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This was supposed to be U.S. Soccer’s golden generation.
That was always a misnomer, of course. When your national team has made it to the final eight of the World Cup just once in the modern era — and has never gone any further — “golden generation” connotes a level of grandiosity that probably hasn’t been earned.
Still, more than half the players the U.S. called up for the CONCACAF Nations League play on major clubs in Europe. Seven played in the Champions League this season. That’s a level of experience, talent and cachet that is unique for the men’s national team and one that certainly created a golden opportunity.
Which is why the team’s heartless, uninspired play in losses to Panama and Canada was so... well, coach Mauricio Pochettino called it “disappointing.”
That doesn’t begin to explain it.
Mauricio Pochettino’s first major test as U.S. men’s soccer coach ended in disaster when Panama scored in stoppage time in a 1-0 win in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinals.
The second loss came Sunday, when the U.S. fell 2-1 to Canada in the third-place game of a tournament it had won three times. And the malaise around U.S. Soccer isn’t limited to the team: SoFi Stadium, where the Americans will open the World Cup next year, was a mausoleum, as empty and passionless as the team’s performance.
The U.S. has less than 15 months to get ready for that World Cup, one it has been pointing to and preparing for since 2018, when it won the right to share the tournament with Canada and Mexico. This was the World Cup in which the U.S. was finally going to make a long run. This was the World Cup that was going to make the U.S. a soccer country.
Instead, the U.S. warmed up for the tournament by losing to two teams that have never won a World Cup game and have never made the top 25 in the FIFA world rankings. Afterward, Pochettino tried to remain positive but, like his team, his heart wasn’t in it.
“Don’t be pessimistic and don’t get bad feelings. The main objective is the World Cup,” he said. “Disappointed? We all feel the disappointment that we didn’t win. But I’m not going to feel pessimistic because I think we have good players. We are going to find a way to perform.”
There is time, he said. I can fix this, he said. But that would require identifying the problems first. And both the coach and his players struggled to do that Sunday.
“A lot of different things,” midfielder Tyler Adams, the captain of the 2022 World Cup team, said when asked to identify what needs fixing. “There just needs to be better individual performances. It’s a moment of reflection.”
Especially for the European-based players, who were supposed to be the brightest and boldest of the so-called “golden generation.” Instead, they were largely absent Sunday.
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“You have got to show up in big moments when the moments matter,” Adams continued. “We didn’t show up in this window here. It’s a learning experience, but we have got to move on.”
Milan’s Christian Pulisic, the team captain Sunday and the active leader in goals and appearances, had just 21 touches and attempted only 13 passes —completing seven — before being subbed off in the 69th minute, alongside Adams, who plays at Bournemouth, and Weston McKennie, who plays for Juventus.
That bears repeating: Three of the Americans’ most experienced players, who play for some of the biggest clubs in the world, were taken out of a one-goal game with 21 minutes left.
“It’s an easy thing to just say we lacked aggression,” Pulisic said of a team that had one shot on goal in the first 84 minutes and just two for the game. “There’s a lot of things that go with that. It’s not just fighting. You also have to play better football, you have to have better ideas, you’ve got to be more aggressive in the way that we attack.
“All the guys came into camp, we were excited, and I felt like there was a good energy within the team. And then the game just happened.”
For McKennie, the two losses may not have left the team at rock bottom. But it certainly clarified which direction it must go next.
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“It’s definitely put our backs against the wall,” he said. “And the thing about having your back against the wall is the only way to go is forward. These two games were a wake-up call in general. For us, for the staff, for everyone, to realize that, you know, we’ve got to do better and we’ve got to fight more.”
The responsibility for answering that wake-up call and inspiring that fight falls to Pochettino who, like many of his players, has a long resume of success at some of Europe’s biggest clubs. But he had never managed a national team when he took the U.S. job in September and he’s running out of time to learn: This summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, which will not include a team ranked in the top 15 in the world, is the last competitive event for the U.S. before the World Cup opener.
“If we will be in this situation in one year time, for sure, I will tell you, ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ no?” Pochettino said. “I have time. I prefer for that to happen today and not in one year.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
