USMNT shows fight but has key cracks exposed in World Cup tune-up loss to Germany

CHICAGO — The U.S.men’s national team wanted to face only tough opponents leading into the World Cup. As a result, it has lost three of four games going into one of the biggest matches in the program’s history Friday night against Paraguay. That’s not the be-all and end-all, and Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Germany in front of a sellout crowd at Soldier Field looked a lot different — in a good way — than the USMNT’s pair of losses to Belgium and Portugal back in March. Against a side that looked ready to sweep them away early, the Americans showed resilience, had positive stretches of play and were left thinking they could have gotten more.

That’s all great, but the 3 ½-year timer on being able to brush aside losses expired sometime between the final whistle and the USMNT boarding its plane to Orange County, Calif., on Saturday night. Now, the only thing that matters is the result, and much as the Americans can take some pride in being able to compete with one of the tournament’s best teams, its back line — still minus Chris Richards, missing with an ankle injury — looked woefully overmatched here, and continues to be a serious worry. It wasn’t just on Leroy Sané’s eventual game-winner, where both Miles Robinson and Tim Ream were caught out defending a German throw-in, allowing Sané to slip into space from Kai Havertz’s pass and slot in a finish.It was also the first German goal, where Robinson was beaten to Joshua Kimmich’s free kick by Havertz easily, mere minutes into the game. Beyond the goals, there were just too many times where Ream and Robinson looked without an idea on the ball, or where Germany felt comfortable exploiting either channel, which were left vulnerable with Alex Freeman, Sergiño Dest and Antonee Robinson all given space to go forward. Offensively, the USMNT looked legitimately threatening, and Christian Pulisic was unlucky not to put his team ahead 2-1 with a pair of shots from short range that were stop...