Despite Flat Finish, USMNT's Copa America Run Was a Success
Perspective sometimes doesn't come right away in a society with a "what have you done for me lately" mentality.
Now that we've had two days to detox from the ugly finish the United States men's national team had at the Copa America Centenario against Colombia, it's time to look back at how much the Yanks accomplished over the last three weeks.
Finishing fourth at a tournament in which almost all of the 16 sides had a fighting chance to advance to the knockout phase isn't a bad thing. On top of that, the Americans earned the highest finish of any CONCACAF nation.
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Although the last two matches of the tournament proved the squad is not able to earn marquee results on the biggest stage yet, the run that led to a fourth-place finish taught us a good amount about the Yanks.
The first four games of the competition saw them play plenty of positive soccer. Although the opening match against Colombia didn't produce the ideal result, the USMNT still showed plenty of intent moving forward. Everything didn't come together in attack until the win over Costa Rica, but the foundation was laid on June 3.
The June 7 victory over Costa Rica was a statement in a few different ways.
On a regional level, the Yanks proved they are still capable of handling business against a CONCACAF rival on home soil. Defeating Costa Rica by a 4-0 margin in the Copa is a good sign for the hexagonal round of World Cup qualifying, where the Americans are expected to claim the maximum 15 points at home. They achieved that feat on the way to winning the Hex in the last World Cup cycle.
The winning effort at Soldier Field was led by veterans Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones. They also received a splendid performance up top from Bobby Wood, who was one of the best players under 25 at the entire tournament.
However, the reliance on older members of the squad, like Dempsey and Jones, is something the USMNT will have to get away from at some point in the next two or three years. But the process may not start until after the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, since no one behind Dempsey and Jones on the depth chart carries the intangibles they have.
John Brooks installed himself as the defensive rock of the USMNT for years to come in the final group game, in which the squad held on to a 1-0 advantage despite playing with 10 men for the majority of the second half. The 23-year-old came into his own at center-back throughout the Copa after a disastrous 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup in which he and Ventura Alvarado looked out of sorts from the start.
One of the biggest takeaways from the Copa is the chemistry between Brooks and Geoff Cameron in the middle of the back four. Finding a center-back pairing worthy of playing in big games has been one of the biggest flaws of the Jurgen Klinsmann era. In a span of six matches, Klinsmann not only has a clear first-choice center-back duo but also a definitive starting lineup in the back four with DeAndre Yedlin and Fabian Johnson on the flanks.
Winning Group A thanks to Costa Rica's win over Colombia on the final day of group action was an added bonus for a USMNT side that fought hard to stave off the critics. The resilience shown in the quarterfinal showdown with Ecuador in Seattle showed us the Yanks are able to perform at the highest level under Klinsmann.
Klinsmann, who is a master tinkerer, started the same 11 players for the first three group matches and only made two tactical changes in defense for the quarterfinal when Yedlin was suspended. By allowing his side to develop chemistry during a major competition, Klinsmann got the best out of players who worked their tails off for each other for four matches and didn't concede a goal from the run of play until the semifinals.
Of course, the praise for Klinsmann went away after the 4-0 semifinal loss to Argentina. The USMNT boss went back to his old ways and opted for experience over the dynamism of his younger players on the bench. He got burned for that mistake, but he also didn't have the full commitment from his players after conceding an early strike.
If the Yanks are lucky to get back to a stage like this under Klinsmann again, a different approach should be taken.
The lone bright spot in the loss to Lionel Messi and Argentina were the play on the wing by Gyasi Zardes. Zardes, he matured a good deal throughout the Copa. The 24-year-old, who is a natural forward, rarely looked out of place on the right wing. Throughout the competition, he and Alejandro Bedoya were key cogs to the defensive game plan as they tracked back on countless occasions to stop the defense from being overwhelmed.
Moving forward, the Yanks have a strong young core of four players in Yedlin, Brooks, Zardes and Wood that Klinsmann can build around. Those four, along with the six veteran outfield players used primarily at the Copa, should start in the next set of World Cup-qualifying matches. Even though he has a reliable starting XI to call upon, the USMNT boss has to trust the players coming up in the system to fill the roles the elder statesmen of the squad will eventually vacate.
Looking back on the Copa as a whole, Klinsmann set a solid foundation for what his teams should look like for September's World Cup qualifiers against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the upcoming hexagonal round. As long as the USMNT can use the Copa as a stepping stone in its preparation for Russia, all of the hard work and progress will be worth it.
The Yanks can be proud of what they achieved at the Copa, but they also know there's a long way to go in order to challenge the world's best in two years.
Joe Tansey covers U.S. Soccer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @JTansey90.
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