The United States men’s national team has failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup this summer in Russia, marking the first time in 30 years the U.S. will miss the World Cup finals. Going into the last game of the CONCACAF qualifying round Tuesday night against a last place Trinidad and Tobago team that had long been out of the qualification race, a win would have guaranteed a trip to Russia and a tie would have made it virtually impossible for the U.S. to miss out on the final. The best the U.S. could do was a catatonic 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago. Miraculously, the U.S. still could have gone through with a loss—coupled with a Honduras and Panama loss—which looked possible late, but both teams pulled out victories, plunging the U.S. to fifth place.

Tuesday’s loss wrapped up a generally shambolic World Cup qualifying campaign that will surely raise serious—and legitimate—questions about the state and future of American soccer. The Americans never looked particularly good during a qualification effort that saw Jürgen Klinsmann get fired midway, after the U.S. seemed to have completely lost its way under his leadership. Former U.S. coach Bruce Arena was brought in to try to steady the ship enough to ensure advancing to the World Cup, but the team, despite moments of improved play, remained inconsistent at best and overmatched at worst.

Not really sure what else to say about the U.S.' calamitous effort. So I'll leave you with Taylor Twellman on the U.S.' overall deficiencies as a program.