The United States is not going to the World Cup. In a rather remarkable turn of events, the USMNT went from looking comfortable to at least get into a playoff against Australia to completely out thanks to their 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago combined with Panama and Honduras both scoring upsets on the final day of qualifying.
Even after the USA went down 2-0 on an own goal and an amazing long-distance strike, qualification seemed reasonably secure. That’s because Honduras and Panama both went into halftime trailing their games. The USA’s hopes were further boosted when Christian Pulisic scored in the 47th minute to cut the deficit in half.