28 Mar 2012

USA miss out on London 2012 football tournament

5:56 am on 28 March 2012

The United States have missed out on qualifying for the men's football tournament for the London Olympics after a 95th-minute goalkeeping error by Sean Johnson resulted in a surprise 3-all draw against El Salvador.

The result means El Salvador instead have gone through to the semi-finals of central-North American qualifying group.

The draw with El Salvador leaves the United States adding 2012 to 2004 and 1976 as years in which they failed to qualify for the Olympics, missing out on a 15th appearance overall.

Having already lost to Canada, the United States needed to beat El Salvador to go into the last four.

New Zealand qualified for the Olympics after winning the Oceania group at the weekend.