The Coming ‘Golden Generation’ Will Not Accomplish What the 2002 Team Accomplished

Defining entire generations by what happens over the course of 90 minutes in 1 game that comes up every four years is flukey.

Anything can happen when you roll the ball out in that round of 16 game.

In 2002, Mexico, was indeed a fortunate draw.

You could get a fortunate RC in the first minute and cruise to victory. You could get an unfortunate RC in the first minute and doom yourself. You could have a very unfortunate play (looking at you Ricardo Clark vs Ghana) that really screws the whole thing up for you. You could have an extremely marginal VAR decision make you lose 1-0 in the 95th minute.

It's a silly way to measure things.

 

Indeed, indeed.
Didn't we lose to Poland like 3 nil or something? This time around we got scorched by the Dutch which is far more respectable although the first half we really played our all.

 

Got our asses handed to us.

We were inches from being eliminated as Portugal threw the kitchen sink at South Korea's goal.

The line between success and failure at the World Cup is razor thin for most nations. An umps call here. A bobble there. A deflected shot there. A missed penalty there. Even Argentina was close to being eliminated multiple times.

There were some players on that 2002 team that have become legends for their performance there, but their club football careers were fairly uninspriring. John O'Brien played less than 100 games total in club soccer. Tyler Adams is 24 years old and has played more games than that in the Premier League and Bundesliga.

One can make a reasoned argument that both the 2014 and 2022 generations already matched the 2002 generation in both club soccer and for the national team. Only some kind of recency bias presents some from realizing that. That's not to say John O'Brien wasn't a good player. One of the most talented players in our pool up until that time. Ended up having injury issues. But seriously.................

 

You state:

And then this:

So, was Germany a fluke winner or are there no fluke winners?

 

2002 Germany were only finalists and they were mediocre for German standards. They won their group but then only grinded out 1-0 wins against the "giants" of Paraguay, US and S. Korea on the way to the final. Their GK won the WC Golden Ball and it remains the one time a GK has ever won. In the 2000 and 2004 Euros they were bounced out in group stages without winning a game.

 

3-1 Landon Donovan put one in for the US.

 

I would disagree (respectfully, not angrily) that we kicked Germany's ass up and down the field. Yes, we went toe-to-toe and held our own. We threatened. A lot. We definitely played them better than we did Belgium in 2014. Unlike our group stage game against Germany in 2014 where Germany sleep-walked through the game and we generated something like one shot. (Or one shot on goal) Either way, we didn't come close to scoring.

In 2002 many things fell into place. Tony Sanneh played out of his head. Probably the best soccer of his life. John O'brien, probably the most skilled player on that team, played every minute. That is quite likely the only time in his career he has played 90 for five games in a row. His body just was not durable. Friedel played great. Two penalty stops in group play. A lot of guys playing their best soccer ever.

So, 2002 remains our best performance. But I would say that if we put the 2002 team up against the 2022 team and they both played their best soccer, 2022 would come out on top. But since we can't do that, the youngsters still need to prove themselves the best in 2026.

 

2002 squad overperformed yet had a lot of luck. 2022 team played well but underperformed. At best it was decent and at worse it was a big disappointment.
Had we beat the Dutch and made it to the QF against Argentina, I'm sure folks would be heralding that for decades to come.

 

JOB is leaps and bounds the best playmaker the us midfield has ever had. 2002 also had a much better #9 and a better keeper. I think those give them the edge even though overall talent 2022 was better.

I think if we had a modern era best 11 World Cup team the only player that makes it not on the 2022 or 2002 squads is Dempsey. (I believe Cherundolo was on 2002 roster but injured)

 

I've watched the team religiously since 2002. I couldn't agree more about JOB. He was "leaps and bounds the best playmaker the us midfield has ever had."

In my book as well, hands down the best.

 

Give me a formation but the first two central midfielder spots are Adams and JOB. Jermaine Jones, Reyna, McKennie compete for that third spot and I’d take Jermaine if you play 4-3-3…4–4-2 or 4-2-3-1 and there isn’t room. 4-2-3-1 you end up with Dempsey, Donovan, and Pulisic with McBride up top. I like the 4-2-3-1 for our talent but we never really played it. Arena played asymmetrical 4-4-2, Bradley 4-4-2 bucket, Greg 4-3-3.

The two outside backs for me are Cherundolo and Jedi.

 

Pretty close to what I would say. If we're only picking from one World Cup:

--------------------------McBride(02)--------------------------
-----Pulisic(22)-------Dempsey(14)------Donovan(02 or 10)-----
---------------Adams(22)----O'Brien(02)--------------
ARob(22)---Ream(22)---Pope(02)--Cherundolo(10)
------------------------Howard (14)--------------------------

-2022 overperforms by this metric due to being so defensively stout in the Group Stage, and Pulisic being the only US player besides Donovan to contribute on 3 goals at a World Cup.

-2014 strikes me as a team that was carried by its best players and otherwise held on for dear life. Howard had the most iconic performance, then Dempsey and Jones, and the controversial yet effective Bradley performance. Though Zusi also popped up for some major contributions.

-2010 is hurt by contributions generally being more balanced. I think it was just a bit too defensively leaky to consider its best defenders besides Cherundolo; Howard was only okay at that World Cup IMO. Bradley is very close to Best XI. Dempsey and Donovan both lost goal contributions due to refereeing. And Altidore just needed to finish several of his glorious chances.

-For 2002, Sanneh is also very close with an iconic performance. A few other players like Friedel also had strong World Cups.

-I'm far too young to remember 1994, but my impression is that Balboa is the only player who would have a shot to make this type of Best XI.

Central midfield is the wildest competition, because arguably Reyna, O'Brien, Mastroeni, Bradley, Jones, and Adams could all be considered. I'm too young to be able to really consider Harkes or Dooley, but McKennie could even be considered an outside contender.

The one player I don't really rate there is Beckerman. I view him similarly to 2022 with Ream, in that he was protected by the system and players in front of him. Except Ream had a better performance overall, and he's competing against a weaker group of US players at the center back spot.

 

Our only difference would be Howard Vs Friedel.

The 94 team has nobody (Dooley was way better in the years leading up to the cup, Reyna would have had his best tournament but got hurt, Keller would have seen us possibly make the QF but we chose near-post Tony). We got scored on every game, we scored 3…

 

In my view, Weston doesn’t belong in the discussion with Jones or O’Brien who I think are just a cut above.

 

The whole problem with this argument is the tiny window of games we are using to base our arguments on. Is it really fair to say who the "Best" are based off a 5 game tournament? I mean, I love me some JOB but holy crap, he only has 86 total club league games and 32 caps. Pulisic already has 185 club appearances.

 

We aren’t talking club careers at all. JOB was also the best US player in the lead up games (stellar vs Italy and Holland) and was the driving force at the Olympics in 2000. He wasn’t a one tournament wonder…he got broken.

 

I meant fluke winner in the game against the US.

 

Its OK to talk about how great of a player O'Brien was while also admitting his impact for the full USMNT was basically confined to a year and half (2001-2002). A blessed year and a half of health. That was also when he was at his best for Ajax.

The 2000 Olympics isn't the USMNT. I get it. A technicality. And he was on the roster when we won the Gold Cup in 2005. Not a good version of John O'Brien, though.

[To this day, I don't know why Arena named him to the 2006 WC roster. Living in the past I guess.]

I mean, its OK to realize that John O'Brien had fewer caps than Brek Shea and Heath Pearce for the USMNT. That Christian Roldan will pass him this week.

I love John O'Brien. I met him at a Chipotle in Chicago. But I also think USMNT fans deify him a little bit. That's fine. Its what we do. He's like a rock star that dies young. Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and such. You have a couple years of awesome peak to admire. You don't have the Michael Bradley-style decade of decline.

John O'Brien's stats for the USMNT: 3 goals, 2 assists.

Michael Bradley's stats for the USMNT: 17 goals, 21 assists