The two losses in the Hexagonal proved to be too much. Jurgen Klinsmann's reign as the head coach of the US men's team came to an end, with the powers that be deciding it was time for a change.
Ever since Klinsmann took over at the end of July in 2011, he has been criticised by the fans, for the team's style of play as well as some of the selections that the former Germany striker has made.
However, despite the criticisms, Klinsmann stayed at the helm for over five years, but losses to Mexico and Costa Rica proved to be the final straw for the ex-Germany manager.
Starting off the final round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers with a home game against Mexico in Columbus, Klinsmann's USMNT went down to a late Rafael Marquez goal, before they were absolutely thumped by Costa Rica in the following match.
"Today we made the difficult decision of parting ways with Jurgen Klinsmann, our head coach of the US men's national team and technical director," US soccer president Sunil Gulati said in a statement.
"We want to thank Jurgen for his hard work and commitment during these last five years. He took pride in having the responsibility of steering the program, and there were considerable achievements along the way.
"Many are aware of the historic victories, including leading us out of the Group of Death to the Round of 16 in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but there were also lesser publicized efforts behind the scenes. He challenged everyone in the US Soccer community to think about things in new ways, and thanks to his efforts we have grown as an organisation and expect there will be benefits from his work for years to come."
However, despite those efforts, Gulati and US Soccer decided keeping Klinsmann, who won 55 of the 98 matches as the head coach, but had a poor record against teams in the top 20 of the FIFA rankings, and possibly missing out on qualification to the World Cup was too big a risk to take.
"While we remain confident that we have quality players to help us advance to Russia 2018, the form and growth of the team up to this point left us convinced that we need to go in a different direction," Gulati added. "With the next qualifying match in late March, we have several months to refocus the group and determine the best way forward to ensure a successful journey to qualify for our eighth-consecutive World Cup."
Bruce Arena, the USMNT coach from 1998 to 2006, has been tipped as the likely successor.
