Not even a year ago, the state of the US national team had many fans and media in a constant state of doom and gloom, bemoaning a seemingly unstoppable downward spiral for a team that for 25 years had been on a slow and steady rise up the ranks of world soccer.
A run of mediocre performances in World Cup qualifying and defeat in the CONCACAF Cup followed the USMNT’s worst Gold Cup showing in the history of that tournament, capped by a first loss to Guatemala since 1989 in late March that left the team perilously close to missing out on their first World Cup since 1986.
And then? Pure bliss. A 4-0 annihilation of Guatemala in Columbus. Another stunner from Bobby Wood. Darlington Nagbe slicing and dicing through the Bolivian backline to set up 17-year-old phenom Christian Pulisic.
Such a rapid turnaround begs the question: Should we have been more optimistic all along about this team?
Looking back, yes, we could’ve been, and maybe we should’ve been. The constant hand-wringing after the Gold Cup was certainly warranted, after such a wretched showing against teams the US usually dispatches with ease on home soil. But amid the negativity, reasons for optimism may have been lost.
As early as fall 2015, we knew Nagbe was finally going to be eligible for the national team. John Brooks had been a regular in the Hertha Berlin first team for three seasons despite still being 22. Fabian Johnson and Alejandro Bedoya were dependable starters for quality teams in the top divisions of Germany and France.
Clint Dempsey continued to do Clint Dempsey things in MLS, while Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley had – admittedly with some help from a certain Atomic Ant – helped transform Toronto FC from a laughingstock to a team no one wanted to play.
And while friendly wins against the Netherlands and Germany may have not meant much results-wise, they did make one thing clear – Bobby Wood was the real deal, after all.
By early 2016, Pulisic was a regular in the Dortmund matchday squad and 22-year-old DeAndre Yedlin was trusted to start for Sunderland in the midst of a fierce, but ultimately successful, relegation battle.
Sure, questions remained – and still exist – over head coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s tactics and personnel choices, but with the individual players in the pool excelling both within MLS and across the globe, maybe we could’ve been a little more positive about this team, especially now that we have the benefit of hindsight and are starting to see it coalesce in pleasing fashion.
In a way, though, it’s a good thing that we weren’t. The US soccer community as always been prone to hyperbole and over-eagerness in the search for the next Pelé, the next Landon Donovan, the next anybody that can transform the USMNT from also-rans to world-beaters.
It’s led to massive disappointment among the US fan base year after year, whether it’s Freddy Adu, Danny Szetela or Jack McInerney – a fine MLS player, but maybe not the ‘American Chicharito’.
What’s different now is that we are not pinning our hopes on one individual talent, and that shows a great maturation in the mentality of the American soccer fan. In a sports culture that venerates superstars – the Stephen Currys, Bryce Harpers and Cam Newtons – it’s easy to get caught up in the impact that one individual person can have on the game.
While basketball, baseball and football are all team games, soccer is the truest representation of the power of the collective, whether that's stringing together intricate passing moves, or simply keeping 11 players organized for 90 minutes while 11 other players try to throw their plans into complete chaos. More and more, the American fan is starting to recognize this.
Yes, the Pulisic hype train has left the station, but the youngster has shown remarkable poise in shielding himself from the attention. Rather, we are pinning our hopes on a collective group – this generation of Nagbe, Pulisic, Yedlin, Wood, Gyasi Zardes, Matt Miazga and Steve Birnbaum, just to name a few.
One or two, or even five, promising US youngsters may fall by the wayside in the next decade, but now we can have some hope that another will come up to take their place. That hope might have been tempered somewhat by the struggles of US youth national teams in many recent World Cups, but ultimately looks to be well-founded now that these guys are starting to hit the senior circuit.
It could still all go belly-up in the Copa America. Colombia are fearsome foes. Costa Rica are never easy, and arguably should have beaten eventual champs Mexico in last year’s Gold Cup after nearly making the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup. And Paraguay remain one of the underrated sides in world soccer, their team’s ability backed up by runs to the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals and 2011 Copa América final.
Will it be disappointing if the US fall flat in the Copa America? Of course. But it will also be a valuable learning experience for guys like Pulisic, Nagbe, Brooks and Yedlin, who have long careers ahead of them against club and country. Regardless of outcome, this tournamentis the best preparation these guys will have for the 2018 World Cup, and as a group, there's reason to think they have what it takes to hold their own.
So let’s smile a little, US fans. The system still needs some work, but we can stop looking for a savior and continue to appreciate soccer for what it truly is – the finest team game out there.
