONCACAF’s allocated spots the problem? In 2014, three of its four teams (including the U.S.) advanced out of group play; Costa Rica made it to the quarterfinals. Only Honduras had a poor showing. Those results suggest CONCACAF deserved its spots.
Indeed, for all these comments’ bellyaching about CONCACAF, the results of that last WC would lead a fair critic to subject to greater scrutiny the qualifying spots reserved for Africa and Asia.
In 2014, of Africa’s five teams, only two advanced out of group play; they were eliminated early in the knockout stage. The other three finished in the bottom 40% of the standings.
And Asia’s four teams defined mediocrity: they all ended up clustered together in the bottom 20% of the standings.
Clearly, it’s Africa and Asia, not CONCACAF, that have some explaining to do, about the number of qualifying spots they get.
— Brian
Bruce was brought in to restore pragmatism, belief and grit. Last night he failed epically.
5
So disappointing for the US. We never had the most talented players but in WC after WC, the US team played above their combined talent level with a work ethic second to none and that always gave us a chance no matter who we played.
The current team just did not have the work ethic or the will.
6
I didn't see the work ethic in those losses to Ghana.
It’s arrogance, believing in yourself is one good thing but being arrogant is just the opposite. I remember just yesterday it was so hard to find any soccer game on US tv market past forward when you listen to theses sports talk shows its like we’re the United States we belong there
Just in contrast how the rest of the world see soccer
yesterday after the win Panama president declared that today is a national holiday,,,,,
4
Before the next round of World Cup qualifying begins, anyone involved with the USMNT who is not Christian Pulisic needs to be gone. Management, coaches, players, all of them!
3
The US (with the exception of Pulisic) just doesn't have the talent. The team has not a single world class player. Even at his peak, Bradly couldn't get a starting spot at Roma. Dempsey at his peak could not Start at Tottenham. Altidore was worthless at Sunderland. Guzman was relegated twice. Graham who? Cameron does a good job at Stoke, but he's not special. I love Howard and Beasley but they're old. And the list goes on... The US doesn't deserve a World Cup spot.
15
Too soon.
Panama's first goal should have been disallowed, but it should not have been a corner kick for them, but a penalty. Hence there's a better than 80% that the final score would not have changed.
2
Just imagine how bad we would have been without Christian Pulisic. He had half of our points in the qualifying games.
5
Oh well, you can't win them all.
I've always supported the under dog. Good job Trinidad and Tobago.
Oh and BTW our women's team is still #1.
3
It should read "United States Men's Team." I am a little tired of the not so subtle sexism of ignoring that there is another United States team.
4
Did you get your season ticket to support your local women's franchise?
Although I usually do watch soccer, I won't be watching the 2018 World Cup.
Not even a minute.
It's a disgrace that the totally corrupt FIFA is allowing Russia's genocidal dictator Vlad Putin to host the World Cup.
And who is stupid enough to attend the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, or the 2022 World Cup in Qatar?
No sporting event is worse taking such risks.
Sports is, after all, entertainment...and nothing more.
1
Some of these comments are ridiculous. People are glad we lost because of the chants? So Fox will lose money? Because TV commentators don't like soccer?? Who cares about ANY of that????? I personally love to watch soccer. Klinsman was right about one important thing - all over the world young people are hoping to play professional soccer and will do anything to achieve that goal; but Americans want to go to college on a scholarship. While people in other countries and working their way up to the top, Americans are playing college soccer that prepares them for one thing - boring careers in MLS. MLS is just not that good. It does not prepare Americans for the rigors of international competition. Iceland, with 300,000 people is going to the World Cup and the U.S. is not. US soccer needs to clean house and find new people to get involved who have more creative ideas. The team looked like they just didn't get it last night - in keeping with the way the whole thing is run.
20
Sharon, some Americans are getting the point. Christian Pulisic’s parents uprooted when he was 16 to join the Borussia Dortmund academy. There is another American teenager named McKinnie now starting for Schalke.
Once parents get the idea that the DI ride takes too long and doesn’t build enough skill and stamina, there will be more clamor for sending kids abroad or forming proper academies rightbhere. MLS is working on it, but they are too slow, though Dallas has produced a few interesting kids. Let’s see how the U-17s do, and whether some of them attract interest from big clubs or pipeline clubs.
5
Hardly anyone wants to send their 14 year old kid off to a soccer program. Not going to happen.
2
Pulisic was 16 when he joined Dortmund. That is the minimum age eligible to sign a professional contract.
Are there people willing to send their 16 year olds to academies. I should say so. The problem is the development in the US from age ? to teen years to develop the skills to draw the attention of an academy.
There is a yuge difference between 14 and 16. The American kid who was at La Masia had to go because he was too young and didn’t have the protection of a professional contract.
3
I think the US has become complacent in its attitude to qualifying for the WC. For twenty years we've been there and naturally expected to repeat again for Russia. There is always something to be learned from failure and the soccer federation needs to be cleaned out its old dead wood and through a solid root and branch overhaul make plans how to produce good home grown players and organize for 2022.
14
The missed call on the Panama goal was it should have been a penalty kick. So, justice was served with 2 bad calls resulting in the proper outcome.
3
@ M. Thomas — No; Pérez was not fouled in that sequence. Ground-level video shows clearly that he went down because he caught his left toe on the grass, of his own accord. The only bad call was the declaration of a Panama goal; that outcome was improper, and, accordingly, an injustice was done.
— Brian
2
This is a direct consequence of THE TRUMP CURSE. God is showing His displeasure by withdrawing His grace.
31
I'm glad there won't be a team in Russia representing Trump land, except of course Russia...
2
The US wouldn't even be able to host the World Cup because of his travels bans. Craziness.
2
You're right. No one wants to come to the US!
US-Americans just do not care about football like the rest of the world does.
Hence, they have just invented peculiar sports where they are the number one! (without real competition though)
I, as an Austrian, find that just funny. :)
19
Austria hasn't qualified for the World Cup since 1998. I, as an American, find that just funny.
4
We beat Australia regularly in just about everything, but wait!!! What's this Australian rules football thing? Sounds like some peculiar sport that they are number one in (without any competition), I might add).
American kids just do not learn to play soccer. It is all "taught" in coached sessions where players get credits for assists and no contact is allowed. Parents spend a fortune on talent development teams rather than just letting the kids play.
Elsewhere in the world, soccer is a game that kids play 5 or six times a day with a ball and a couple of sweaters for goalposts. they learn skill by watching good quality professional games on tv and playing them out in the parks, streets and school grounds.
American soccer is a poor standard, just like british baseball.
1
Don't beat yourself up, we in England invented the game but never progress to the final which is why after more than 50 years since we won the cup in 1966 we still talk about it as if it was yesterday.
18
I'm hoping this will open the door for US Rugby! We've been to every rugby world cup since the tournament's inception in 1987, but sadly have won exactly one game lol. England bombed as the host in the last world cup in '15, but are looking great under Eddie Jones. I can't wait to watch England play the ABs. Lions tour was sensational, but a drawn series??
2
Trevor, but your lads won the last U-20 World Cup.
2
That at least gives us some hope for the future.
Only the men's team failed. We still have a great soccer team. Watch them in the (Women's) World Cup when it rolls around.
50
If Rapinoe takes a knee again, expect a huge reaction against the WNT. The WNT is not going to have an easy time like it did in the past. The US has helped women's sports. Now, we are no longer the only team. We will have much less success in the future.
In certain sports female athleticism rivals that of men. Tennis for example. Soccer is not one of them.
You do know that virtually the only place in the wOrld where women play soccer is the USA ? Right. Womens soccer everywhere else is like womens NFL.
NYT, do you consider yourself to be on board with gender equality? Because if you do, this headline should read, "How the United States MEN Missed the World Cup." The Women's National Team team is far more competitive, and if anyone should be called the definitive U.S. soccer representatives, it's the women. Plus, I'd hazard a guess that if this article were about the women missing the World Cup, you would've included a gender qualifier in the headline.
37
You're kidding right? Women? Competitive?
I obviously know you're not a soccer fan. You don't even know who the coach is I bet. You don't even know who the soccer powerhouses are in women's soccer (all developed countries with women's rights) and who the powerhouses are in men (everyone cause men play sport and women don't in places like Jamaica, Trinidad, Syria, Iran, Argentina, Columbia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Cuba, I can go on).
Is this what readership has turned to? Jumping to conclusions without even glancing at facts? Ridiculous!
That was a very bad coaching. The players also lacked energy, enthusiasm, and motivation. Was there also a chance that Mexico got a late goal as a pay back to Trump?
5
USA lost in a real World Series. This is just one of the many bumps on the road to reach greatness. GO USA!
2
In the grand scheme of things, this does not matter at all. We are still the most violent and destabilizing country on earth. How do we make the world a better place? Not by having the US in the World Cup.
5
Yesterday was one of the worst days in my life -- probably the worst days that did not involve someone dying.
My dad was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan back in the day. When the Giants beat the Dodgers in the Shot Heard Round the World in the 1951 playoff, one of the Dodger radio announcers (Red Barber or Vin Scully) supposedly tried to give some perspective by reading casualty figures for that week from Korea.
The sun rose this morning. My family still loves me. Life goes on.
12
This wasn't a minute by minute loss. This loss was months and years in the making. The entire US Men's qualifying campaign was an absolute disaster and embarrassment. The fact that we needed a tie in the last game against the weakest opponent only served to fool people into thinking that the US was somehow "on track."
USMT and MLS need to have a serious soul-searching revamp of the entire system.
1. Fix the pay-to-play
2. Get rid of of the constant traveling to marathon tournaments to win dopey plastic trophies--i.e. focus on player development close to home. One game per week is more than enough for U-18 players.
3. MLS calendar should line up with the international FIFA calendar.
4. MLS teams should be required to double down on regional soccer academies or invest in local leagues, supporting (or creating) those which encourage true player development.
5. MLS teams should be rewarded for bringing in homegrown talent.
6. USSF/MLS should establish coaching academies in every major region or work with Colleges/Universities to establish Coaching degrees.
7. USSF/MLS should bring in the best minds from DFB and Spain to evaluate, train, and recommend changes in the U.S. system.
8. USSF/MLS should send their best up-and-coming coaches to these countries to learn and be trained.
42
MLS teams should have a relegation system. Make them earn the right to play in the big league.
1
Relegation and promotion system would also help. It would increase the player pool and push players to play more competitively as there's a penalty for losing (relegation) and not a reward (1st draft pick!). In America only, do we reward losers with rewards. No wonder the sports landscape is so boring in the States.
3
This is absolutely true but USA loves the communist system of sports: reward the losing teams with high draft picks, and punish the winning teams with tougher schedules.
And God forbid that we should separate sports from education.
2
This isn't really new news. Bruce Arena was never better than a below average international coach, but decent motivator. He made poor choices and coached poorly throughout the qualifications. The personnel except for Pulisic, Yedlin (who had a subpar game), and maybe Wood are just too old or not good enough. Playing in the MLS may sound good to insular Americans, but the league is simply not good enough to develop the talent to play at this level. That is why we had trouble competing with even the likes of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and T & T. It is about poor coaching and insufficient experience. The world is passing most of this team by while they take the cowardly Donovan way out and become stars in the little pond of US soccer.
We need a USSF leader and new coach that understands soccer in a global context instead of one still living in the 80s playing English 4-4-2 long ball.
11
Well, if the defender hauled Blas Perez down, even if the referee didn’t wrongly allow the goal, it should have been a penalty, not another corner.
Regarding Mexico and Costa Rica performances, they did the hard work and qualified with matches to spare, so they’re entitled to play their scrubs, if they want. You see this in American sports all the time. Had the US played up to half their potential, they would have been safe and dry in qualification port, instead of on a bad park pitch against third division players with no crowd or atmosphere. And HOW did that lot not get a draw?
As far as what I saw, every player save Christian Pulisic was dreadful. Pulisic was below his best, but he was so far and away the best player on the pitch, everyone else should have been embarrassed. Maybe Bobby Wood and Darlington Nagbe have a future in the rebuilding project, but I didn’t see much else of use out there.
Start by cleaning out all levels, first and foremost by sending Sunil Gulati back to the econ classroom. He presided over the development program, picked the managers, and picked people to fill key roles. See ya. He trwated the women badly, and oversaw the first failure to qualify since Reagan was President. No excuses.
Bruce Arena sure looks the fool thinking that European qualification is easy compared to CONCACAF. Would Bruce like to bet continuing his career, anywhere, on a home and home against a Third Place UEFA team such as Holland, Bosnia or Wales?
10
(continuing)
His mistake then amplified into farce, when the referee, standing near the penalty spot, who was unable to see for sure whether the ball was over the line into the goal, but who did see when it was obviously out of bounds outside the goal, took his cue from the linesman’s dash back upfield, and called it a goal on that basis — but •he•, the referee, was mistakenly assuming that the linesman was heading toward the half-way line because he’d seen it cross the goal line •before• it was kicked outside the post; he didn’t recognize the linesman’s own mistake.
And indeed, when the Costa Rica players crowded around the referee to protest, after he’d called the goal and signaled toward the center circle, he then pointed over to the linesman, clearly telling them, “•He• saw it go in.”
None of which, for sure, should divert our attention from the truth that the U.S.’s qualification campaign was dreadful (only •one• away win, and that in the previous round, against St. Vincent and the Grenadines). Nevertheless, that Panama “goal” was also a shamefully blown call.
— Brian
2
@ Paul — The ground-level video, shot from just behind the goal line, shows that Calvo did not haul down Pérez; Pérez caught his left toe on the grass, tripping himself. (He also had a fistful of the back of Calvo’s shirt, so was an equal participant in any close-quarters jostling.)
And the result should not have been another corner kick, even; it should have been a •goal• kick. When Costa Rica’s Matarrita, from the ground, flicked the ball away from his goal line, it bounced of Pérez’s chest (he was also still on the ground) before going out of bounds.
The video, incidentally, gives us important further clues to how this call got messed up.
You can see in the video that as the ball initially bounces toward the goal line, the linesman quickly moves to the far corner flag, as he should, so he can look down the line to see whether the ball has crossed it. Then, when the ball has bounced of Pérez’s chest and out of bounds — •outside• the goal — the linesman instantly sprints back upfield toward the halfway line. I think he had made, at that moment, an appalling mistake: from the far side of the field, he had seen the ball cross the goal line — but failed to recognize that it was •outside• the net. He just assumed it was inside the goal, and failed to stay in position at the corner to confirm the ball’s exact location.
(cont’d ->)
1
Looked again at the replay, and I agree. I actually wrote the comment based on Andrew’s written narrative here, but I should have gone to the video first.
But it would have been a shame to progress even to a playoff based on the brutal performance the USMNT put in. The supposed goal saving tackle by Yedlin on the breakaway in the 58th never got the ball. That was a clear penalty.
So far this season, VAR has worked well in the Bundesliga.
Don’t be surprised if some poor unsuspecting unit placed in Ru$$ia’s group gets jobbed worse than CR and the US last night.
But refereeing in CONCACAF has always been appalling. That phantom goal was just another example. Maybe sui generis...
2
The best news I've heard all day is that fox so-called news has millions of dollars invested to air the World Cup in America and now we aren't in it. Bye bye audience.
I hope it bankrupts them. Do NOT watch one minute of it. Rupert Murdoch is one of the most corrupt inherited wealth Robber Baron people on the planet. Do not put one more dime in his pocket.
47
Can I suggest lightening up just a little? The fact your enraged about who airs the soccer matches might signal that you need a spiritual refresh.
1
Trinidad and Tobago, population 1.4 million
U.S., population 323 million
6
Qualified in Europe in a no joke group with Croatia and Ukraine is Iceland, population 330,000, or half of the population of Staten Island.
2
Goliath met David.
1
By this queer logic, India and China should be contenders. Why does anyone think the size of the country matters?
3
What a huge step backward for US Men’s soccer, losing to a small island nation. Best of luck to Trinadad. As far as the US mens team is concerned, the head coach should be fired immediately.
2
The head coach and the head of US soccer Gulati. The men's team looked pretty decent in the last World's Cup and have looked nothing like that since. They need a reload from the top down.
2
Trinidad was the only team to finish beliw us. Best of luck? Their qualifying campaign is as dead as ours.
2
You have to wonder! We blew it, but Costa Rica and Mexico have much stronger sides than Honduras and Panama! You gotta wonder!!!
3
And let's not forget Panama's phantom goal.
But we should not have been in this situation? Not giving up a late goal against Mexico at home last November gives us one more point. Playing better against Costa Rica last month gives us another point. And maybe playing against Honduras like it was not a Sunday beer league gets us two more points. That is four more points and a ticket to Russia.
We did not deserve to win.
10
@ Counter Measures — I’m not wondering at all. I saw the Costa Rica and Mexico sides playing hard in their games. They wanted to win, and definitely not to lose.
— Brian
2
Don’t leave qualification to the last match. And for god’s sake, if you can’t draw against League One level competition like T&T, you don’t deserve to go. 12 points in 10 matches? Not nearly good enough. The normal target is 15 points, and neither Honduras nor Panama even made that.
5
"We let down an entire nation today," said Gonzelez.
If only our troubles were all so ultimately trivial.
20
I think you failed to give the final score of the US match. That, or you buried it so deep in there that I can't find it.
4
@ Pete — This analysis piece doesn’t list the final score, but it’s not the Times’s main article on the match. This article is:
“TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 2, UNITED STATES 1: United States Misses World Cup for First Time Since 1986”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/sports/soccer/usmnt-trinidad-world-cu...
and, as you can see, its headline leads with the score.
— Brian
2
@ Brian. This article was featured on the homepage with the biggest font on the subject, center column, above the virtual fold. So yeah, the score would have been apropos. It might strike the times editors as strange, but a) no, I didn't know the score and b) they did get me to click. And yes, I did scroll to the end.
At least the author mentioned the opponent and the other teams in the "group". (They don't have groups in CONCACAF do they? And there are three slots for the finals?)
The US team wasn't good enough, but now the US is free to try to trash the Russian World Cup which they always intended to do. I hope we fail in that endeavor, but mark my words, the US will try.
6
Old players. Older coach. Maybe this will serve to bring much-needed change. Wouldn't bank on it though.
2
The only surprise to me was that the USNT came as close to qualifying as it did. I have cheered on some of these players for years. Tim Howard has been a favorite for well over a decade. But this team was old, many of its players do not play at top-level competition, and the coaching seemed uninspired. Even if the team had qualified, I doubt it would have made it out of the group stage. I am sad to see this happen, but not at all surprised.
2
No U.S. in the World Cup. Oh well, it looks like our perennial World Cup rival.......Ghana.......may not qualify either.
10
I don't suppose this means U.S. Soccer might review its position on pay equity for women, who always field top ranked national teams that always do well in World Cup competition?
24
Actually the WNY signed a new CBA with the federation recently. The problem is that it is hard to compare pay between the two teams. Yes the men's bonuses were higher, but that is because the money paid by FIFA for the MWC is greater than the WWC. Also, the men are paid more as a per diem when they are called into camp because they rely on their club teams for their salary. The women are on salary with benefits by the federation because the NWSL salaries and benefits are not that great. There are occasional stories of MLS players lower of the depth chart working part time jobs. For the NWSL, they try to find local families for players to stay with.
If like me you want to increase the women's money from soccer (not just the federation payments) get more people to games(club and country).
2
The only position to review is which team draws in more revenue.
2
Lordy, lordy, that issue was fixed months ago.
Perhaps there is a positive from this loss. Perhaps somewhere out there in the country there are others who feel that the "USA USA" chant at our games will be replaced by something more musical, please listen to any European team's games. I dread hearing such an uninspiring chant from our country. Lose it. We will be the better for it.
10
@ L. Clements — I agree wholeheartedly. If we could get U.S. fans to drop the unimaginative, corporatist grunting of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”, AND see the disappearance of vuvuzelas from all soccer stadia, the atmosphere at international matches would be immensely improved.
— Brian
1
Uh, I, like probably the rest of America, just lost the only sliver of interest I had in watching the World Cup. Too bad, so sad.
There are a lot of great potential stories. Germany trying to be the first repeat Champion since Brazil in 1962, which would also level it with Brazil’s total of five.
Can Brazil win number 6 after being embarrassed at home?
Which France will show up, the one that gave away points to Sweden, or the one that trounced Holland?
Will the new generation of Spanish players be ready for prime time?
Can Leo Messi drag his teammates over the line this time?
Could Iceland make another deep run, a country that could barely fill the original Maracana?
Could Crissy Ron win a WC to go with a European Championship and a clutch of Champions League titles?
Who will be the victim of some flagrant home cooking refereeing against Ru$$ia?
Will African teams finally not underachieve?
22
Not me. The World Cup is full of great play, great drama and great stories. I just hope the time zone difference in Russia doesn't mean I can't avoid hearing the scores beforehand.
7
I'm glad I follow women's soccer, especially the Portland Thorns FC. They have the best attendance of any women's soccer in the world and creative, dedicated fans. Good players remain with the team because of this. In the semifinal playoffs there were four goals - with four different players making them and four others assisting. The deep bench helps. But fans are with them win or lose. I hope other women's teams develop the same support.
13
We clearly have a long way to go as a soccer nation to be a consistently competitive team in any World Cup. That said, as a nation of 330 million I have to think that we do already have player and coaching talent that's good enough to deliver such.
What's missing is something that can't be bought, something more primal that only comes with time: more grit, hunger and passion for winning soccer on the part of the fans, the media, the nation. We're too comfortable, suburban and/or distracted by other sports. I've never seen the stands at any American venue bounce and heave the way they do at, say, Estadio Nacional in Costa Rica.
3
Soccer is a sport with an archaic structure and counterproductive rules. In a land with as many OTHER options available to them, American kids will naturally gravitate to the better (and more lucrative, for the best of the best) sports.
The only thing wrong with soccer is soccer itself.
2
It is unfortunate for all the children who play soccer in the 8 to 18 age group. It will be difficult for them to generate the kind of enthusiam for the World Cup viewing in the US without our team participating. Christian Pulisic, in my opinion the best player on the field, has learned his trade at Dortmund. Mr. Klinsman may have been wrong about how he handled the team when he had it. But I believe he was right about player deveoplment. The MLS is not producing the tye of US player for competition at this level. Our best and brightest stand a better chance of develoment in the Bundesliga, the Premier League,etc..rather than the MLS. We appear to not have developed the pressure to produce Diamonds. Ray Hudson is right about Messi.
9
when they got rid of Jurgen Klinsman i was as horrified as the antifa would be when trump got elected. But i get it, the country is divided, so soccer for the men is a reflection of it: they didn't know how to pull together. Nor do we.
5
What I saw from the USMT in the last four qualifying games was a sense of entitlement and poor tactics. By entitlement I mean there was no sense of urgency in their play until they fell behind and had to scramble to recovery, which was possible against Honduras but not against T&T. Also, needing only a tie to advance, why was the US not placed in a wholly defensive posture leaving no room for T&T to score. What arrogance it shows to think we can go into T&T and not be prepared to play a defensive style. Separately, those are two of the weakest goals Tim Howard has ever allowed....
7
Against Honduras, until the 80th minute the only person who seemed concerned about losing was Pulisic.
5
Glad they missed the World Cup. They can miss their USMT checks as well. Worst performance I've ever seen, obviously something happened behind the scenes that no one is willing to discuss.
5
Can the title of this article be changed to "How the United States MEN missed the World Cup"? It may seem like a subtle shift but all of the female soccer players in our country will thank you for not ignoring the accomplishments of the women's national team in the World Cup.
73
Yes. Thank you. I just came to the comments section to write the same thing.
1
But it's not a women's qualifier year, so the modifier isn't really necessary
5
Thank you for posting this. Geeze, doesn't even the NYTimes have a clue????
1
Nobody should be sorry that the US has failed to qualify for one of the most boring sports tournaments of modern times. At least now we won't have to endure US talking heads pretending they care about the game, and foreign talking heads pretending they care about the US.
4
Of course, It's a boring sport for those who does not know how to play.
2
No, it's boring - until it's not.
It's boring for those who've been kicking a ball since they were old enough to walk, cheered from the stands in the days when it was an exciting sport, and look on in dismay as 22 prima donnas practice the fine art of not moving any more than they have to.
Full disclosure: I actually think the Germans still have something to offer. Nobody else does.
Older, second and third rate players, old coach.
3
The U.S. men's soccer world is stunned, but I don't know why. U.S. soccer has been trying to play catch-up for years and needs still more years to come close to achieving the kind of skill and success of nations that have been playing soccer since in vitro. Skill level in the U.S.? Mediocre to fair. We can see in women's soccer that the U.S. had a head start on the game while nations that ignored women's sports are trying to grow teams. When this country finally pulls itself together enough to recognize soccer as a legitimate sport and puts as much time, effort, and money into it as we do football, perhaps we will see real growth.
20
As a nation we’re just not as passionate about soccer as most everywhere else seems to be. as far as we’ve come and as much as we love the game, and with all the resources applied, there is simply no substitute for the shared passion of a nation and its athletes.
1
U.S. spends quite a bit more money and time on soccer than T&T. Or Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico.
Money and time are not the problem. Think about it.
2
Oh pretty simple from an outsider point of view.
First, women's soccer has nowhere else the level of popularity it enjoys in the US compared to men's soccer ; one example, France : 97% players men, 3% women ; This doesn't mean that women don't play the sport, it just means that soccer, just as about everywhere else, crushes all competition in men's sport.
Second, everywhere except in the anglo-saxon world, and esp. in the US, the success of (men's, obviously) soccer is based on four pillars :
- Lots of informal soccer when young
- Young formation at club level and not at school (mostly where it diverges in the former anglo empire, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, perhaps England also but I don't know)
- Hugely popular and followed National Championship (IMO the weakest point in the US)
- Huge following on TV and media, which in turn fuels soccer's popularity with the latest generation...Repeat
Regarding those "four pillars" of excellence, the US are nowhere near the leading European countries at least.