The United States failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 after losing to Trinidad & Tobago and a controversial goal for Panama.<\/p>\n
The US started the night in the third qualifying place but ended up fifth after losing 2-1.<\/p>\n
Panama jumped up to third after an 88th-minute winner against Costa Rica to reach their first World Cup finals.<\/p>\n
However, it was their opening goal that caused debate with Gabriel Torres’ header not appearing to cross the line.<\/p>\n
The 52nd-minute equaliser came from a corner with Torres’ effort hitting the post and as Blas Perez tried to force the ball over the line, Ticos defender Ronald Matarrita looked to have cleared it.<\/p>\n
However, despite complaints from the visitors, referee Walter Lopez of Guatemala gave the goal.<\/p>\n
Honduras beat already-qualified group winners Mexico to also leapfrog the US and secure fourth spot in the table and a two-leg play-off against Australia.<\/p>\n
The US beat Panama 4-0 just last Friday but, despite playing a Trinidad & Tobago side with just three points from nine games before kick-off, never looked close to securing a place in Russia.<\/p>\n
“We had everything there for us,” coach Bruce Arena said.<\/p>\n
“We failed on the day. No excuses. We failed today. We should have walked off this field with at least a point. We should not be staying at home for this World Cup and I take responsibility.”<\/p>\n
Omar Gonzalez stretched to cut out a cross and only succeeded in steering the ball past veteran goalkeeper Tim Howard, before Alvin Jones rocketed in a superb 35-yard strike to double the hosts’ lead.<\/p>\n
Borussia Dortmund teenager – and star of the win in Panama – Christian Pulisic gave the US hope soon after the restart with a fine long-range goal of his own, but with Honduras beating Mexico it looked like a play-off place for the States.<\/p>\n
And then, with time running out in Panama City, Torres – who plays his club football in Seattle – latched on to a long ball forwards and smashed in off the crossbar to send Panama through and leave the US in the wilderness.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 after losing to Trinidad & Tobago and a controversial goal for Panama. The US started the night in the third qualifying place but ended up fifth after losing 2-1. Panama jumped up to third after an 88th-minute winner against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[800,594,338],"class_list":["post-360961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-panama","tag-us","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=360961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}