KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They play at AC Milan and Juventus, at PSV Eindhoven and Borussia Dortmund, at 4 completely different English Premier League golf equipment, at Monaco and Celtic. They’re typically described as a “”; they’ve stimulated unmatched hype. They’ve battled within the German Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga, in waters beforehand uncharted by male U.S. soccer gamers.
And but, right here they have been on a brutal Monday evening at Arrowhead Stadium, , banished from the .
Right here they have been, our bodies empty, butts on grass, stares looking out, maybe for solutions to the query on thousands and thousands of minds: What, for the , had gone so flagrantly unsuitable?
In Kansas Metropolis, and throughout the nation in entrance of screens, eyes .
However within the bowels of Arrowhead, and within the minds of vital thinkers nationwide, scrutiny additionally shifted onto the gamers.
They’re extensively considered the , however, properly, are they actually nearly as good as Common Joe thinks they’re?
The reply is that they might be; however no, proper now, they aren’t. The status of their employers has oversold their present-day talents, and maybe propelled expectations a bit too excessive, too quickly forward of the .
Of the who simply limped out of the Copa América, 15 spent final season within the Large 5 European leagues. Three performed within the Champions League. and . Fullback Sergiño Dest, who additionally performed within the Champions League, missed the Copa as a result of damage.
What number of, although, have starred for his or her golf equipment? What number of begin persistently? What number of are something greater than role-playing cogs, versus protagonists who can drive a nationwide crew?
Christian Pulisic has established himself because the latter, however, properly, have any others? Of the remaining, solely Antonee Robinson was an every-game starter at a Large 5 membership.
Many have their locations at distinguished golf equipment partly due to who these golf equipment assume they will grow to be, reasonably than solely due to who they presently are. And their is unprecedented partly as a result of these distinguished golf equipment are a lot than the identical golf equipment have been a long time in the past.
They’re, to be clear, nonetheless simply probably the most proficient era of American gamers ever. They’re additionally at these golf equipment as a result of they’re technically or tactically adept, having been . They’re, to the bare eye and to knowledge, extra expert than most of their USMNT predecessors. Once they went to Qatar and , they did in order the youngest of the 32 groups on the match. Sky-high hopes for a 2026 World Cup at dwelling — a quarterfinal, or even perhaps a semifinal — have been justified.
The place some outsiders erred, although, was in anticipating them to make four-year-sized leaps instantly. We’re nonetheless lower than midway to 2026. The leaps, to date, have been restricted.
Their progress as a gaggle, in the meantime, has been much more restricted, maybe non-existent, and that’s why . Even when worldwide soccer is 90% pushed and outlined by the folks taking part in it, the ten% that’s teaching is probably the most changeable — so it’s price altering. This group of promising-but-not-principal gamers wants a coach who can elevate them. Berhalter isn’t doing that.
However they aren’t out of the Copa América as a result of Berhalter is a nasty coach. “I do not assume this match actually had something to do with the workers or the techniques,” Gio Reyna mentioned Monday. They’re out due to a bonehead purple card; and, extra broadly, as a result of they don’t but have the top-end expertise to beat Uruguay (or Brazil or Colombia), nor to beat a 10-v-11 drawback towards a lesser foe like Panama.
Some would additionally argue they’re out, partly, as a result of they assume they’re higher than they’re; and that, with Berhalter’s beginning 11 seemingly set in stone, gamers bought too comfy.
None of those, nevertheless, are causes they will’t excel in 2026. They have been nonetheless the second-youngest squad on the 2024 Copa América, behind solely Costa Rica. 13 of the 14 outfield gamers who appeared in Monday’s match have been 26 years previous or youthful; the suspended Tim Weah, 24, would have been one other.
A few of these 13, similar to Robinson and Weston McKennie, are most likely at or close to the height of their profession parabolas. However others, like Reyna and Tyler Adams, have been restricted by accidents, and nonetheless have acres of room for progress if they will keep wholesome. Folarin Balogun, 22, has the instruments and the underlying numbers to grow to be an elite striker. Yunus Musah, 21, ought to proceed to develop. Dest, 23, ought to recuperate from his damage.
Of their present state, they’re nowhere close to a World Cup semifinal. However lots can change in two years; 23-plus months; 710 days.
“We bought time to enhance till then,” Pulisic mentioned Monday. “I believe everybody has to take a step again, and we have to discover our identification once more. … I am not precisely certain what’s lacking. However, um, yeah — I believe we’re on a very good path, and I believe we are able to count on good issues.”