For all the talk about the strides soccer has made in the US, results of late have been stark and disappointing.
The US were eliminated by Ghana in the last two World Cups. The under-20 team’s streak of seven trips to the world championship ended last year. Now the under-23s have failed to make two of the last three Olympic Games, after their elimination on Monday night.
Yes, the US plays the world’s game better than they did 25 years ago. The national team even notched its first win ever over powerhouse Italy last month. However, the sputtering nature of the US program has even its most loyal supporters scratching their heads.
“Is it a disappointment? Yes. Is it a failure? Yes,” former national team defender Alexi Lalas said after Monday’s under-23 loss.
“Is the sky falling? Absolutely not,” he added.
However, it was a crushing loss.
The under-23 team were eliminated from Olympic qualifying when they conceded a goal in the final seconds of stoppage-time during a 3-3 tie against El Salvador in Nashville.
Despite having home advantage, the US did not even make it to the qualification round — the semi-finals this weekend. It was only the second time since 1976 that they failed to qualify. They also fell short in 2004.
“We need to have new leadership, a fresh way of doing things,” former national team and Olympic coach Bruce Arena said.
“Usually it’s a new coach. But maybe it’s time for new leadership and new concepts as well. Who knows? But I think we’re making progress, regardless of this result,” he added.
Still, at a time this summer when the football focus in the US could have been on the up-and-coming US players, it will now be on pre-season tours of English teams Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, and the new managers likely to be in place at both clubs.
“Obviously last night is a huge disappointment on many levels and for everyone involved,” US Soccer Federation (USSF) president Sunil Gulati said. “We’ve been very successful over the last 36 years in being at most of the Olympic Games on the men’s side, so it’s a big setback.”
Gulati has been a driving force in US soccer growth for more than a quarter of a century. The US had not qualified for the World Cup for 40 years before making it to the 1990 tournament, and they’ve now been to the last six.
Gulati became USSF president in 2006 and replaced Arena after the US crashed out of the World Cup in the group stage — embittering the coach who guided the US to the quarter-finals in 2002 and now leads the Los Angeles Galaxy.
In men’s soccer, the Olympics are limited to players under 23 — with three overage players eligible for inclusion at the Summer Games. However, clubs that pay the players’ wages are often reluctant to release their best players.
Still, even with Jozy Altidore, Timmy Chandler and Danny Williams unavailable, the US filled their squad with professionals from Major League Soccer (MLS) and players from European and Mexico clubs they were able to secure. The US figured they would have a relatively easy time claiming one of the two Olympic berths from North and Central America, and the Caribbean.
However, after an opening 6-0 rout of Cuba last week, they were upset 2-0 by Canada and forced themselves into a must-win game against El Salvador, a country whose population of about 6 million is smaller than New York City’s.
“Having the Olympic experience would certainly be beneficial to these players. In a different way to look at it, this tournament helped weed out some of the quote-unquote talent that maybe isn’t what we thought,” said Lalas, now an ESPN analyst.
More troubling than the failure to qualify for the London Olympics might be the lack of players on the under-23s who appear to be pushing for spots on the national team, a group whose regulars include Landon Donovan (30), Carlos Bocanegra (33 in May), Steve Cherundolo (33) and Oguchi Onyewu (30 in May).
Qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil starts this June and among the group in Nashville only Dallas midfielder Brek Shea has become a frequent national team contributor. The major influx of new players has been several German-Americans who play regularly in the Bundesliga.
The goalkeeper position, long a strength of the US, is now a potential problem area. The 41-year-old Spurs goalkeeper Brad Friedel might be brought out of national-team retirement in the event of an injury to US starter Tim Howard.
However, while focusing on the present, Gulati and US coach Jurgen Klinsmann also are putting more emphasis on the future.
MLS has expanded to 19 teams, creating more jobs for US players, and it relaunched its reserve league to create more competition. The USSF Development Academy for elite players aged 15-18 years expanded its schedule from six to 10 months in an effort to establish better and lengthened training.
More US players are with European clubs than ever before, but for every Clint Dempsey starring in the Premier League, there is a Ricardo Clark who cannot even make a game-day substitutes’ bench.
“We’ll do everything we can to make sure we’re on track, but a lot of things that have been put in place over a period of time are long-term projects,” Gulati said.
“Those things take time and it’s very hard to judge those on short-term results,” he added.
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