"Our players aren't as good or good enough" is different from "our players suck". I'm not admitting defeat by suggesting the Raiders won't win the Super Bowl. It's reality. As fans we just tune in for the entertainment. That's all sports is. Entertainment. In the end, whether you pretend we have a world class player pool or acknowledge it's quite a bit short of that, it has little bearing on what happens out there. There's a reason the Final tomorrow is Arg/Chile and it has nothing to do with fans of all the other Copa participants admitting or not admitting defeat.
Or at least put players in whose strengths complement one another. We had players in against Argentina who exacerbated each other's weaknesses and neutralized each other's strengths, and that seems to happen on a regular basis lately whether we're underdogs or not.
In the 1995 run in Uruguay we beat Chile 2-1 with Wynalda goals (that Chile was local-based though, the '90s were the dark ages of the Copa America with most teams sending B-squads). Then lost to Bolivia 1-0 (the Bolivia of Etcheverry), and beat Argentina 3-0 (that was a decent Argentina, with Batistuta, Gallardo, Ayala, and Burrito Ortega and Simeone coming in as subs). The 3-0 win against Argentina in Uruguay, an Argentina with several A-players, tops by far anything we've achieved this tournament, to be honest. After that, we won the group and made the QFs where we beat Mexico in penalties (a local-based Mexico, with Jorge Campos, Garcia Aspe, Ambriz, etc. --truth is Mexico didn't have players in Europe at that point; Hugo Sanchez was back in the Mexican league, but he was already in decline and wasn't called). In semis, we lost 1-0 to Brazil, that had also taken mostly an alternative team but had just beaten Argentina in penalties, and fielded against us Dunga, Roberto Carlos, Aldair, Edmundo, and the original Juninho). Brazil scored early and we actually possessed more of the ball than they did, and were close to tying it up late. So yes, overall, considering where it was played and the rivals on the field, I'd put that achievement as above this one. BTW, then we lost the third place match to Colombia 4-1. Asprilla, Rincon, Pibe Valderrama, scored. We looked done.
As I said, all for trying all sort of "stuff" and as I've said I have not followed Benny's recent club career that closely, but I was very high on him when I saw him at UCLA, with the U-20s and again after Toulon back in the day (and I always thought he could play a grown up Bobby Brady in the adult musical revival.) but I'm not convinced he's an upgrade over what we have - I haven't been blown away by very many of his outings. Think he might be this crop's Jovan Kirovski. But I'd be happy to be proved wrong. The rest of that line-up concerns me a bit on defense, but hey, let's schedule a bunch of friendlies and give a whirl.
Bradley gets a free header on a weak clearance, standing alone, with Jones or Bedoya 10 ish yards ahead of him in the Colombia half. Doink! Off to the side. Colombia wins it. Like I said, accurate heading is one of our biggest weaknesses.
Bradley's work rate is still top notch, but his accuracy is inversely proportional to the importance of the game.
We essentially started the match down 2 men, a circumstance which renders untenable any sweeping conclusions about the US style or Achilles heel. There were plenty of minutes in we played our opponents 11 aside. More realistic conclusions can be drawn from those minutes.
That's Colin and the other guy proving that they don't know crap. 1) Colin saying we don't criticize our players. He's clearly never been on a soccer bulletin board in his life. 2) they are touting academies as the solution. I guaranteeeeeeeeeeeeee that neither of them knows that a difference between the U.S. and the rest of the world is that U.S. law does not allow a minor to be committed to a club. Guarantee it. 3) the "U.S. soccer players only come from the suburbs" is a trope from 20-30 years ago. I can't believe he didn't mention orange slices. Finally, just hang tight. The U.S. has experienced a massive wave of immigration in the past 10-15 years. Those kids are bringing soccer with them. Go to poor apartment complexes anywhere in the U.S., you'll see kids kicking the ball around. Soccer is becoming part of the underclass culture.
This is a palpable advantage for us when Gyasi is playing outside mid. He wins a lot of "free balls" (as they say in volleyball) in the midfield. (I watch a "football en 60" on a Spanish language channel. They were calling him "Gyasinho." I thought that was cute).
Asking for an improved performance isn't the same as demanding victory over a top 5 team. The distinction often gets lost in BS.
They bunkered like crazy against Greece. CRC was extremely negative after the Uruguay game. They knew they had their 3 points and then played not to loose. Lots of fouls. Few shots. Two lines behind the ball. They played for PKs knowing they had an awesome keeper. It was some of the most intentionally ugly soccer I'd seen them play in a long time.
I'm not even going to read any of this thread because you nailed it (and my first thought when I saw the title was, "US' achilles? What a dumb title, who hasn't found it? (Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, etc)." The lack of movement was shocking and most pronounced against Argentina, imo. It's probably too subjective, but to me the team looked like they didn't even feel like bothering on making smart, short runs because they figured they'd lose anyway. They looked almost entirely bereft of confidence (perhaps Beckerman and Wondo had something to do with it-- I would not be feeling good about avoiding Argentina's press and super technical skill and lumping it up to Wondo either) Also absolutely agree with the point on tactical awareness. You see some great basketball and football players who credit soccer with their awareness-- sadly it doesn't seem to quite work the other way around. We can match anyone physically (even with this old ass lineup) and mentally, but we're not as good as the top teams and get frankly and promptly blown out. If we combined those traits (physical, "gritty") with some tactical awareness, we'd be able to give anyone a game. If we added superlative technique as well, well, then we're really cooking with gas. I think we can win a WC with physical, mental, and tactical strengths. I think we definitely win one if/when we get technique on the same high level as well.
Not sure it was just an Achilles heel that lost the game, Argentina are just such a superior team. Maybe the USMNT needs a new coach to shake off the ball movement up as it was very poor.