It was supposed to be the generation of American football gold.
It was always an improper term, of course. When your national team has arrived at the last eight of the World Cup only once in the modern era – and never went further – the “gold generation” evokes a level of grandiosity which has probably not been won.
However, more than half of the players that the United States called for the Concacaf Nations League Play on major clubs in Europe. Seven has played in the Champions League this season. It is a level of experience, talent and cachet which is unique for the national male team and which has certainly created an opportunity in gold.
This is why the teamless and inspired game of the team Losses against Panama And Canada was so much … Well, coach Mauricio Pocsettino called it “disappointing”.
It doesn't start to explain it.
The second defeat occurred on Sunday when the United States fell 2-1 in Canada in the third game of a tournament he won three times. And the discomfort around American football is not limited to the team: the Sofi stadium, where the Americans will open the World Cup next year, was a mausoleum, as empty and without passion as the performance of the team.
The United States has less than 15 months to prepare for this World Cup, the one it has been pointing and preparing itself since 2018, when it won the right to share the tournament with Canada and Mexico. It was the World Cup in which the United States was finally going to take a long race. It was the World Cup that was going to make the United States a football country.
Instead, the United States has warmed up for the tournament by losing two teams that have never won a World Cup match and have never made the top 25 of the World FIFA ranking. Subsequently, Pochettino tried to remain positive but, like his team, his heart was not in it.
“Do not be pessimistic and do not feel bad feelings. The main objective is the World Cup,” he said. “Disappointed? We all feel the disappointment that we have not won. But I will not feel pessimistic because I think we have good players. We will find a way to play.”
There is time, he said. I can solve this problem, he said. But it would first require identifying the problems. And the coach and his players had trouble doing this Sunday.
“Many different things”, midfielder Tyler Adams, the captain of 2022 World Cup The team said when they asked him to identify what should be repaired. “There must simply be better individual performance. It's a moment of reflection. “
Especially for European actors, who were supposed to be the most brilliant and daring of the so-called “gold generation”. Instead, they were largely absent on Sunday.
“You must present yourself in great times when moments count,” continued Adams. “We did not appear in this window here. It is a learning experience, but we have to continue.”
Milan Christian PulisicThe team captain on Sunday and the active leader in goals and appearances only had 21 keys and only tried 13 passes – completing seven – before being underestimated in the 69th minute, alongside Adams, who plays Bournemouth, and Weston McKennie, who plays for Juventus.
This brings the rehearsal: three of the most experienced players of the Americans, who play for some of the biggest clubs in the world, have been withdrawn from a match to a goal with 21 minutes to do.
“It's an easy thing to say that we lack assault,” said Pulisic about a team that had a shot in the first 84 minutes and two for the match. “There are a lot of things that go with that. It's not just fights. You must also play better football, you must have better ideas, you must be more aggressive in the way we attack.
“All the guys came to the camp, we were excited and had the impression that there was good energy within the team. And then the game has just happened.”
For McKennie, the two defeats may not have left the team at Rock Bottom. But he certainly clarified the direction he must go afterwards.
“It has definitely put the back against the wall,” he said. “And the thing about your back against the wall is the only way to do is ahead. These two games were an awakening in general. For us, for the staff, for everyone, to realize that, you know, we have to do better and we have to fight more.”
The responsibility of responding to this awakening and inspiration this fight falls to Pochettino which, like many of its players, has a long curriculum vitae success in some of the largest clubs in Europe. But he had never managed a national team when he took the job in the United States in September and he does not lack time to learn: the Concacaf Gold Cup of this summer, which will not include a team classified in the top 15 of the world, is the last competitive event for the United States before the opening of the World Cup.
“If we will be in this situation in a year, I will certainly tell you:” Houston, we have a problem “, right?” Said Pocsettino. “I have time. I prefer that it happens today and not in a year. ”
