When soccer holds its world's fair in Russian Federation next June, the American pavilion will be glaringly absent.
Goalkeeper Tim Howard was the only starter against Trinidad & Tobago alive the last time the US failed to qualify for a World Cup - the 1986 edition.
In a 10-minute telephone interview from his home in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Arena addressed several subjects related to what is probably the lowest moment in usa soccer history. Time for a revolution.
After American soccer's Waterloo, the fallout nearly surely will lead to a new coach and possibly a new USSF head.
The USA has played in more World Cups in the last three decades than England, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Portugal or Colombia. It's not on Arena, it's not on Klinsmann, it's not on the United States Soccer Federation, it's all on the players.
"In the nearly 12 years during which Sunil Gulati has been the USSF's president, little or nothing has been done to enhance our prospects", Commisso said in a statement. For us in US Soccer more than a wake-up call.
While fans fulminated over the front office, the next national team coach must instigate a ruthless roster purge. "Players play in clubs", said Arena, who won five MLS Cups during spells in charge of DC United and LA Galaxy. The Americans won't even play a competitive match for almost two years, until the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
A shocked Gulati was measured in his reaction.
"You can lay all the (stuff) you want on the thing", he said. And we lost a game in Trinidad against a team that had nothing to play for. Even despite conceding those two weird goals, we still positioned ourselves to get out of there with a point.
U.S. Soccer claims to be all grown up now, brags about its league and its development academies, so it deserves the same skewering the world's other teams would get if they got tossed from World Cup contention by a 99th-ranked team that was 0-1-8 going into the do-or-die match.
European clubs discovered there was huge money to be made by playing preseason exhibitions across the pond, growing the sport's audience.
U.S. Soccer may not have solved the pay-to-play problem - any parent in America knows that there's a business out there pouncing to capitalize on any endeavor your child may pursue - but it has taken steps that its detractors often do not acknowledge.
With questions starting to be asked as to how far the country's non-attendance in Russian Federation will impact on World Cup commercial commitments, Fox Sports - an important FIFA partner through to 2022 - issued a statement saying: "Last night's World Cup qualifying results do not change FOX Sports' passion for the world's biggest sporting event". "Why is that US Soccer's responsibility?"
"I think there are a number of reasons we're missing the best kids, but the fact is we are missing a lot of the best kids", Donovan said.
That is four years from now, over 1,000 days from now, and it is just crushing.
Ramos started his career with the national team as a player in 1988. Bruce Arena, brought back when Jurgen Klinsmann was sacked last November after a 0-2 start in the hexagonal, figures to depart later this year or next. There have also been calls for the federation to address the way it develops young players after the national team were outclassed by teams with inferior resources and revenue. An interim coach is a possibility.
Despite taking responsibility for the setback, U.S. head coach Bruce Arena said there would be no drastic changes - though he may not be around long enough himself.
"There's nothing wrong with what we're doing", he maintained.
'Certainly, I think if our league [the MLS] continues to grow it benefits the national team program, ' Arena told reporters Tuesday.
He and USSF President Sunil Gulati were on the team charter Wednesday, and "we talked about things", Arena said. Nothing has to change. To make any kind of insane changes I think would be foolish. We all saw that when he directed Leicester City to a dream Premier League title in 2015-16. "We have players playing overseas of some quality", he added.
