The two U.S. national soccer teams experienced important events during the past week: the men lost to Mexico in the Gold Cup final on Saturday while the women won their World Cup opener against North Korea on Tuesday.
Both outcomes speak volumes about the varying spectrum that is U.S. soccer.
U.S. men”s soccer continues to become increasingly insignificant. America”s Major League Soccer (MLS) features players incapable of competing at high levels and frankly is painful to watch.
Then again, most people know the best players in the world play professionally outside of the U.S., but today”s great international stars (guys like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney) don”t hail from the U.S.A.
American male soccer players are, by and large, irrelevant internationally, yet U.S. fans continue to have such high expectations.
Those hopes are truly misplaced considering the national team has absolutely no history of international success, which is usually measured by World Cup performances.
The U.S.A., an athletic power in most worldwide competitions, has only one top-four finish in men”s World Cup history — a third-place showing in the 1930 tournament.
Last year in South Africa, the national team survived group play but got bounced by a weaker Ghana team in the Round of 16.
The disappointing result in the 2010 FIFA World Cup shouldn”t have been surprising for the group made up of career underachievers (i.e. Landon Donovan and Tim Howard).
Still, few could have predicted how Saturday”s game against Mexico would play out.
The U.S. team stumbled through most of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Gold Cup but seemed to gain some momentum going into the final.
The Americans jumped out to an early two-goal lead after the 23rd minute Saturday, much to the chagrin of the mainly pro-Mexico crowd at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, but the rules unfortunately stated that all 90 minutes must be played.
The U.S. advantage quickly disappeared by halftime, and though the match was 2-2 at the start of the second half, the Mexicans easily surged to a 4-2 victory.
While good, creative Mexico ball movement contributed to victory, the blame for the four unanswered goals should really lie with the questionable U.S. midfield defense and even worse goalkeeping.
The loss against the lower-ranked Mexican squad leaves many questions for the U.S. team looking toward the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (such as, will Howard”s costly play be tolerated? Is Bob Bradley the right coach? Who, other than Donovan and Clint Dempsey, will score goals consistently?).
Because there seem to be more questions than answers, maybe it”s time for U.S. fans to accept that the men”s national team just lacks the skills necessary to compete internationally.
The women”s national team, on the other hand, continues to show it has some of the best talent in the world.
In fact, the American women have always been among the most successful teams. Since the FIFA women”s rankings began in late 2003, the U.S. team has had three significant stints at the top (and comes into the 2011 FIFA World Cup in Germany ranked No. 1).
The team has shown the ability to produce; the U.S. won the 1991 and 1999 World Cups and finished third in 1995, 2003 and 2007.
Nevertheless, there were concerns about the U.S. team entering this year”s World Cup, mostly because they barely qualified. Fortunately, Tuesday”s victory helped calm the anxiety.
After a sluggish first half, Lauren Cheney broke a scoreless tie with a goal in the 54th minute and Rachel Buehler added another goal in the 76th minute.
The Americans cruised to a 2-0 victory against North Korea and seem on track to advance past the group stage.
If all four group favorites win their groups (the Americans included), the U.S. should secure a sixth-consecutive World Cup semifinals appearance.
But the issue for national team veterans (like goalkeeper Hope Solo and forward Abby Wambach) has been getting through to the World Cup finals, an objective the newer recruits (like Buehler and Cheney) might be able to help with.
American sports fans should have high expectations the next couple of weeks because the U.S. women”s national team has a real shot to win the World Cup.
Still, the team and its fans should take the tournament one step at a time.
The American women face Colombia this coming Saturday and finish up group play against a high-ranked Sweden squad this coming Wednesday.
Both remaining games should be entertaining, and there may not a better way to celebrate the week of Independence Day than donning the red and blue and cheering on the only successful U.S. soccer team.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. He can be reached at 263-5636 ext. 37 or jwalsh@record-bee.com.
