The 91st Minute is a column by Sam Reno about professional soccer.
Ever since that failure in Trinidad back in 2017, U.S. Soccer had its sights set on the Olympic games. They have not qualified for the games since 2008, missing out in two straight cycles coming into this year’s competition.
The U.S. Men’s National Team advanced out of the group stage once again, making it to the all-important semifinals against Honduras. The stakes are clear as can be. Win? You got to Tokyo. Lose? You wait another four years (3 years this cycle since the games were pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic).
In the waning minutes of the first half, Honduras took the lead on a last-ditch longball into the box that the U.S. failed to clear. Minutes into the second half, a massive mistake by GK David Ochoa saw Honduras go two clear. While the U.S. got one back minutes later, they failed to find an equalizer, sending the U.S. home before the games even began, once again.
But what does this really mean for U.S. Soccer and its incredibly bright future I spoke about just two weeks ago? That’s where former USMNT players Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman come in.
In fact, that’s where they always come in. Any time a U.S. team disappoints at a major tournament, the pair is making the rounds on every FOX Sports and ESPN show voicing their “displeasure.” The absence of a rich history for the USMNT means limited “analysts” for networks to turn to when they cover the international game, meaning that the loudest voice in the room often is treated as the most important.
After the final whistle sounded against Honduras on Sunday, those loud voices were on full display once again. Lalas, working in the studio for the FS1 broadcast of the qualifiers, immediately took his opportunity to speak performatively about how “disappointed” he was.
Twellman, who was live tweeting his thoughts throughout the match, posted a video on Twitter, which still remains his pinned tweet. The video is captioned, “I have one question for @ussoccer. What does the scoreboard say?!”
Twellman is, of course, known for his infamous “WHAT ARE WE DOING?!” rant after the United States failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Twellman, Lalas, and many other former players like them make a living off of the shortcomings of the national team. After each defeat, clips go viral across the American soccer world of them bashing U.S. soccer from top to bottom.
Of course, some of my disdain naturally stems from the massive support I have for the national team. My exhaustion with seeing their rants goes hand in hand with my exhaustion with their tough losses. However, it goes much deeper than that, and that is where this year’s Olympic qualifying comes into play.
The Olympics, on the men’s side, are a U23 competition, which puts this specific U.S. team in a unique position. Normally, the players competing to earn a spot in the Olympics for their nation are the future of the national team, but that is not the case for the USMNT.
The majority of the first team for the U.S. also happens to be U23. Since this was not a FIFA sanctioned event, the top-level European clubs are not required to release their players for the tournament, leaving the best American U23 out of the tournament.
In fact, many of the players competing in Guadalajara may never see first team action in their careers. They will age through the USMNT system at the same pace as the current first-teamers, meaning that this failure to qualify really has no bearing on future senior team success.
Of course, you will not hear that from Lalas or Twellman, whose status makes them an integral part of U.S. Soccer, something they like distance from after such defeats. They take on this role of “holding them accountable,” but only after the disaster has occured.
Former USMNT players like them all continue to support each other for coaching jobs and board positions, yet they step away when it all crumbles. They complain that “there is no fight” from the current American players when U.S. soccer itself is an echo chamber void of competing ideas.
Of course, this U.S. roster was good enough to qualify for the Olympics, but they did not due, in large part, to the coaching structure put in place by higher-ups at U.S. Soccer. The aftermath of this does not warrant the responses we have seen from the likes of Lalas and Twellman. Their doomsday responses to a relatively inconsequential defeat have outed them as the failure hawks that they are.
It is a new era for men’s soccer in the United States. This “it was better when we were playing” mindset of the prominent voices in U.S. Soccer will no longer cut it. This nation has more talent than ever in men’s soccer, but if the only message is one of overreaction and finger-pointing, this USMNT may never reach its “golden” potential.
The 91st Minute runs every Wednesday.