Analysis: U.S. men’s national team isn’t showing up in international matches, and neither are its fans

On April 10, CONCACAF will hold a made-for-TV event to conduct the draw for this summer’s Gold Cup, which will hold games at U.S. Bank Stadium in June.

One request: Can the good folks at CONCACAF be sure to send us some teams other than the U.S. men’s national team?

The USMNT has endured bleak eras before, but most of them came in the prehistoric days of U.S. Soccer. The Nations League Finals last weekend, though, were a real throwback to the lost decades: Not only did the U.S. fail, nobody was even in the stands to see it.

The U.S. managed to lose at home to Panama, a reprise of last summer’s depressing exit from Copa América. The Americans followed that up by losing to Canada, again at home, for the first time in a competitive match since 1957.

Put it together with last September’s loss to Canada in a friendly, and it was the first time the USMNT had lost two home games in a row to their northern neighbors since … ever.

The Nations League Finals were the first two high-profile games of Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure as manager of the U.S. men’s team. Gregg Berhalter was fired last summer, after his team lost to Panama at home. Fast-forward a few months and a few million dollars for U.S. Soccer to make its latest attempt at a marquee hire of a world-famous coach, and the U.S. is again losing to Panama at home.

Pochettino ended his postgame news conference after the loss to Canada by saying, “Sorry, guys. We feel shame,” which I’m sure will energize the American fans, whose interest seems to be reaching a low point for the past three decades.

You could see that from the crowds for the U.S. games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. CONCACAF and U.S. Soccer priced the tickets so high that only a few thousand fans saw fit to open their wallets and show up to watch Team USA in the early game, either on Thursday or on Sunday.

Fans in the City of Angels might be famously late-arriving, but in this case, most of the ticket-buyers were late showing up because they really wanted to see a team in the second game: Mexico.

The dutiful loyalty of Mexican fans aside, it should be clear to the continental soccer powers that they have so repeatedly squeezed the purses of American fans that they’ve just about throttled the golden goose.

There’s a reason that CONCACAF holds the Gold Cup every two years, instead of the more traditional four-year cycle of the World Cup and European Championships — and has hosted every single one, in part, in the United States.

It’s the same reason that CONMEBOL, the South American equivalent of the North American and Caribbean governing body, has seen fit to award the U.S. two Copa América tournaments in the past nine years. It’s the same reason that FIFA is hosting the Club World Cup, the tournament that nobody wants to see but somehow no one can avoid, in the United States this summer.

Everybody wants the American ticket-buying public’s cash.

By the time the 2026 World Cup rolls around, the U.S. will be at the end of a four-year cycle in which it’s hosted the FIFA Club World Cup, Copa América, two Gold Cups and three editions of the Nations League Finals.

USMNT die-hards don’t need a passport to see their team in all of its major tournaments — only second, third and fourth jobs.

No, CONCACAF, you can keep the USMNT. Send us Canada instead. They’ve got two Minnesota United players, Dayne St. Clair and Tani Oluwaseyi, and the latter even scored a goal against the U.S. They’ve got Jesse Marsch, an American coach who’s guiding the Canucks into their best form ever.

More importantly, Canada seems to have hope for the future. Right now, with barely 15 months until the World Cup, that’s something that has gone missing from the USMNT.