With an eighth consecutive World Cup in sight, the U.S. has now been sacked from the qualifiers. Embarrassingly.

Last night’s play-by-play against Trinidad and Tobago ended in a crushing 2-1 defeat, just one point shy of getting the draw needed to advance forward.

It’s no secret that American soccer players struggle in a two-class system, with top salaries and attention having gone to foreign players for decades. But what cost the U.S. World Cup entry for the first time since 1986? We check in with two sports journalists to give us the breakdown of what happened, and what this means for the future of stateside football.

Guests:

Avi Creditor, soccer editor for SportsIllustrated.com; he tweets @AviCreditor

Jeré Longman, sports writer who covers international sports for New York Times; he reports mostly on Olympic sports and soccer; he’s been following the story