Recap: Trinidad and Tobago 2 - 1 USMNT (2018 World Cup Qualifier)

All the United States needed just a point and they would advance.

That didn’t happen tonight, it also didn’t help that Mexico lost to Honduras and a late goal by Panama that would seal the USMNT fate. The team showed little to no life on the pitch Tuesday night and it showed in the boxscore.

From the first whistle you could tell things were off with the U.S. and it would be the story for the whole match. I’m not going into large details, to be honest it’s hard to write this recap. T&T would score twice in the first half to seal the win, Christian Pulisic would get one back thanks to a Nagbe pass in the second half.

After that as much as they tried to push, nothing was going right - including a Clint Dempsey shot that went off the post in the second half. This is the first time since 1986 that the U.S. have failed to qualify for the World Cup.

Final Score: Trinidad & Tobago 2 - 1 United States

Darlington Nagbe

This was not the type of match that Nagbe should have been a part of, just wasn’t suited to his style of play. The pitch was trash to begin with, though he would assist on the United States only goal of the night. At one point it seemed that they wanted to give the ball to Nagbe and stand back to see what he would do with it.

Every player on the team is culpable for this loss. Nagbe for his part was mostly absent for the evening popping up now and then with a smart pass or possession to keep the National Team going - but it wasn’t enough. He’d then fall of the radar again.

He would be subbed off in the 83rd minute for Benny Feilhaber.

Player Rating: 5.5/10

I feel like I’m being a bit generous here but he did have an assist on the lone goal by Christian Pulisic. The bright side about all of this is, he returns to the Timbers without suffering a injury and hopefully ready to lead the green and gold to the playoffs.