After USMNT flame out of the World Cup in loss to Belgium, heres why it was not US
On Monday night, USMNT’s manager Mauricio Pochettino‘s audacious rally cry “Why Not US” was unfortunately answered.It’s because against Belgium, we stunk.Not that we were looking for one.We just wanted to continue to feel the unity, momentum, awesome vibes and the belief, which Pochettino’s squad crop dusted into the ether.We had started to believe, perhaps naively, that our country’s moment on the pitch had arrived.After beating Paraguay, Australia and Bosnia and being robbed in the final seconds by Turkey, maybe we’d finally become the force that the prophets promised.However, against Belgium the USMNT took the field in a stupor, making defensive mistakes that would be unforgivable at the youth level, never mind on the world’s stage.And on our home turf, no less.The team was too timid and a step too slow to the ball.
They played flat.Perhaps it wouldn’t feel so bad if we had gone down in a dog fight, barking and biting.Kicking and screaming.Nope, our men went down like an ice cold beer on a 98-degree day: quick and easy.Belgium was by far the better team, and they ruthlessly rubbed it in with a little Trump dance.Predictably, the hangover has been playing out all over X this morning.
The platform is filled with a litany of diagnoses as to why our national soccer program continues to fall short, despite having a country of roughly 345 million people.Among the explanations offered: there’s no unstructured street ball culture like there is in hoops, the best athletes gravitate toward other sports, or the cost of elite soccer is too prohibitive; favoring the wealthy and eliminating those hungry players who could be developed if only their bank accounts were more flush.House of Strauss’ Ethan Strauss argued that we are missing the “generational tissue” to seamlessly pass the love of the game from fathers to sons like we do in other sports.Indeed, I recall Christian Pulisic in HBO’s docuseries, “U.S.
Against The World” saying that he...