Trinidad and Tobago v United States (2018 FIFA World Cup qualification)

A botched back pass in the 17th minute resulted in a catastrophic own goal by the US team. While Trinidad and Tobago had few high quality shot attempts in the first half, a "blistering 35-yard strike" from Alvin Jones managed to get in regardless to give them a 2-0 lead going into the second half.[12] The US team managed to score a goal in the second half by Christian Pulisic and substituted in some fresh strikers to up their goal-scoring chances, but were unable to tie the score by the end of the game.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mexico	10	6	3	1	16	7	+9	21	Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup
2	Costa Rica	10	4	4	2	14	8	+6	16
3	Panama	10	3	4	3	9	10	−1	13
4	Honduras	10	3	4	3	13	19	−6	13	Advance to inter-confederation play-offs
5	United States	10	3	3	4	17	13	+4	12
6	Trinidad and Tobago	10	2	0	8	7	19	−12	6

To the surprise of many, both Central American underdogs, Panama and Honduras, won against Costa Rica and Mexico respectively. Panamanian forward Blas Pérez scored a controversial "ghost goal" in the 53rd minute to equalize the score 1–1, before Román Torres scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.[13][14] Honduras also pulled a comeback in their win against Mexico. The Mexican team had a 2–1 lead at half-time before Eddie Hernández's shot bounced off of the crossbar and hit the back of Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa's head and went into the net, putting the score at 2–2. Seven minutes later, Romell Quioto scored the winning goal for Honduras, ending Mexico's chance to go unbeaten throughout the qualifying rounds.[15] Because of the United States' loss and their win, Panama would automatically qualify for the group stage of the 2018 competition, while Honduras was given a final chance to qualify for the tournament in Russia during the CONCACAF–AFC play-off matches against Australia.[16]

The result and failure for the U.S. to qualify made national and international news overnight. ESPN FC hosted a segment on the game and openly criticized the "arrogance" that the United States team had. Alejandro Moreno criticized the players commitment and passion for the game. Shaka Hislop, a former goalkeeper who represented Trinidad and Tobago in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, blamed the U.S. media for asking Arena about the performance of European players and other unrelated questions of the match the day before. Hislop also criticized the United States team for their criticism of the field conditions.

Taylor Twellman went on an unscripted rant on ESPN in which he highlighted the lack of focus on the match at hand, claiming other players and broadcasters asked for the other scoreline from the other matches in qualifying. Twellman stated the United States needs to revise everything about the United States Soccer Federation, including Major League Soccer, the "pay to play" system of U.S. youth soccer, and other aspects of the federation. He cited efforts by the German Football Association as an example of a nation that had successfully changed its culture after the national team's failure in Euro 2000. Twellman further added similar dissatisfaction with the pitch criticism, citing Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belgium playing against each other on what he termed a "cow pasture". Twellman also complained that Iceland would qualify for the World Cup while the United States did not.[17]

An analysis by the sports side of the blog FiveThirtyEight called the match "the worst loss in USMNT's history based on the Elo rating system" since the USMNT was so heavily favored, which made the loss all the more stinging due to the high stakes involved.[12] A retrospective by the sports blog SB Nation agreed, calling the match the worst in the US mens team's history.[18]

Bruce Arena resigned as the manager of the team shortly after the match. Omar Gonzalez in a post-match press conference stated his own goal "is one that will haunt me forever." [19]