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Numb.
Can’t shake that feeling. Wondering if a soccer match can cause post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Frightening thoughts - Check.
- Negative thoughts about oneself or the world - Check.
- Loss of interest in enjoyable activities - Check.
And it’s only been 12 hours. I’ll get back to you in a month.
But seriously, I have been searching for a silver lining for the absolute debacle that is that the United States Men’s National Team has been eliminated from the 2018 World Cup.
Final #Concacaf standings ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/9sfx9e7iOp
— Juan Direction (@JuanDirection58) October 11, 2017
This silver lining has proved elusive.
Yet amongst the ashes there was a tweet that caught my eye. Simple, yet effective. Most importantly giving hope in our time of need. Here goes:
Its brutal I know but soccer in USA will continue to grow & the mens national team will ultimately become stronger due to the 2018 failure
— Merritt Paulson (@MerrittPaulson) October 11, 2017
Now you may be saying, “What is this?” or even “Burn it Down.” And you may be right.
However, maybe we should all just take a step back and breathe for a minute. Today there are going to be hundreds of articles posted on topics such as “What Went Wrong with the USMNT?” and “Who’s to Blame for the United States not reaching the World Cup?”
All I’m suggesting is that we all step back give this a few days to settle in.
It looks as if there will be a paradigm shift in how the United States Soccer Federation will be operating. It’s time to be proactive by thinking and having conversations of ways to improve so that this never happens again rather than being reactive by blasting the USSF and not moving forward to figure out this mess.
If you have to let off some steam - I get it. But please remember that the legacy of US Soccer should not be about complaining and criticizing what has already happened, rather, we all now need to look and plan for the future.