No World Cup for U.S. men’s soccer team — why that’s a ‘disaster’ for 21st Century

The world’s leading sport is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., but many Americans may tune out the 2018 World Cup after the U.S. men’s team failed to make the tournament.

That appears to be bad news for 21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA -2.56%  , given the entertainment giant bought the U.S. English language rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for $425 million . The price tag represented a substantial premium to the $100 million that Walt Disney Co.’s DIS -1.23%  ESPN paid for the 2010 and 2014 events.

Shares in S&P 500 component 21st Century Fox were down 1% in morning action Wednesday, while the S&P SPX +0.08%  was little changed.

The U.S. men’s soccer team will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1986 after their humiliating 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday night.

The debacle seemed to leave American soccer analyst and former player Alexi Lalas at a loss for words, going by this Twitter post:

And among other gloomy initial reactions, Wall Street Journal Europe Sports Editor Joshua Robinson wrote that the failure to qualify is “a disaster for the growth of the game domestically, and for the U.S. broadcaster 21st Century Fox.” The company was previously a part of News Corp. NWSA -0.82%  , which is the owner of MarketWatch.

Trying to offer a more upbeat take, Landon Donovan — who has scored more World Cup goals than any other American man — tweeted that the country should learn from this:

All the U.S. team needed to do to clinch a World Cup berth was win or tie against Trinidad & Tobago, a small Caribbean nation that was in last place in the six-nation group.

Instead, the U.S. kicked itself out of the running for the 2018 World Cup in Russia — literally, as an own-goal by Omar Gonzalez proved to be decisive.

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The big setback stands in sharp contrast to the success that the U.S. women’s team has enjoyed. The American women won the 2015 World Cup and scored a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics, though the team failed to win a medal in the 2016 Games.

One former U.S. women’s team star offered her condolences: