some really good teams not making it .. netherlands (maybe?), chile definitely, argentina (maybe?).
TBH, i don't think the US not making it is some catastrophic thing.. man futbol is competitive. The US lost some close games. The US thinks we can dominate everything, expected to even be competitive at futbol, meanwhile US basketball lost in the olympics to Argentina several years ago. To me that is absolutely astonishing compared to US missing out on world cup.
The thing that needs to change I guess, is that our players need to play in europe/south america more, I think. MLS is cool but, home grown futbol success isn't going to happen on the level US fans/analysts expect, need to send players elsewhere. I wonder if the US could every create a team for one of these leagues overseas, and just have it operate like normal. I mean the schedules aren't as intense as say, NBA etc.. more like NFL football type of schedules. Could send teams back and forth. That'd be cool. That real madrid/manchester united game in MIAMI was awesome.
But ya, sucks that I won't be able to root on the US in world cup .. The US had some awesome matches last world cup.