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

That’s not the kind of time travel I want!

 

Brazil was great in 02, nobody else was truly a top side.

I’m not sure what your point is:

was Italy, France, or England better in 02 or 06?! It isn’t even close

 

I'm not trying to incite anything, and flame wars aren't my style. But what exactly are we debating here? Whether South Korea benefitted from favorable officiating seems immaterial to the premise, which is that our 2002 WC team accomplished more than any other squad in our modern history.

We got points off of them when Spain and Italy couldn't. It wasn't a heroic result or anything given the opponent, but we played well and a draw was what we needed to set ourselves up to eventually advance (which we did).

Our first half against Portugal was maybe the best the US has ever played. No one (not a single person) saw that result coming going into that match. I still put that game as one of our top-2 most impressive wins in USMNT history, alongside the 2009 Spain Confederations Cup win.

Yes, the Poland game was a letdown and we needed other results to go our way to advance, but we punk'd our biggest rival in the Round of 16 -- why are we not celebrating that as a wonderful achievement rather than minimizing it as "a familiar opponent"? That Mexico team in 2002 was at least as good as the 2010 Ghana side we failed to beat in the Round of 16.

We also played really well against a great German team, narrowly losing 1-0 in the quarterfinal.

Wouldn't it be more fun to be happy and celebrate our team's accomplishments, @bsky22?

 

Bsky hates Donovan too much to be happy about those two games.

 

This thread isn't about celebrating our teams accomplishments. Reread the thread title and first couple of posts. The blowhard who started this thread likes to make bold predictions and often goes way over the top. He isnt comparing two past teams but one past and one that hasn't reached their prime. Isnt that a weird thing for a fan to be doing.

To say it more clearly, this thread was created to shit on our current group players. When people on here aren't flat out lying, they tend to exaggerate anything and everything to make their point. So while this guy has been extremely harsh on this current group (with exception of berhkqter who has been great), he is trying make 2002 much more than it is.

I'd be a lot happier and have more fun if we could talk about our history as it was and focus on improving. I personally don't like debates like these trying to compare to different teams over handful of games in different decades. 2002 was definitely in my top 3 WCs and wouldn't be interested or care to try to debate it. I also think this current generation could achieve as much or more.

If I were going to continue this debate, I'd be focusing on this guys statement that we had no good luck in the 2002 WC. It looks like he just puffed his chest back and made the claim that "we knocked Portugal out." It is almost like that isn't true and it was lucky for us that they got knocked out.

 

I made plans to meet up with a German buddy at 4am PT to watch the Portugal 2002 game at a bar in SF. Prior to the game, he was talking smack and telling me how Portugal was going to clean our clock.

Unfortunately, he slept in and didn’t meet me at the chosen bar at 4am. I watched the game with strangers. By the end of the first half, that ragtag group of American fans were hugging, screaming, and rejoicing. For me, I’d say that game was one of my sports highlights. Just an epic feeling coming out of the bar at dawn knowing the team had played with heart and wildly surpassed expectations.

When my German friend saw me later in the day he, with a wild smile on his face, stood up straight and then formally bowed.

Great moment.

 

Can’t we have a little fun going down memory lane bsky22?!

 

Too young for bars or not savvy enough for a fake ID?

 

I think having more MLS players would help!

 

Awesome - and in that pre-DVR era, it was definitely special waking up in the middle of the night to cheer on our Yanks.

BTW, I agree with everything you've said about that Portugal match. That first half was the most dominant display against a good team that I've ever seen from us. We just boatraced them from the word "Go" and came out with all cylinders firing. The next closest display of dominance against a reasonable opponent that comes to mind is Team BJ's 3-0 drubbing of Mexico in the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League semis. But 2002 Portugal was obviously a much better team than 2023 Mexico.

 

Fair points - upon reading the first page of this thread, I don't necessarily agree with @NietzscheIsDead 's OP post mostly because our current generation is so young and they have a lot of runway left to show us what they can do. But it felt to me like some of your recent posts were underselling the magic, joy and achievement of what our 2002 squad accomplished.

 

For the non-soccer watching casual in the US, World Cup 2026 is going to be such a jarring contrast between the US Women's team who win World Cups left and right, vs the Men's Team that has a long history of mediocrity and failure attached to it.

 

He's just an incredibly hateful person.

 

The US women had won the World Cup before the men had a fully professional men's league.

 

Is this the only big opinion of yours that you still have a chance of being right?

Can you reconcile your glorious review of Berhalter and the need for the next coach to change the culture?

 

That league is circus that has done more damage to the USMNT. ******** Garber and the saps that support that crap.

 

Nah, just don't idolize underacheivers nor blindly hate whoever Garber tells me too.

 

Also before the US women had a fully professional women's league. (Or before the several versions of their league that have existed between 91/99 and now. )

 

No one will be able to convince you due to the nostalgia that you described below. That's ok, it sounds like a very fond memory that will likely never be topped when it comes to soccer.

 

If we go to the quarters in 2026 beating England or anyone for that matter outside of Mexico, it will still not top it for you.

Edit. Or even match 2002 in your mind. Which is fine because I don't have that 2002 experience that you had. This will be the first WC with my kids and if we happen to replicate 2002, I will probably fall in the same boat as you.