What Bruce Arena got wrong

What the hell just happened?

The United States was eliminated from the World Cup Tuesday when it lost to Trinidad and Tobago on a night when Honduras and Panama both won. The results knocked the U.S. to fifth in its qualifying group and out of the tournament.

It was a shocking, humiliating loss for the Americans, who needed merely a tie against bottom-dwellers T&T to guarantee passage to Russia.

Now the team is out, and a soccer nation is left devastated.

What the hell just happened?

Sure, some blame can be put on Omar Gonzalez, for scoring a howler of an own goal early and committing a clumsy tackle that should have resulted in a penalty moments later. Some will question Tim Howard’s dive on the second goal, a stunner from 40 yards from T&T’s Alvin Jones. Others will blame Jozy Altidore, because people love blaming Jozy Altidore for stuff.

The majority of my questions in the fallout of this match are directed at one man: Bruce Arena. Looking at his tactics, his team selection, the roster he selected for this group, and his quotes after the game, we can begin to start to piece together how the United States suffered perhaps its most humiliating and catastrophic defeat ever.

Did Arena admit as much after the game?

Got it.

So, what the hell just happened?

Let’s begin with a look at Arena’s tactical decisions for the match. Against Panama in the game on Friday, the United States were brilliant in attack, but often looked overrun in midfield, where Michael Bradley was more or less left to fend for himself. The defensive pairing of Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez looked shaky as well, and if Panama had a bit more quality up front, they could have easily scored a goal or two. The U.S. had such brilliance up top with the attacking three of Christian Pulisic, Altidore, and Bobby Wood, though, it didn’t much matter.

But in a do-or-die game away from home three days later, Arena didn’t think to shore things up. He went with the same team in the same formation. Bradley was once again overwhelmed in midfield. The brilliant top three, tired after short rest and shut down by an overloading of T&T defenders, couldn’t muster up the goals that they could at home.

A big difference from last game to this one: Trinidad & Tobago took their chances, while Panama didn’t. In a game that the U.S. just needed to draw to win, played away from home on a sloppy field in hot conditions, why would Arena go in such an attacking formation?

A 5-3-2 with three central defenders (Geoff Cameron and Tim Ream were sitting and waiting on the bench), Yedlin and Villafana as wingbacks, a Bradley-Nagbe-Pulisic midfield, and Wood and Altidore up top may not have been the prettiest soccer, but you’re playing away from home in a can’t-lose game in CONCACAF qualifying. It’s not the time to get pretty.

And all that’s not to mention the team selection, which was not rotated at all. The same lineup is an easy choice for a coach after a big win. Why mess with what works, right? But they were playing three days later, in 80-degree heat on a sloppy, wet field. The United States looked exhausted from the start. The explosive pace of Altidore, Wood, and Pulisic all of a sudden didn’t look so explosive. Nagbe and Arriola, stranded in big gaps in midfield, seemed to run all day and never get anywhere. Bradley looked gassed. Yedlin stopped taking people on. They were tired.

Arena may point to the the waterlogged pitch as an excuse, saying he didn’t know the team’s fitness because they couldn’t properly train at the field ahead of the game. If there’s a doubt about fitness, though, isn’t that why you carry, you know, other players?

Which leads us to our next big issue: What was going on with this roster? The head-scratching moments were several, with Gyasi Zardes being called into the team and then not being replaced when he picked up an injury, and the total exclusion of Fabian Johnson, perhaps the U.S.’s most versatile player. Several other European players were passed over, in favor of more established MLS players. Juan Agudelo was called in as a midfielder (?) for this game, and I love Dax McCarty, but well, he’s Dax McCarty.

The thin squad left Arena with very few options, even if he wanted to rotate it. Clint Dempsey and Kellyn Acosta were ready to go, but after that, where could the U.S. turn? They had Chris Wondolowski there, and while it would have been somewhat poetic for him to get the goal that set the United States through, even Arena wasn’t willing to risk the collective national heart attack that would occur if he missed a sitter in the closing moments. With no other options, Arena turned to Benny Feilhaber as a desperation sub. Feilhaber is a player who’s been unfairly kept out of the USMNT for years, but hardly in the best form of his career.

The United States will have to answer many questions over the coming weeks, months, and years about the state of its soccer program. This is an unmitigated disaster and a major turning point in the history of the game in this country. Arena was a big part of that. He’s still a great coach, and was surely dug a hole by his predecessor, but that doesn’t excuse him from his responsibility for a night of national embarrassment.