Noone does smug like Bruce Arena does smug armsfoldedfrowndotgif Bruce Arena talked to @mattpentzabout what drew him to the New England Revolution, how far MLS has come in 25 years and how the USMNT missing the last World Cup was just "part of the sport."https://t.co/Gjo3Wa3IiU pic.twitter.com/7Ge4Y2oz69— The Athletic Soccer (@TheAthleticSCCR) February 12, 2020
Italy had, after Spain, Israel, Albania, Macedonia, and Lichtenstein in their group.... What got us was the fact that Mexico and Costa Rica had already qualified and so did not care much about their last match. Still, we should not have left it to that.
People have short memories. The chief difference between us missing out on 2018 and Mexico squeaking by in 2014 was that we inexplicably gave a shit and scored two stoppage time goals away in Panama when it absolutely did not matter one bit to us. Also, Panama scored a phantom goal to seal our fate on the last matchday in 2017. The goal literally did not happen, but it was nevertheless judged to have been scored. Not that it should have ever come to that, but there it is. Slight correction/clarification: it was the 53' Perez equalizer that was the phantom, not the Torres 88' winner.
As my old coach said, "never leave it to an official's decision"... (and I'd add, especially in CONCACAF). A similar thing got my Phillies in 2011. We knocked Atlanta out of the playoffs by beating them at the end of the season when we'd already clinched a while back--and drew St Louis in the first round as a result, who would not have qualified had Atlanta won one of those games. And then lost, because in a 5 game series, you only need two good pitchers.
Also, we picked a bunch of loafers who thought jogging around the field would be good enough. Not just in Couva, we played like crap for most of qualifying. We didn't earn the ticket.
In a polite Norka sipping manner. Altidore, Bradley, OG and Nagbe were bags of shit. Our keepers were way past their prime. Zusi and Villafana tried but weren't good enough. The fact that Arena is proud of this is disgusting.
It's an endorsement. I love Norka. Their root beer and a scoop of New Baltimore vanilla is the perfect float.
Exactly. I've said this before and gotten shit on for it, but we had one more point in our 5th place cycle than Mexico did when they finished 4th and got in through the playoff. And it still took a phantom goal for Panama and a goal for Honduras that went off the crossbar, off the back of the keeper's head and into the net. And our game included a goofy own goal and a hit crossbar. I'm not saying we deserved better. We didn't. Deserve ain't got nothin' to do with it. But while it was unwise to allow the long run of qualifications to convince us we were better than we were, I think a lot of people seem to be taking too much joy in letting the recent failures convince themselves we're worse than we ARE.
I kinda agree with him, except... All he had to do was NOT LOSE to T&T. That's it. So to say we couldn't have come any closer is ridiculous.
Missing 2018 and the USWNT lawsuit makes USSF a fashionable target these days. There was little, if any, blowback when Bruce was rehired and there is still tons of praise dumped on Bradley and Altidore for no known reason.
He had to start up his own production brewery to cover those bets and, with the stay at home order, the Kyle Crew beer economy has cratered.