So, here we discuss notable team which failed to make to the World Cup at the moment. Let me start this list:
Netherland
Chile
USA
Wales
Slovakia

So yeah, pretty gutted for those team, feel like they would have had their place in the world cup... feel free to add more as time goes by. :(

Somalia :'(

You forgot to mention the great San Marino, come on Emobot. Also, who thinks Mexico let Honduras get the 3 points? lol I didn't watch that game but it's food for thought :p In any case, it's the United States' fault for not getting the job done against Trinidad and Tobago. That should have been an easy win.

My friends been teasing over wales doing better than england in euros. Time to get revenge👊👊👊

something is wrong when I see Panama directly qualified into WC while much better teams are already out :(. Also how tf did USA fuck so badly?

Europe deserves few more spots imo. Really sad what happened to Syria but I like Australia more and wanna see Cahill on one more tournament so it has positive side too. USA is also shit, pretty much. Can't really see why they fired Klinsmann and put this guy I don't even know who is.

something is wrong when I see Panama directly qualified into WC while much better teams are already out :(. Also how tf did USA **** so badly?

I literally have no idea. Jurgen K f*cked up early, and we were in forth and in danger of not qualifying, so he got fired and replaced with Arena, who got 2 wins, and then 2 draws, and everyone was really nervous for the Panama game earlier, but we crushed them 4-0. A draw would've gotten the USA in. A loss would've gotten us in, as long as Panama didn't beat Costa Rica AND Honduras didn't beat Mexico. It was so much of a sure thing I didn't even watch the game, I just went to sleep.

I'm not sure I've ever had a worse feeling that opening footyroom this morning, and seeing on the second line of videos that the USA lost. There was a moment of panic, but then it was offset by rationalizing, yeah well at least one of Costa Rica or Mexico will handle business. When I scrolled down to the third line of videos and saw what was there, my heart dropped right out of my chest.

How could this have happened. How does literally the same team that beat Panama 4-0 a few days ago lose TO TRINIDAD FUCKING TOBAGO? WE NEVER FUCKING LOSE TO THEM. EVER! THIS USA TEAM IS BETTER THAN ANY TEAM WE'VE EVER HAD BEFORE, WE HAVE CHRISTIAN FUCKING PULISIC WHO LOOKS LIKE HE MIGHT GROW TO BE OUR FINEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME AND WE CAN'T BEAT TRINIDAD FUCKING TOBAGO?

Bruce Arena can go to hell. Jurgen Klinsmann can go to hell. Omar Gonzalez can never suit up for the national team again.

This goes beyond pride, or even the World Cup. Soccer is growing in the USA, big time. More children play soccer than any other sport. But the only time you can get the people who don't see the appeal of the game on board is when the World Cup comes around and they get swept away by their die hard patriotism. The whole country watches. Not having that in 2018 is going to leave a group of kids uninspired, a group of investors wary, and a the whole fan fan base beyond distraught. It cannot be put into words how much this is going to hurt the sport in this country.

If the Netherlands miss the World Cup, it's an embarrassment. If the USA misses the World Cup, the sport suffers. People will try to find positives, either in the picture of national team reform or youth development. I don't care. The positives do not even come close to outweighing the negatives.

On a final note, as far as I'm concerned, every male player on the field today can forward their paychecks to the women's team. I don't care how much more attention the men get, the women can win a World Cup, and you fucking losers can't even qualify for one.

USA not in the world cup just sounds wrong

Why cant trump just forget about walls and work on national team...

@Sun Feel bad man, expected you to be mad about it but when you put it like that, I feel even worse. Especially when I consider USA like a second home national team in a way. :(

@nigelpayne I really get what you mean. :(

@Yvan Don't you mean Gibraltar?

It's really sad to not see the Netherlands this time, but it's deserving, unlike Chile.

liomessi10

Why cant trump just forget about walls and work on national team..

LOL! That was soo funny! Take my plus +1!

SunFlash

If the Netherlands miss the World Cup, it's an embarrassment. If the USA misses the World Cup, the sport suffers

So, if a team makes it into the round of 16, a final and a semi final doesn't make it, it's embarrassing. I agree. But a team that has made it to the group stages and the round of 16 in the last 3 world cups is considered to not be much difference to the worldwide sport. The sport in America suffer yes, but not worldwide.

Also, football was never a well known sport in America. Who's America's best player of all time, and compare it to the Netherland's best player of all time. The one who practically improved and had a massive change to modern football, development of la masia players, total football, and highly respected by others. I understand your pissed about America not qualifying, but don't compare yourselves to us for even one second.

The sport in America suffer yes, but not worldwide.

I realize now that I didn't say that specifically, but it's what I meant. If your ego is small you couldn't get that from context, that's honestly just disappointing. Sorry for wasting your precious time with my grief.

EDIT: You know what, f*ck it, I'm doubling down. I thought about this for a minute and if the Dutch team misses the world cup, the sport will remain a mainstay in the country. You will still produce youth products, you will still have an expanding league, the sport is just ingrained within the Dutch culture. The Netherlands have given the sport a lot in the past, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future, regardless of if you went to Russia or not.

That's not the case in America. If you think the vast resources, population, and sheer power of American culture have nothing to offer the sport, you're kidding yourself. The USA not qualifying for the World Cup hurts the sport BADLY in this country, and with the potential it has to offer the world, the entire sport suffers as a result. Youth soccer won't get as much funding if people aren't inspired by a national team. Kids won't think about turning pro, or prioritize other sports. Investors will get nervous about the domestic league and any future national team sponsorship.

Let me use this analogy - if the Netherlands misses the World Cup, it's a major ego hit, and embarrassment. If a team like the Toronto Blue Jays wins the World Series, and does so with mostly non-American players, no one for a second would worry about baseball in America. It's just a part of who they are. That's what soccer is trying to be, and it isn't yet. Missing the World Cup is catastrophic for this evolution in culture. Long-term, the Dutch national team will be fine, popularity in the sport will remain high, and the domestic league will continue to grow. Those are not givens in the United States right now.

I'm not too worried about the domestic league, ironically while making the USA better at the sport, it did the same for everyone around us. Panama qualified above the USA with a squad nearly entirely composed of MLS players. Ditto Hondorus. Costa Rica also have mainstays in their starting 11 who play here. All these players would've been playing in whatever shitty domestic league is present in those countries, MLS' existence has noticeably raised the bar in CONCACAF. That being said, the national team has no one to blame but themselves. With those players, and in arguably the easiest region in the world to qualify from, not making the World Cup is a complete and utter failure.

I think what Sunflash was saying is that football in Netherlands is very well established with their past history and success, so that when they miss the world cup it's an embarrassment, but beyond that, it doesn't do much to their footballing culture because it already has strong roots supporting it. However, for the USA it is also embarrassing, but more than that it is a missed chance at continuing the upward trend in popularity that's been taking place over the last years.
Living in the US, you really do get to experience that when the world cup comes around, you see people from all walks of life actually watching the games of the US and supporting them even if those people are not avid football viewers. This time that atmosphere won't be there and it's quite sad.

@Yvan21

Also, who thinks Mexico let Honduras get the 3 points?

If USA beats Trinidad and Tobago, they would be 3rd on the CONCACAF table and qualified.
Thing is, they shouldn't have drawed against Panama and Honduras and lost against Trinidad and Tobago.
I also think firing Klinsmann was a wrong move.
They can only blame themselves. =/

@Sunflash 100% agree, yes, its problematic for Netherland to miss WC. But they will still produce some of the best youth, most of your player will still get worldwide visibility thanks to CL (one of Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord will alway play the competition) and their country already has so many good politic concerning the sport. People from Netherland won't stop following and enjoying the sport if its team miss the World Cup. We need people who will get interested and passionate about the sport in this country, no, in this continent. If their team don't participate in World Cup, there is a serious risk some possible lover and fan from America will never get into the sport. :(

Firstly, I feel sad for Chile, they must feel broken after going out by a tiny goal difference, they have slowly lost the control over their own destiny maybe due to the high level of play and good results over a long period of time as the same squad, hopefully Vidal will come back from retirement before he ends his career.

Then I got really suprised that USA lost their last game because it was against the worst team of the group, I think they as a whole organisation did poorly to establish a team because their key players aged, Dempsey is 34 years old for example so they lack a leader to pull the team when needed since Donovan retired from the national team, US needs to use this time to make that transition from one generation to another now. I think they will come back strong.

Finally, I'm happy that Holland is out even though everyone knew they were out before the last game now that it's official it was sweet to see Robben that dived in the last World Cup to get kicked out in such a way where he did everything right and still it wasn't enough, now he knows how it feels and with that bitter feeling he retired.

From the remaining teams fighting for a spot, I hope to see Italy qualifying, without them the Worldcup would miss the classic feel to it.

@Golazo You could say your happy that Netherland is out because of how Robben dived against Mexico, you don't need to be subtle or to try to hide it, at least, be sincere, it would make it look better imo. :( Otherwise, it make it annoying to see someone wishing bad thing to a team because a single one of their player dived at a few important game. Beside, when a player dive and get his way, I alway thought its a bit more in the hand of the ref who was manipulated, nearly every player dive, nothing to do about it...

But anyway, the true good news is that despite what he said, Vidal confirmed he will keep playing for Chile if they call him. Agree that Italy missing WC would be even more dramatic. :(

FIFA games do fine job of advertising football to US population. United States not qualifying isn't catastrophy but yes a big deal because primarily loosing a place to Panama was rediculous. This should be a wake up call for MLS and a call for improvement. Something like what Germans did after their failures in WC and now look at the results: champions of the world with abundance of talented and world class players.

I thought it was cruel that Chile and Slovakia didn't qualify and somehow Argentina did because they were crap for quiet sometime but World Cup without Messi wouldn't have been the same so there you won't miss him fan boys.

Holland has only themselves to blame. Amean come on! They had everything in their hands and they clearly had quality to beat any team into the group. Verdict: Shame. Shame on them.

Wales unfortunate was struck by Arsenal players syndrome. Ramsey is the man I think has more ego than football sense. I put the blame on him.

United States not qualifying isn't catastrophy but yes a big deal because primarily loosing a place to Panama was rediculous. This should be a wake up call for MLS and a call for improvement.

As I noted earlier, if anything it shows how good MLS is. Panama did this with a team of essentially entirely MLS players. Same with Hondorus. Costa Rica and Mexico both have 3-4 keys starters that also play in the league. It's a kick in the ass for youth development, sure. But most of the league didn't even have "free" academies until a few years ago. The pay-for-play model that was in place for a long time and still is in most of the country is retarded and imo the single biggest factor why the USA doesn't produce prospects in the way that a nation addicted to sports and success should.

That being said, Mexico needed a playoff to qualify last time around, if I remember right. CONCACAF is a weird place, passion runs really high in all of the smaller teams. The USA doesn't really expect to win games away (and neither does Mexico). It's losing at home that's inexcusable, and that happened to the US this cycle.

I've ranted a lot on this topic (congratulations, something I am really passionate about) but I think my biggest issue is that the talent was there. This USA team is easily better than the one we had four years ago. But Jurgen Klinsmann, in trying to make American soccer more technical, classy, pretty, whatever you want to call it, removed the one thing we always had going for us - effort. He created a team that was very technical, could play the game "the way it is supposed to be played" to use his words, but he also removed all the grit, all the desire, and all the hustle. You can still see it in the players who played big roles before him - Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard are good examples. For the players that really spent the majority of their national team careers under him, you could think that they forgot they were playing for their country. It's 2-1, you need a goal to go to the world cup, it's the 85th minute, and Michael Bradley is jogging to take a corner kick. For real? Sprint the fuck over there you pos!

Bruce Arena was no better. He played with a casual disrespect for smaller teams, not understanding that in the ten years since he'd last coached the national team, Central America (mostly via the MLS) had hugely improved. We took draws where we didn't need to, and then the soul-crushing loss that knocked us out of the world cup. Have a bit of humility Bruce, seriously.

But pinning it to one manager, player, or even administrator is missing the point. Making the World Cup is such a given for the USA, that a failure such as this requires a grand overview of the entire program, from top to bottom. You can't mathematically make the the World Cup for another 5 years. I'm not joking when I say that I don't want to see anyone over the age of 27 called up to the national team for the next year. What's the point? No one gives two shits about the Gold Cup or the Confederations Cup. The fact that Bruce Arena and the president of the federation haven't handed in their resignations yet is a joke. Chile misses the World Cup, and everyone sees it as the failure it is, and resigns. In the US federation? "We don't need to make wholesale changes because a few shots missed by a few inches." I'm not joking. Our retarded federation president actually said that. And if he can't comprehend that it was MONTHS of failure that led up to that Trinidad game, he doesn't have the capacity to lead the sport in this country. It never should have come down to that game in the first place.

Panama does not deserve to be in the WC. They beat Costa Rica 2-1 with the help of a ghost goal. The ball wasn't even close to crossing the goal line yet the ref called an inexplicable goal.

It's known now that either Italy or Sweden will miss the World Cup.
Somehow Sweden gets these bigger teams like Portugal and Italy in the playoffs but they still are probably pleased to have gone this far in one of the harder groups since they had to fight with France and Holland. First game will be played in Stockholm, it's still a question who will have the upper hand of that.