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Here we go again.
The Americans failed to even qualify for another world tournament, this time at the Tokyo Olympics, after a botched 2-1 loss to Honduras on Sunday. Worse yet, this is now the third consecutive Olympics that the United States will miss, in addition to failing to qualify for the last World Cup.
At first glance, this latest failure looks too much like that heartbreak of four years ago, when the USMNT suffered a shock loss to Trinidad and Tobago in World Cup qualifying. This defeat became a referendum not only on the state of the American men’s program, but on the American Football Federation as a whole. But this time it’s different. In some ways, this highlights how far the USMNT has come since then.
The Olympic team were missing their best eligible players by age because, unlike the women’s side, the Olympics are primarily an under-23 tournament and clubs are not required to release players for youth events. USMNT’s best Under-23 players are also its best senior players: Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Sergino Dest and many more.
In other words, players under 23 are so talented and so successful playing for European clubs that they were too good for the Olympics. The golden generation of the USMNT has more important tasks than qualifying for the Olympics.
But that does not mean that this failure is excusable. The defeat shows lingering structural and cultural issues that US Soccer was supposed to address after the failed 2018 World Cup campaign.
First, it’s important to understand where the blame for Sunday’s loss lies, and it was mainly manager Jason Kreis, who called out the wrong players and then used the players he had ineffective.
It was a shock not to see Jeremy Ebobisse, the Portland Timbers forward who has more minutes and professional goals than all the forwards on the Olympic team put together over the past two seasons. The Timbers were more than willing to release him, but he still wasn’t on Kreis’ list.
The 20-man U.S. squad also didn’t have creative attacking midfielders, but included five players who typically play more midfield or defensive roles. Cole Bassett, a 19-year-old who generated goals for the Colorado Rapids at a higher rate than the midfielders who were part of the team, was not there. Eryk Williamson of the Timbers, who could have provided a much needed two-way presence, was also missing. Kreis insisted that the midfielders he brought were more versatile than people thought, which did not turn out to be true, leaving the United States underpowered.
But Kreis surely won’t keep his job, so rather than criticize his decisions, it’s worth taking a look at how he got hired in the first place – and what that reveals about American football.
Coming into his stint with the U-23s, Kreis had struggled for years in MLS, having been sacked by New York City FC and Orlando City SC after terrible terms. While not as glamorous as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics are still a top tier tournament, and it’s unclear why US Soccer thought it was the better choice.
In all fairness, Olympic work probably isn’t very appealing to top managers, but that’s at least in part because of American football. The federation waited three years until the American men failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics to hire their next coach, and it was a part-time gig.
While Mexico, for example, invested time and resources in their U-23 squad, playing more than 20 tune-up games before the pandemic, the United States had only played two. over the same period. Why would that appeal to an ambitious coach?
But it wasn’t just a bad rental in Kreis. The federation made an equally odd choice with its U-20 coach last year, hiring Anthony Hudson after being fired due to his appalling performance in MLS.
It is not known how US Soccer proceeded with these recruitments. But if they looked like Gregg Berhalter’s nomination process, which involved interviewing just two MLS candidates and ignoring other obvious top candidates, that’s a concern.
After all, US Soccer appointed Earnie Stewart as its very first athletic director so the federation could make better technical decisions and prevent non-football executives from hiring coaches. But so far, US Soccer’s approach seems as narrow and insular as it once was.
This may underlie the greatest source of concern that American men would miss the Olympics again: a winning culture and a philosophy that does nothing are apparently still not part of the DNA of the United States. . This seems to be true when it comes to coach selection, and also whenever American men need to prove themselves.
Simply put, winning is not a habit for American men. Unlike the women’s program, there are too many examples of men who don’t have the right mindset. Talent was not what was lacking on Sunday, even without Pulisic, and it was also not lacking at Couva four years ago.
The players competing against Honduras seemed to not even want the ball. They lacked confidence and leadership on the ground. Considering how little the team has played together, it might come as no surprise that they don’t seem ready to fight for each other.
Perhaps the Olympics did not matter enough to US Soccer to warrant a greater investment of time and resources. After all, if winning a World Cup is the ultimate solution, it’s worth considering that France didn’t even qualify for the men’s Olympic tournament from 2000 to 2016. France did win a World Cup anyway. in 2018 – and reached the final in 2006 – and no one disputes its status as a football nation.
But if US Soccer is to develop the sport in America, which is its stated mission, then the men have to start winning, and they have to start earning their place on world stages like the World Cup and, yes, the Olympics. as well.
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