Missing the World Cup was likely more a mental issue than a talent issue. Every game, it was a question of which US team would show up. Would it be the team that put a historic beat-down on Honduras, thashed Panama 4-0, and played Mexico to a standstill at Azteca? Or the one that had fatal back line brain-farts at home against Costa Rica and sleepwalked through a loss to T&T? Those were largely the same players.
My view is that we didn't miss the WC due to talent, pay for play, the coach, our 'best' athletes etc. It is my belief we lost because we lack a sense of what we are trying to teach and achieve. We have no style of play, kids are taught to win games not to learn soccer, our scouting is errant and when we pull together a team we lack an identity and the core skill to adapt in the short-term. Many of the countries we lose to have fewer players (I mean, they do have 11 on the field...), fewer 'great' athletes, lesser facilities, less money and less infrastructure around coaches, nutrition etc. But they have a style, they know what they are looking for, they know what makes a great player in their country even if that isn't what another country values and they don't try to cobble together some disparate pieces into a team. I think this partly leads to the 'senior services' approach to our USMNT, we take the experienced players because we don't know what we are looking for and accept the evil we know. Every coach is at a disadvantage as they try to navigate this mess, do we really know who our best players are? Why do we think 33 year olds are better than 19 year olds...it isn't loyalty alone, we don't know what we are building, there is no identity, no target we are matching pieces against. The Steelers play defense a certain way, they know who to draft because they know what they are trying to do, Alabama football knows what kind of quarterback they are looking for, the Rockettes know what they are looking for...it all makes for easier talent identification. We don't know what we value and what skills will lead to success. Is it size? We seem to value that over skill in the youth arena. Is it movement? Toughness? When they ask, "hey, any of you got any players who should be in the NT pool?" to U14 coaches, what measuring stick is being used? So, in my humble opinion, we have enough players, even if we lose more than we should due to pay to play etc. We have more athletes than many countries in the WC. We have everything we need except 22 guys who create more than the sum of the parts. The 'best' managers in the world usually walk in to a club and say what players they want and/or what style of player scouts should be looking for. They don't say "give me a random selection of non-complementary players and I'll get you a winner". Once in a while we catch a break or step on it; periodically we over-perform and we under-perform but our baseline is pretty bleak. If we don't know what we are building and don't know what parts we are looking for I don't think we will ever optimize and, worse yet, we will constantly be constructing and deconstructing as a new leader or whim takes ahold.
Any future senior teams, at the minimum, need to start with players with high technical abilities, then worry about the physical and tactical aspects afterwards. If US players don't even have the basic talent and drive to succeed, the rest won't matter.
I think you all should stop beating yourselves up. Responsibility for not qualifying lies with the players and coaches. The players selected were perfectly capable of beating T&T and Honduras and at least taking a point at home vs. Costa Rica, they just didn't show up. It's almost 3 years before the next qualifying cycle starts. Bring in a new generation of players and a coach who can both mold and motivate them.
US is underachieving due to a perfect storm of greed, negligence, and corruption. US did not qualify for the World Cup because when the chips were down they folded.
The solution to the USMNT problem likely doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker. An epigram isn’t recognition of the root cause, it is just a saying.