US Soccer is in the midst of a lost generation. A few articles have been written about how the generation born between 1990 and 1994, which should be the backbone of the program, have yielded very few good players for the USMNT. The outfield players on the US Gold Cup roster within that generation: Tyler Boyd, Paul Arriola, Jordan Morris, Gyasi Zardes, Will Trapp, Aaron Long, Daniel Lovitz, Walker Zimmerman and Nick Lima. The only players with more than 20 USMNT caps in that group are Zardes and Morris, MLS lifers who either never had a sniff in Europe or chose to go the big fish in a small pond route.
The USMNT had two choices to combat this lost generation problem: roll the dice and take your lumps with a young roster or keep trying to put a Band Aid on a bullet wound. They chose the latter. So coming out of the Gold Cup what do we know about the USMNT roster going forward?
Pulisic is the best talent the US has ever produced. McKennie is probably going to be a stud. We knew all of that. We literally learned nothing else. I know you guys like to shit on the Gold Cup for good reason, but any functional soccer federation would’ve used it as a measuring stick to see what progress was made since failing to qualify for the World Cup, but the US Soccer federation isn’t functional.
We’ve talked ad nauseum about how they dragged their feet hiring a coach and that continues to fuck the USMNT. Not only that, but Tata Martino, who wanted the USMNT job, absolutely kicked his ass last night. The first half was back and forth, Martino made adjustments and Mexico’s B team kicked the shit out of what is pretty much the best the US has to offer right now. I know Tyler Adams was missing, but Tyler Adams doesn’t close the gap between the US and Mexico who didn’t have Lozano, Vela, Herrera, Layun, Corona and others.
People have always wondered if and when the US could and would compete with the biggest soccer nations consistently on the world stage but consider this: After a shit performance at the 2000 Euros the German soccer federation in fear of embarrassing itself again, particularly with a World Cup on home soil coming up, completely rebuilt its system placing an emphasis on youth development.
The inability for the US to compete on the international stage isn’t entirely about resources. It’s about wherewithal and ingenuity. US Soccer has none of that. It is going to remain a rudderless ship.