The Soccer Thread (Version 7.0)

No need to freak out. CONCACAF needs the USA in the hex. It will be done. Wouldn't be surprised if Antigua has been "contacted" and arrangements made. Yeah, I'm cynical.

 

Sports writers catastrophizing things even before it happens? Never!
I agree, though, that it's not good that we're having to put this much thought into not making the hex.

 

I'm not a sports writer when I'm talking USMNT, since I have not and likely will never cover the team. I'm a fanboi looser, which means I'm required to freak out over every bit of bad news.

 

Well, I generalized, which is my fault. However, there are a lot of people freaking out (myself included) about the idea of not making the hex, so you're not alone in that respect.

 

In those terms, it's like falling off the stage altogether ... with the understanding that the U.S. men won't be center stage anytime soon in the overall scheme of the world pecking order ...

 

Well, that would be the case, don't you think? If the U.S. can't even be among the top six in its own region - which isn't the strongest region in the world by any means and I'd probably only put it ahead of Oceania in terms of overall strength - how the heck can we expect the world to take the U.S. seriously?

 

I have no serious expectations of the U.S. men in terms of the world scene ... sorry, need to see a much better, much more consistent body of work before thinking in those terms. Sure, beating El Tri in Mexico City was nice. But losing to Jamaica? ... yeah, yeah, it was in Kingston, but still not terribly impressed.

If the U.S. doesn't advance, then someone needs to take a serious look at what Sunil Gulati is doing. Jurgen Klinsmann's sides have serious consistency issues. For all the crap thrown at Bob Bradley, that wasn't a fraction of the issue that it is now. Gulati wanted Klinsmann in there before Bradley was hired, so now he's all-in with Klinsmann. So far, I'm not too impressed.

 

I agree. If the U.S. is going to be taken seriously, they need to be beating pretty much everybody in CONCACAF and at least having more success than they currently are against Mexico. They shouldn't be losing to Jamaica, even if it is on the road.

 

For the freak-out crowd (and I'm mildly freaking out), don't forget the 2002 qualifiers. The USA needed to win at Barbados to secure a spot in the hex. I think it was 0-0 with about 25 minutes left before the US pulled out a 4-0 win.

 

Any minute now, the Klinsmann hire will result in the complete revamping of our player pool and subsequent earning of international respect.

What's amazing to me is that I've never seen the U.S. lose on the road in World Cup qualifying. Usually, we qualify with absolutely no problems. Really not sure what happened here.

 

I know this is your shtick and all, but the US losing on the road at this stage of qualifying is somewhat rare. In the MLS era (i.e. 1998 qualifying onward), the US has 7 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses on the road in the second and third rounds of qualifying, including the Guatemala and Jamaica results this time around. By comparison, it's 6-7-7 on the road in the Hex during the same period.

If you're wondering, the losses were to Jamaica (2014 third round), T&T (2010 third round), Mexico (2002, 2006 and 2010 Hex) and Costa Rica (1998 and 2002 third round, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010 Hex).

 

Which means we should be beating teams like Jamaica on the road if we want to be taken seriously on the world stage. Teams that go to Mexico and win or knock off teams like Italy (even if it was an undermanned Italy squad) shouldn't be losing to Jamaica.