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The US men’s soccer team failed to qualify for a third consecutive Olympic, their longest drought between Olympic appearances in more than 50 years.
Honduras beat the United States 2-1 in a winner’s game in Tokyo to close a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament for players 24 and under in Mexico on Sunday.
“It’s a tragedy”, the American coach Jason circle said.
Honduras, a nation with the population of Michigan, also beat the United States in an Olympic qualification for the Rio 2016 Games.
The American men last played at the Olympics in 2008, when an 18-year-old Freddy adu scored the decisive goal in qualifying. They will miss three consecutive Olympics for the first time since 1960, 1964 and 1968 – a period when the United States did not compete in a World Cup from 1954 to 1986.
The U.S. senior team also failed to qualify for the last World Cup in 2018, but have since developed a host of young talent. Most of those players were young enough for the Olympic qualifiers, but none of the notables from Europe’s top leagues were named to the list.
That’s at least in part because clubs aren’t required to release players for the two-week Olympic qualifiers (the US also hosted a pre-tournament training camp that started on March 1).
However, some of these stars were away from their clubs last week for senior national team friendlies in Europe against Jamaica and Northern Ireland, including the captain. Christian Pulisic from Chelsea, Sergiño Dest from Barcelona and Gio reyna of Borussia Dortmund.
It created a touching spectacle on Sunday night – prominent American players gathered not on a football pitch in Guadalajara, but in a hall in Belfast. watch the game of Honduras on a screen after midnight.
The only Olympic men’s soccer medals in the United States came at the 1904 Games in St. Louis, when all participants won medals when only three club teams from Canada and the United States competed.
The field for the Olympic men’s soccer tournament includes most of the world powers representing eight of the last nine World Cup winners.
Japan
France
Germany
Spain
Romania
Argentina
Brazil
Egypt
Ivory Coast
South Africa
Australia
Saudi Arabia
South Korea
New Zealand
Honduras
Mexico or Canada
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