In 1985, the United States Men's National Team failed to qualify for the 1986 World Cup hosted by their southern neighbor Mexico. Three decades later, the USMNT once again has failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. 1986 was excused, but 2018 should have no excuse.

Without a doubt, the United States acceptance and appreciation of soccer has risen drastically. With Major League Soccer (MLS) having expanded since, with games reaching high levels of attendance just this year of roughly 92,000 fans, it's without a doubt that soccer's popularity in the United States has become comparable to the likes of football, basketball and baseball.

Since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, particularity after reaching the Round of 16 under the management of German Jurgen Klinnsman, aspirations for a better future of the USMNT were yet to come. With the women's team having undoubtedly succeeded in the international stage, Americans were hoping that the future would bring the same level of success for the men's as it has been for the women's team (the women's team has already won 3 world cups). The men's team reached a pinnacle level of success in the 2014 World Cup and fans were hoping that the 2018 World Cup would be even better.

But there was one thing standing between the United States and their World Cup success... and that thing was qualifying.

Bruce Arena, after having a disappointing campaign as USMNT coach from 1998 to 2006, was given a chance just last year to bring the United States to the level of success that fans including myself had aspired for.

Forward to today, Arena is now close to losing his job with the USMNT once again after failing to win or even tie against Trinidad and Tobago who are currently ranked #99 in the world, and falling in 5th place in their CONCACAF group behind Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras. What do I think about this? It's a disgrace not only to the U.S. Soccer Federation but to the fans of the sport.

Arena ridiculously said that the CONCACAF was a "survival of the fittest" and that he'd love to see any European "hotshot" team do good in the group. And yet this still does not do justice to represent how incredibly unfit Arena was for the job. No offense to the other nations in the group, but any country with a team as decent as the United States would have no trouble easing through arguably the easiest group in the world cup qualifiers. I don't necessarily blame the players but I do blame Arena, mostly. Since Arena has taken the role of managing the USMNT, the team has played without heart.

I am furious, that veterans of the team like Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley and Tim Howard didn't emerge themselves as being the real leaders of this American team. Rather they all stood back and let 19-year-old Christian Pulisic carry the team forward. Pulisic may arguably be a one-man show for the United States; in fact, he may just be the only player who has played with heart in and out of the pitch for the past few months. The rest of the team has let their fame and millions of dollars get to their heads.

Again, I can't believe what I witnessed, from Arena trying to justify the level of difficulty of his group to the team playing lifelessly on the pitch, it made me feel embarrassed. If a US "legend" like Clint Dempsey was able to sit still throughout the game and then come on and be non-existent, then he isn't truly a leader. Ronaldo and Messi both lead their nation to triumph, while Arena and Dempsey led their nation to arguably the worst time of federation history.

This isn't just a disappointment for soccer but for sports in the United States. Soccer who was on the rise will begin to fall drastically after not having 8 years of true competitive soccer for the United States. Hence I said "true" to distinguish the fact that the U.S. can't think that playing against countries like Trinidad and Tobago is competitive.

We, as fans, have given the United States Men's National Team everything. From publicity to support to their paychecks and to love and they gave us nothing in return. Although we didn't truly expect the U.S. to go to Russia and leave as World Champions, we did expect the United States to give us something to hope for this summer. This isn't just any other trophy. This is the king of all trophies. This is the trophy that distinguishes the best in the world from the rest and just being in the tournament is a privilege. A privilege that the U.S. has proven to us fans that they don't deserve.

This was the heartbreak of the century but at the same time, this was a wake-up call for the team. No, USMNT, we won't accept your apologies for the years to come, because it's un-excusable that we'll be waking up early mornings in the summer and turning on our TVs to Panama's World Cup games without seeing the United States.

In 2014 we were saying "I BELIEVE." In 2018, we'll be saying "I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE NOT THERE."