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The United States failed in its latest attempt to qualify for the Olympic men’s soccer tournament on Sunday, falling to Honduras, 2-1, in a regional qualifying tournament in Mexico. A goalie error turned out to be the difference, but the feeling was all too familiar.
The loss was a humble end to another Olympic qualifying campaign for the United States men, and that means the Americans will miss their third consecutive Olympics. An American men’s team last competed at the Games in 2008, and failed to qualify for the Olympics in four of the last five cycles.
Honduran goals from either side of the half – a tuck finish by Brooklyn-born striker Juan Carlos Obregón Jr. in the first half and a deflected goal as a disastrous mistake by goalkeeper David Ochoa a few minutes into the start of the second half – proved decisive, and sent the Hondurans to their fourth consecutive Olympics. Honduras finished fourth in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, losing to eventual champions Brazil in the semifinals.
“The goal was to qualify for the Olympics, and we didn’t get the job done today,” defenseman Henry Kessler said.
US Soccer will always have a representative in Tokyo: its world champion women’s team qualified last year and will be one of the favorites to win their fifth gold in the sport at the opening of the Olympics in July. The American men’s teams have played four times at the Olympics but have never won a medal.
Unlike most tournaments, the Olympic qualifier is only for the semi-finals. In CONCACAF, the region that includes teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean, only the two semi-final winners qualify for Tokyo, making victory in one of those matches the goal and making the final on Tuesday – Honduras will play the winner of the second Sunday. semi-final between Mexico and Canada – an afterthought.
US coach Jason Kreis and his team had Sunday’s game – regardless of the opponent – in the lead all week. “At the end of the day, we know the next game is the one we have to win,” Kreis said after a 1-0 loss to Mexico in the group stage final.
The decisive match took place under a scorching sun in Guadalajara, Mexico, where the temperature was 90 degrees at kickoff. The game stopped for hydration breaks in each half.
The Americans tried to take control early and produced two good scoring chances. But as Honduras stood firm and settled in, Americans seemed to lack energy and ideas. Honduras took the lead four minutes into the first half of added time, with a perfect one-inch long cross pass expertly directed into the path of an Obregón in charge in the mouth of goals. Using his thigh, then his hip, he muscled her awkwardly on the line past Ochoa in the goal.
Honduras doubled their lead less than three minutes into the second half when Ochoa – under conscientious but minimal pressure – passed forward Luis Palma that ricocheted into his own net. Getting to his feet, Ochoa quickly pulled the ball out of his net, but the Americans’ day suddenly took on a dark aura.
United States captain midfielder Jackson Yueill scored a 52nd-minute goal with a shot just outside the circle at the top of the Honduran penalty area. And Jonathan Lewis had three excellent chances to tie the game – one on a clear header down the line, another lost to a mysterious fault spotted by the Salvadoran referee – as the tension rose and time passed. But the targets the United States needed never arrived.
The two games in Mexico on Sunday completed the men’s 16-team Olympic field, which already includes teams like host Japan; Brazil (2016 home gold medalist) and Argentina from South America; France, Germany, Romania and Spain from Europe; Egypt, South Africa and Ivory Coast from Africa; Australia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea from Asia; and New Zealand from Oceania.
The Men’s Olympic Tournament has been an Under-23 Championship since 1992, an agreement with FIFA, the world’s sports governing body, to maintain the primacy of the World Cup as a flagship sport event. (The Women’s Olympic Tournament is, like the Women’s World Cup, contested by senior national teams.)
But it remains an important barometer of a country’s ability to produce young talent, and for a regional force like the United States, which still reckoned with the astonishing failure of its senior national team to qualify for the Cup. World 2018 in Russia, missing again and had once again become a referendum on the nation’s football progress.
Once a regular in the men’s event, the United States last participated in the Beijing Summer Games in 2008, when they only won their opener against Japan, fell after the group stage and finished ninth. But soon, missing the Olympics became disturbingly the norm. The Americans, who failed to qualify for the Athens 2004 Games, then missed the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio Games in 2016.
US Soccer has made reversing that recent history a priority this year. He hired Kreis, a veteran of several head coaching positions in Major League Soccer, to lead the team and tried to take full advantage of some of the talent produced by the league’s recent investment in player development. . America’s 11 starters on Sunday play for MLS teams
The Americans beat Costa Rica (1-0) and the Dominican Republic (4-0) in their first two games, but a stray pass led to a first-period goal – and a 1-0 loss – against Mexico in their group- final stage. The loss was a blow to team USA’s dynamic, and possibly to their psyche, as it represented the first big test of the event, but Kreis acted quickly to dismiss it and focus his team on the semi-final.
“I think we’re looking for a little bit more sharpness in this whole tournament,” Kreis said after the loss. But the only thing that mattered, he added, was not the result but that “the most important game is yet to come”.
He came on Sunday. And the Americans lost it.
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