When the United States men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup last week, James Sands and his under-17 national team teammates were left in the dark about the result until the morning after.
He didn’t watch Trinidad & Tobago embarrass the US. With the team forfeiting its electronics before curfew each night at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India, Sands and the rest of his teammates knew nothing about arguably the US’ worst ever soccer loss. They found out about the senior men’s team failure over breakfast the next morning when head coach John Hackworth broke the news.