U.S. suddenly a long shot for Olympics after semifinal loss to Honduras

From the looks of it, 2016 might mark the third time in four editions of the Summer Olympics that the United States won't be represented on the men's side.

Following the Under-23 national team's 2-0 loss to Honduras in the semifinals of the Olympic qualifying tournament on Saturday, the Americans will have to win two crucial games just to make it to Rio de Janeiro. First, they need to win the third-place game against either Mexico or Canada, depending on who wins the other semifinal later on Saturday. And then they would have to beat a very talented Colombia in a playoff.

Had Andi Herzog's side beaten Honduras, however, it would have already qualified – for just the second time since 2000.

But in front of tens of spectators at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, the Americans failed to put much pressure on the Catrachos in a sloppy and dispiriting performance. In the 23rd minute, Kevin Alvarez's wide-open cross found Honduran teammate Alberth Elis in the box. The striker was given way too much space by Cameron Carter-Vickers to chest the ball down in the box, take a touch to open up some more room and hit his finish past Ethan Horvath.

The Americans pressed for an equalizer for the remainder of the game but had a wretched time of breaking down the Honduran defense, or even its midfield. Chances were rare as forwards Jordan Morris and Jerome Kiesewetter, who had both starred in the group stage, were largely neutralized. Most of the time, all that pushing for an equalizer achieved was to allow the Catrachos to break away on the counter.

In the 65th minute, the USA managed to forge one of its few significant chances of the game, but Carter-Vickers' header was saved off the line by a catlike reflex by goalkeeper Luis Lopez. But other than that chance, the Yanks couldn't replicate the momentum they had forged in the group stage, when they cruised through with three wins and a combined 13-2 scoring record against Canada, Cuba and Panama.

Elis, meanwhile, drove home the point with a fine finish from inside the box in the 77th minute, on strong preparatory work from Kevin Lopez, to put the game's outcome beyond doubt.

As the USA grew frustrated, the game got out of hand. Both head coaches were ejected and Morris was denied a clean goal for offside in the 83rd minute.

And so the Americans are now a long shot to make it to Brazil. They missed out in 2012 and 2004, and another absence would continue a disconcerting trend. Another generation of Under-23s could miss out on the valuable experience of an Olympic tournament – the closest facsimile of a World Cup until a player reaches the senior national team.

Much emphasis has been placed on the development of youth as a key element of U.S. Soccer technical director Jurgen Klinsmann's grand plan, but the recent record of the younger national teams has been poor.

The Under-20s looked solid enough in the 2015 World Cup in their age category but, before that, hadn't survived the group stage in three straight editions, missing the tournament altogether in 2011. The Under-17s failed to qualify in 2013 – despite being the only team of that age category that had never missed the World Cup – and only made it through a playoff for the 2015 tournament, which hasn't been played yet.

Amid all of this misery, the confounding thing is that each of these generations of youth national teamers was considered – or hyped as – one of the strongest ever. This Under-23 team, in particular, has a half-dozen major prospects. Not just prospects by American standards, but players of whom major European clubs think highly.

Yet it isn't enough. It isn't working.

Just hours before the senior U.S. men would kick off their playoff with Mexico for a spot at the 2017 Confederations Cup, more pressing questions arose about the direction of the entire national team program.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.