Soccer News 2016: U.S. Men's Team to Miss Olympics for the Second Straight Time

By Jude Abastar, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, March 31, 2016

For the second time in a row, the U.S. men's soccer squad won't be competing in the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics after succumbing to the under-23 team of South American powerhouse, Colombia, 2-1, in Olympic qualifying. Overall, the Americans lost the playoff between the two teams, 3-2 on aggregate.

Jürgen Klinsmann's team actually played better in their first encounter with Colombia last week, where they were able to put them in cuffs for a 1-1 draw. However, a defensive disaster doomed their chances of advancing to the Olympics when they failed to win this one.

Colombian star Roger Martinez found the back end of the net with his two goals, while the opposing sides' own goal gave the Americans their only score of the match. However, it was Martinez's superb performance that dashed the hopes of the Americans of finally making it this year after failing to qualify four years ago.

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The men's team has so far seen very contrasting developments compared to the women's team, which is currently one of the best in the world and is already qualified for Rio after romping over competition back in February.

According to Salt Lake Tribune, the ejection of two players on the American side also didn't help the team, with Luis Gil and Matt Miazga thrown out due to separate infractions. Colombia for its part got the very last spot for the Rio games.

Martinez scored the first goal of the match in the 30th minute off a missed attempt by Andres Roa. Delver Machado's own goal in the 59th gave the Americans some hope, but Martinez scored once again in the 64th, which at that point meant that the U.S. needed to score twice to advance due to the rule saying that the first tiebreaker is away goals.

This is actually a rare situation for team USA because the last time they failed to advance to the Olympics twice was way back in 1960 to 1968. As for Colombia, the win is crucial because they'll be making a comeback in the Olympic stage; the last time was in 1992.