The headlines in America were devastating:

• Shocking loss to 99th-ranked Trinidad leaves U.S. out of World Cup
• Stunned U.S face major questions after World Cup debacle
• What does World Cup failure mean for soccer in the USA?
• U.S. out of excuses after defeat in Trinidad leaves it out of World Cup
• Where does U.S. Soccer go from here? 10 immediate aftershocks of World Cup failure

When the US national team lost to the Trinidad and Tobago team in the CONCACAF tournament, a meeting of North and South American teams qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, USA was expected to continue its string of appearances in the World Cup since 1990. After all Trinidad & Tobago (or T&T) was ranked 99th in the world, the US ranked 28th, its population a little over a million, while the US is well over 300 million with a well-established professional soccer league.

On top of that T&T was already out of the running for the World Cup, deep in last place having lost 7 out of 8 matches in the tournament when they faced off with the US squad. The US was in third and needed a win to get their tickets punched to Russia next year, but T&T were aggressive, scoring two goals in the first half of their qualifier match on October 10, 2017.

But while most of the headlines you might see in the internet suggest that the storyline is the dramatic failure of the mighty US, the flip side of the story is the dramatic triumph of David over Goliath. And for those soccer fans in the two-island nation off the northern coast of South America, there was also satisfaction at achieving a measure of revenge. T&T came so close to qualifying for its first world cup in 1989, needing only to draw to advance. But they lost to the US 1-0, thus propelling the US to the World Cup in Italy the following year.

Here are a few of the comments from the liveblog of the match as posted by Kwame Laurence of the Trinidad Express during the game:

10:56 USA OUT!

T&T’s 2-1 victory over the United States has booted the Americans out of the 2018 World Cup. Honduras beat Mexico 3-2 and Panama defeated Costa Rica 2-1, the combination of results forcing USA into fifth spot in CONCAF qualifying.

10:59 SWEET REVENGE FOR T&T!

It took 28 years, but T&T finally enjoyed sweet revenge over the United States. With T&T’s fourth win in 26 matches against USA, the home team avenged the November 19th, 1989 1-0 defeat that prevented T&T from qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Double 10 Drama

Double 10 – October 10th – will go down in T&T football history as a date to remember, alongside November 19th. Tonight’s 2-1 victory came too late to propel T&T into the 2018 World Cup. But there was the satisfaction of ending USA’s World Cup qualification bid. One could say this was the ultimate revenge for USA’s 1-0 win on November 19th, 1989, a result that abruptly ended T&T’s hopes of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.