US fails to qualify for World Cup 2018

[heatcharger]

Glad to see the USMNT boycott Russia. #Resist

[vanguard96]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I was a big Brazil fan in the 80's - Zico, Socrates, Falcao...

Only a few times did that happen for me with England and Ireland a tad though they got to the same stage in 1994 and I cared little for them in 1990. I've never particularly rooted for Scotland though I'd prefer them to say Germany, France, Italy, Argentina, or Spain but for others it would depend on the year. Of course I have my wife's native country and my former residence, Japan as another team this time around. But no Netherlands a sentimental favorite. Will it be Brazil this time when the Japanese falter, an African team, S. Korea, England, somewhere else?

2018 of the qualified teams
Japan #1
Others I sort of like and could see supporting when Japan gets knocked out: Brazil, S. Korea, England, Nigeria, Iceland, Colombia
Neutral: Iran, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Egypt, Serbia, Portugal, France, Germany, Uruguay, Russia, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal
Don't like: Argentina, Saudi Arabia

Of the Intercontinental playoff teams:
Sort of like: Australia, rest neutral

Of the Euro 2nd place teams
Sort of like: Ireland, rest neutral

So unless its Brazil - a team I am neutral toward or worse (Argentina) will win the world cup.

[vanguard96]

The Netherlands also didn't qualify, and we have a much better track record than the US when it comes to association football. Heck, even Argentina almost didn't qualify. If Argentina hadn't won against Ecuador we would have had a World Cup without the runners-up (Argentina) and number 3 (the Netherlands) of the previous World Cup . Anyway, the Netherlands also failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 2016 (we finished below f**ing Iceland) so this was to be expected.

Gutted for you, mate. I always appreciated the Dutch soccer teams.
And I can't stand Argentina. Goes way back to the 80's for me.
There's hope still that the Azzurri can be companions in misery with USA, Chile, and the Dutch!

[vanguard96]

Welp, German posters: I will officially be devoting my entire rooting interest to you guys!

Definitely rooting against the Germans repeat unless it is again in the final vs Argentina - the only acceptable result... France, Brazil, Italy, Spain any of these repeaters are preferable to them for me.

[vanguard96]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Are you an Italian?

Who do you think they will play in the playoffs? I am sure they will get a cushy matchup and just barely make it or a tough one on paper and fly through it. Then make it far into the WC finals.

Part of me wants to see them crash out as I was hoping for Argentina (my least favorite major soccer power) to give a lesser chance of a repeat champion / finalist. Of course a WC without the Azzuri is hard to envision.

That's a pretty naive view that there are no American citizens cheering for the US or as Santander put it that it was limited to liberal white Cub fan types in cities like Chicago and KC. Stereotype much

Santender insinuating that the Cubs have a more liberal fan base than the average MLB team is hilarious in its own right.

For all the liberal fans the team's itself is a huge republican donor - not quite Fahr Group but very hefty and heavily right wing.

[vanguard96]

Trump karma.

I will admit I've been rooting against the USMNT since the election.

So that he would not get a chance to use the US team for political grandstanding for the World Cup in Putin-land?

I guess you are not a fan...

[Alabama_Indy10]

Trump karma.

I will admit I've been rooting against the USMNT since the election.

Who cares.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Their is certainly no causation to this but still some weird correlation when you compare USA performance involving the World Cup and that years midterm performance.  
From 1982 onward:

-When the USA advances out of the group stage of the World Cup;that years midterm tends to lean Republican to varying degrees.

-When the USA fails to advance out of the group stage or fails to qualify for the World Cup; that years midterm tends to lean democratic to varying degrees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_men%27s_national_soccer_team#FIFA_World_Cup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_midterm_election

[100% pro-life no matter what]

We won the World Baseball Classic and had the most dominating Summer Olympics (in terms of medal count) ever over the past year or so.  I like that trade and won't lose any sleep over this (and wouldn't have watched anyway because soccer is the one sport I don't like).  Actually, this might be good for me because I won't have to hear soccer talk all summer, although I never like to see the US lose at anything!

[KingSweden]

Last night was disgraceful. Gulati and Arena need to be shown the door, but they keep the MLS sycophants happy so they won't go anywhere

[Leinad]

I could write about the tactical failures, player selection failures, and sheer lack of motivation of everyone except Pulisic beyond the post limit, but it would probably be lost to most people on a political forum. So I'll speak to the broader issue: complete failure in youth development. Soccer is a rich kids sport in the US, you'll never get anywhere like that. This is why an entire half-decade, the early 90s, which is in their prime, only developed 3-4 good players. MLS only started caring about academies recently. USSF is sitting on $100 million while most people can't afford to do what kids in poor countries do for nothing: play soccer. You don't need to be an economics professor at Columbia like Sunil Gulati to tell you that's stupid.

Trump karma.

I will admit I've been rooting against the USMNT since the election.

Cool, then you're an idiot.

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Yeah but what if you have English ancestry...

[Leinad]

Last night was disgraceful. Gulati and Arena need to be shown the door, but they keep the MLS sycophants happy so they won't go anywhere

Most MLS fans are really pissed at the US being eliminated, and Arena was a stop-gap anyway. But yeah Gulati will probably end up staying because of the financial side, if that's what you're talking about.

[HillGoose]

well that's disappointing.

[RINO Tom]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I think people generally think it's cooler to cheer for a team they have some connection to, however small.  I am mostly German and part Swedish, so I cheer for those teams.  As for the no non-White friends, it's kind of a product of living in Iowa, LOL.  It's incredibly White.

[IceAgeComing]

Welcome to my world!

[Fight for Trump]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I think people generally think it's cooler to cheer for a team they have some connection to, however small.  I am mostly German and part Swedish, so I cheer for those teams.  As for the no non-White friends, it's kind of a product of living in Iowa, LOL.  It's incredibly White.

I always try to keep at least one black friend so I can use the black friend defense.

[RINO Tom]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I think people generally think it's cooler to cheer for a team they have some connection to, however small.  I am mostly German and part Swedish, so I cheer for those teams.  As for the no non-White friends, it's kind of a product of living in Iowa, LOL.  It's incredibly White.

I always try to keep at least one black friend so I can use the black friend defense.

Been searching for about a decade now.

[vanguard96]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I think people generally think it's cooler to cheer for a team they have some connection to, however small.  I am mostly German and part Swedish, so I cheer for those teams.  As for the no non-White friends, it's kind of a product of living in Iowa, LOL.  It's incredibly White.

I always try to keep at least one black friend so I can use the black friend defense.

Been searching for about a decade now.

Iowa. But your profile has Illinois. Did you move there?

[vanguard96]

Welcome to my world!

Belgium made it and Netherlands didn't. Significant.

Of course the talent and potential of the Red Devils has not borne fruit thus far - and the 1986 4th place is still their highest WC result. Can they do better than a quarterfinals loss? I'd think if they run into a champion pedigree team they will lose. If the match-ups shake their way perhaps a semifinals is not out of line - but given what happened in 2016 even that consideration where a lot of people saw their draw and Portugal's form and had them down as a finalist - and they failed miserably vs. Wales.

Is Hazard still going to be the captain? I never really thought he was captain material - and it keys from the person they put at the helm to the whole attitude of the team especially under adversity...yes, enough talent to beat the teams they should beat but not to run the gauntlet and win against the elite sides like over-matched on paper teams like Portugal, Uruguay, and Chile have shown in other tournaments past. Looking at his international career pretty much all of his goals have come against non-elite teams or in non-pressure situations - a much better club player.

[RINO Tom]

Imagine the panic going on with Fox and the other American sponsors. Fox spent $400 million to get the broadcasting rights for this and was planning to make this World Cup the "biggest programming event in Fox's history." That money is going down the drain. Think they'll still be showing 350 hours of soccer with no US in it?

What American citizen is actually cheering for America though? I've never met a US fan.

Even though this is obviously a joke (and the game watches for US World Cup games last time around were actually really big and fun every bar I went to!), I think every single one of my friends cheers for an "ancestral" European team if/when the US gets eliminated, LOL.

Really, always the ancestral teams? No non-white friends? No Messi or Brazil lovers?

I think people generally think it's cooler to cheer for a team they have some connection to, however small.  I am mostly German and part Swedish, so I cheer for those teams.  As for the no non-White friends, it's kind of a product of living in Iowa, LOL.  It's incredibly White.

I always try to keep at least one black friend so I can use the black friend defense.

Been searching for about a decade now.

Iowa. But your profile has Illinois. Did you move there?

Yes, born in Peoria and live in Iowa City.  My friends here still think of me as "their friend from Illinois," my whole family lives there, all of my sports teams (including college) are from IL, etc.

[Fight for Trump]

Yes, born in Peoria and live in Iowa City.  My friends here still think of me as "their friend from Illinois," my whole family lives there, all of my sports teams (including college) are from IL, etc.

Because you act like it.

[RINO Tom]

Yes, born in Peoria and live in Iowa City.  My friends here still think of me as "their friend from Illinois," my whole family lives there, all of my sports teams (including college) are from IL, etc.

Because you act like it.

Eh, little more to it than that, guy.  My friends are a lot nicer and smarter than you, and don't think in such simplistic and black and white ways.  Mostly because of the sports teams and little things like saying "soda" instead of pop.  However, I know there is only so much to troll on this site, so I won't take this personally; I hate being bored, too.

[mvd10]

Anyway, I'll be cheering for Belgium or Poland I suppose

[Leinad]

Anyway, I'll be cheering for Belgium or Poland I suppose

I guess Peru for me (presuming they beat New Zealand). Or maybe just whoever Mexico plays. Honestly the Dutch probably would've been my fall-back had you guys not f'd it up, too!

[bagelman]

Yeah but what if you have English ancestry...

Root for England? They're qualified this year.