By: Caleb Leon @1788Sports @LeonCaleb

It is 10:08pm eastern time. I have a mostly empty bowl of popcorn next to me. My girlfriend is pretending to study on the other end of the sofa (she is probably cruising instagram for funny memes to cheer me up). When we first started 1788 Sports, we started with a simple goal, be the best damn sports blog Georgia has ever seen. And that is still the goal, tonight though… tonight is a different animal.

Tomorrow morning I will get up and go to work, clock in for my shift and mix and mingle with prospective college students and my life will continue as normal. It will be as if nothing has changed and nothing is different. But, it will feel different.

When I was about six years old my parents told us we could pick any sport to play and they would sign us up. My brother wanted to play soccer, he is three years my elder and I wanted to be just like him, so of course I wanted to play too. I played until the age of eight and then took a few years off, I came back to the game at age twelve and was obsessed. I wasn’t the best runner or passer of the ball, I always came in last when we would do sprints or mile runs. But, playing soccer meant the world to me. I always wanted to be like guys I saw playing, guys like Matt Reis, Tim Howard, Edwin van der Sar if I could play like them maybe I could make a world cup squad one day. Obviously, that dream did not happen, and that is ok.

I loved watching the USMNT on TV, I remember getting eliminated by Ghana in 2010, I made my parents plan an entire Disney World vacation around the matches (FYI Epcot does not have a sports bar in the American section), and I would stay up late and watch the postgame coverage. In 2014 I stood in my childhood home wearing a USA hat and jersey that my sister had given to me for Christmas the year before while she was serving the Air Force in Iraq. I’m pretty sure I screamed for twenty minutes straight when Dempsey opened the scoring against Ghana and I screamed longer when John Brooks got the game winning goal.

In 2018 I will be not scream. I will not yell. I will not feel passion. I am finally like the great players I have come to admire, because we will all be watching the World Cup on television.

The USMNT has failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. That is a weird sentance to write. For the first time in my life, the United States will not be present at the World Cup and that is a shame. It is an embarrassment. I do not want to hear excuses. The USMNT should be ashamed of the level of play they brought tonight and throughout this campaign. How hard is it to must a ninety minute performance when your World Cup dreams are on the line? Who are you playing for? Why are they not playing for the little chubby kid in Georgia, or the hot shot up and comer in Texas? Why are you not building something better for your children, for your families and for the future of Soccer in the United States?

For the future of the USMNT playing their hearts out at the U-17 World Cup in Indian, take note. This is NOT what a team representing the United States should look like. Tonight, we demand better.

To the players: be ashamed of yourselves. Be better. Do better.

To the coaching staff: Be ashamed of yourselves. Be Better. DO Better.

To Bruce Arena: Be ashamed of yourself. Be Better. Do. Better.

To Sunil Gulati: Be ashamed of yourself. Be. Better. Do. Better.

To US Soccer: Be ashamed of yourself. BE. BETTER. DO. BETTER.

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