About 15 minutes before Tuesday night’s Copa America semifinal match between the US and Argentina, three of the four Fox Sports One analysts picked the US as their prediction to win the game. That’s when I not only believed the US was definitely going to lose, but a small part of me wanted them to lose. Everyone was way too high on the team and it happens every time the US soccer team strings together a few wins.
Frankly, it was a little unrealistic to expect to beat the number one team in the world with the number one player in the world. The US team was able to string together some legitimate wins this tournament against teams like Ecuador and Costa Rica but again proved to be the Georgia Bulldogs of soccer, as they couldn’t top the elite teams in Colombia and Argentina. Tuesday night was a brutal combination of a wake up call and slice of humble pie. The US had, not only zero shots on goal, but zero shots. They did not take a single shot the whole game. Last night was indeed a crushing blow, but not surprising, blow to the morale of the US team.
The best is yet to come for the US soccer though. The average age of last nights starting lineup was just over 25 and new faces, such as Brad Guzan in goal, showed us some flashes of brilliance in the Copa America tournament.
It also comes down to a cultural gap in the US. Soccer has never been a big deal in this country until recently. The MLS was established in 1993 after the failure of some other pro soccer leagues and is beginning to truly thrive. It will continue to grow with a team in Atlanta in 2017, another team in LA in 2018 and teams in Minnesota and Miami in the near future. With the growing popularity of the MLS, children will be able to get athlete role models from the game of soccer ergo increasing the want to play the sport. EA Sports’ FIFA video has also made a profound impact on the US as it is consistently one of the most played video games. What better way to learn about the players of a game than to play them as your own? Soccer has a bright future in this country and shows no signs of going away anytime soon.
While they’re taking their lumps now, the US men’s team has a bright future. It’ll take some time but soccer will eventually arrive in full force here. For now we’ll have to take dominating basketball in the Olympics but it’s only a matter of time until we’re consistently competing with the big boys of international soccer.
