Trinidad and Tobago v United States (2018 FIFA World Cup qualification)

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For the match on June 8, 2017, see 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fifth Round § Matches.
Trinidad and Tobago v United States (2017)
TnT Ato Boldon Stadium.jpg
Ato Boldon Stadium hosted the match
Event2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fifth Round
Trinidad and Tobago United States
Trinidad and Tobago United States
2 1
Panama qualifies for the 2018 FIFA World Cup
Honduras advances to the CONCACAF–AFC inter-confederation play-off
United States fails to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986
DateOctober 10, 2017
VenueAto Boldon Stadium, Couva
RefereeMarlon Mejia (El Salvador)
Attendance1,500

On October 10, 2017, Trinidad and Tobago played against the United States at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva in what was the final 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match for both teams. Trinidad and Tobago won the match 2–1 which resulted in the United States missing their first World Cup since 1986, as well as Trinidad and Tobago's first win over the United States since 2008, and their third win against them in international football.[1]

Background[]

Main article: 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – CONCACAF Fifth Round

Following consecutive losses to Mexico and Costa Rica in the opening games of the final round of qualification in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann was fired from the United States men's national team job and replaced by former USMNT manager Bruce Arena.[2] On his 3rd game back in charge, Arena coached the US to a 6–0 victory over Honduras,[3] and 4 days later got a 1–1 draw against Panama at Panama City.[4] Three months after that, they beat Trinidad and Tobago 2–0 in Commerce City, Colorado, both goals coming from Christian Pulisic, giving the United States a total of 7 points in the qualification group standings.[5] After earning only 2 points from their next three games,[6] the United States hosted Panama and got a 4–0 victory[7] before traveling to Trinidad and Tobago for the game.

With a win, the United States would guarantee automatic qualification to the World Cup. A draw would also qualify unless Panama defeated Costa Rica by an 8-goal difference and Honduras beat Mexico by 13 goals. Trinidad and Tobago were already eliminated, and had almost nothing to play for besides revenge for Paul Caligiuri's infamous goal in 1989, which allowed the US to qualify in Trinidad's place.[8][9] This, along with a Mexican or Costa Rican victory over Honduras or Panama, respectively would as well send the United States team to Russia.[10]

Before the match, the CONCACAF Fifth Round table was as follows:

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mexico (Q) 9 6 3 0 14 5 +9 21 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup
2  Costa Rica (Q) 9 4 4 1 13 6 +7 16
3  United States 9 3 3 3 16 11 +5 12
4  Panama 9 2 4 3 7 9 −2 10 Advance to inter-confederation play-offs
5  Honduras 9 2 4 3 10 17 −7 10
6  Trinidad and Tobago (E) 9 1 0 8 5 18 −13 3
Source: CBS Sports
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(E) Eliminated; (Q) Qualified to the phase indicated

Pre-match[]

The match was played at the smaller Ato Boldon Stadium instead of Hasely Crawford Stadium due to the stadium's issues with its floodlights.[11] Heavy rain in the days preceding the match meant that the field at Ato Boldon Stadium was soaked, impeding practice the day before the match on October 9.[12]

As Trinidad and Tobago were already eliminated from advancement to the World Cup, they included a number of young and untested players in their starting lineup rather than their usual starters, a common practice.

Match[]

Summary[]

A botched back pass in the 17th minute resulted in a catastrophic own goal by the US team. While Trinidad and Tobago had few high quality shot attempts in the first half, a "blistering 35-yard strike" from Alvin Jones managed to get in regardless to give them a 2–0 lead going into the second half.[13][14] The US team managed to score a goal in the second half by Christian Pulisic and substituted in some fresh strikers to up their goal-scoring chances, but were unable to tie the score by the end of the game.

Details[]

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification
Round 10th.
Trinidad and Tobago 2–1 United States
  • Gonzalez 17' (o.g.)
  • A. Jones 37'
 Report 47' Pulisic
Attendance: 1,500
Referee: Marlon Mejia (El Salvador)
Trinidad and Tobago
United States

Match rules

  • 90 minute game time.
  • Maximum of three substitutions.

Post-match[]

Results[]

Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mexico 10 6 3 1 16 7 +9 21 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup
2  Costa Rica 10 4 4 2 14 8 +6 16
3  Panama 10 3 4 3 9 10 −1 13
4  Honduras 10 3 4 3 13 19 −6 13 Advance to inter-confederation play-offs
5  United States 10 3 3 4 17 13 +4 12
6  Trinidad and Tobago 10 2 0 8 7 19 −12 6
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

To the surprise of many, both Central American underdogs, Panama and Honduras, won against Costa Rica and Mexico respectively. Panamanian forward Blas Pérez scored a controversial "ghost goal" in the 53rd minute to equalize the score 1–1, before Román Torres scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.[15][16] Honduras also pulled a comeback in their win against Mexico. The Mexican team had a 2–1 lead at half-time before Eddie Hernández's shot bounced off of the crossbar and hit the back of Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa's head and went into the net, putting the score at 2–2. Seven minutes later, Romell Quioto scored the winning goal for Honduras, ending Mexico's chance to go unbeaten throughout the qualifying rounds.[17] Because of the United States' loss and their win, Panama qualified automatically for the group stage of the 2018 competition, while Honduras was given a final chance to qualify for the tournament in Russia during the CONCACAF–AFC play-off matches against Australia.[18][19][20][21]

Reactions[]

Media[]

The result and failure for the U.S. to qualify made national and international news overnight. ESPN FC hosted a segment on the game and openly criticized the "arrogance" that the United States team had. Alejandro Moreno criticized the players commitment and passion for the game. Shaka Hislop, a former goalkeeper who represented Trinidad and Tobago in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, blamed the U.S. media for asking Arena about the performance of European players and other unrelated questions of the match the day before. Hislop also criticized the United States team for their criticism of the field conditions.[22]

Taylor Twellman went on an unscripted rant on ESPN in which he highlighted the lack of focus on the match at hand, claiming other players and broadcasters asked for the other scoreline from the other matches in qualifying.[13] Twellman stated the United States needs to revise everything about the United States Soccer Federation, including Major League Soccer, the "pay to play" system of U.S. youth soccer, and other aspects of the federation. He cited efforts by the German Football Association as an example of a nation that had successfully changed its culture after the national team's failure in Euro 2000 and Euro 2004. Twellman further added similar dissatisfaction with the pitch criticism, citing Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgium playing against each other on what he termed a "cow pasture".[23] Twellman also complained that Iceland qualified for the World Cup while the United States did not.[13][23][24][25][26][27] The next day, he said the US men's national team had an arrogance that he cannot understand[28] and that soccer must not be the American way.[29]

An analysis by the sports side of the blog FiveThirtyEight called the match "the worst loss in USMNT's history based on the Elo rating system" since the USMNT was so heavily favored, which made the loss all the more stinging due to the high stakes involved.[14] A retrospective by the sports blog SB Nation agreed, calling the match the worst in the US men's team's history.[30]

Some news outlets and journalists described this American loss as a "revenge", particularly by pointing that the United States had prevented Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, and Panama from qualifying to the 1990, 2010, and 2014 World Cups, respectively. Writing for Wired868, Trinidadian journalist Lasana Liburd published a note titled "Mr. Jones Stuns USA! American World Cup Dreams Drown in River of Tears at Couva", where he mocked the USA by saying "Make America Great Again? We'd rather not" and that Kelvin Jones, who was an unused substitute during the United States' victory over Trinidad and Tobago in 1989, had his son Alvin ensuring "that, for at least the next four years, the USA's Pulisic will now know how he felt."[31] The Daily Express' Susan Mohammed reported that Trinidadian politician and former CONCACAF president Jack Warner rejoiced on the USA's elimination with phrases such as "this is the happiest day of my life", "nobody in CONCACAF likes the US", and that "other teams within the CONCACAF sought to 'help one another' but the US team sought to 'embarrass them'."[32] Praising Costa Rica's qualification to the World Cup, La Nación's Amado Hidalgo felt "lurked" by the memories of Jonathan Bornstein and Graham Zusi scoring last-minute goals that left Costa Rica and Panama out of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, respectively, and expressed that "maybe Trinidad avenged us all and buried the American dream of Bruce Arena and his legion."[33] On Twitter, the Mexican version of ESPN suggested that Panama's qualification over the United States was "a revenge", given that a goal by an American player left Panama out of the 2014 World Cup much like a goal by a Panamanian player left the United States out of the 2018 World Cup.[34] Spanish statistician and journalist Alexis Tamayo mocked the United States by telling Graham Zusi "you are going to watch [the 2018 World Cup] on television."[35]

United States national team[]

Bruce Arena resigned as the manager of the team shortly after the match. Omar Gonzalez in a post-match press conference stated his own goal "is one that will haunt me forever."[36]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Trinidad and Tobago national football team: List of matches". World Football Elo Ratings. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  2. ^ "Jurgen Klinsmann fired as U.S. soccer coach; Bruce Arena could get job". NBC Sports. November 21, 2016.
  3. ^ Dowley, Conor (March 25, 2017). "USA vs. Honduras: Final score 6-0, Clint Dempsey and Christian Pulisic dominate". SB Nation.
  4. ^ Parker, Graham (March 29, 2017). "Panama 1-1 USA: World Cup qualifying – as it happened". The Guardian.
  5. ^ Goff, Steven (June 8, 2017). "Christian Pulisic scores twice to lead U.S. to 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago". The Washington Post.
  6. ^ McCauley, Kim (September 5, 2017). "USMNT steals critical 1-1 draw in Honduras thanks to Bobby Wood". SB Nation.
  7. ^ Baxter, Kevin (October 6, 2017). "Christian Pulisic leads 4-0 U.S. rout of Panama in key World Cup qualifier". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ French, Scott (November 19, 2014). "The Shot Heard 'Round the World: 25 years later, Paul Caligiuri recalls goal that changed US soccer forever". Major League Soccer.
  9. ^ "Dad, I did it: Strike Squad member's son scores revenge on US". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  10. ^ Goff, Steven (October 9, 2017). "A solid result vs. Trinidad separates U.S. from a World Cup berth. That, and a moat". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ "U.S.'s World Cup qualifier in Trinidad set for 10,000-seat stadium". ESPN. 15 September 2017.
  12. ^ Press, Ronald Blum | The Associated (October 9, 2017). "Rain-soaked field the latest obstacle for U.S. in reaching World Cup".
  13. ^ a b c ‘WHAT ARE WE DOING?!’ Taylor Twellman's full rant on the USMNT missing the World Cup | ESPN Archive on YouTube
  14. ^ a b Caley, Michael (October 11, 2017). "The Worst Loss In The History Of U.S. Men's Soccer". FiveThirtyEight.
  15. ^ "Phantom goal helps Panama beat Costa Rica, qualify for WC over U.S." ESPN. 10 October 2017.
  16. ^ "World Cup 2018: Panama declares public holiday after qualifying". BBC. October 11, 2017.
  17. ^ Marshall, Tom (10 October 2017). "Mexico falls to Honduras, fails to do U.S. favor in World Cup qualifying". ESPN.
  18. ^ Nathan, Alec (October 10, 2017). "Honduras Defeats Mexico to Qualify for 2018 World Cup Playoff vs. Australia". Bleacher Report.
  19. ^ Lauletta, Tyler. "The United States is out of the 2018 World Cup with embarrassing loss". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  20. ^ "Woeful USA fail to make 2018 World Cup after loss to Trinidad & Tobago". The Guardian. 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  21. ^ "USA's World Cup failure was a catastrophe years in the making". The Guardian. 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  22. ^ What went wrong for the USMNT? | ESPN FC on YouTube
  23. ^ a b USMNT miss out on 2018 World Cup ● Taylor Twellman epic rant on US Soccer on YouTube
  24. ^ "Ex-USMNT player Taylor Twellman bashes U.S. soccer's World Cup failure in epic rant". For The Win. 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  25. ^ "Former USMNT player Taylor Twellman isn't impressed by Bruce Arena's resignation". For The Win. 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  26. ^ Iceland's in the World Cup. The U.S. is not. Unacceptable.
  27. ^ "USMNT World Cup failure gets blasted by Taylor Twellman in ESPN rant". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
  28. ^ Taylor Twellman says there's an 'arrogance' to the U.S. men's soccer team | SportsCenter | ESPN on YouTube
  29. ^ Taylor Twellman: 'We cannot do soccer the American way' | SVP | ESPN on YouTube
  30. ^ "The worst USMNT match crushed a near-certain World Cup run in 1 day | 2017 USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago" – via www.youtube.com.
  31. ^ Liburd, Lasana (11 October 2017). "Mr Jones stuns USA! America's W/Cup dreams drown in river of tears at Couva". Wired868. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  32. ^ Mohammed, Susan (10 October 2017). "Jack feels like partying". Trinidad Express Newspapers. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  33. ^ Hidalgo, Amado (10 October 2017). "Opinión: Los fantasmas del minuto 90". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  34. ^ "ESPN.com.mx on Twitter". Twitter. ESPN Deportes. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  35. ^ Tamayo, Alexis (10 October 2017). "MisterChip (Alexis) on Twitter". Twitter (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  36. ^ Das, Andrew (October 11, 2017). "United States Misses World Cup for First Time Since 1986" – via NYTimes.com.
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