The pain and promise of the USMNT World Cup exit
The Americans, one by one, paused and inadvertently built a kind of staccato chorus that spoke of their pain in being shaken 3-1 by Holland, their sense that they might have done more, their sense that they might have done more.
They brought a little bit of what I learned at the World Cup, like when goalkeeper Matt Turner said, “The most important thing is that the margins for success or failure in this tournament are very thin,” or when the youngest captain in this World Cup, Tyler Adams, said, “If Were anything this team would take away from, it would be on the sidelines”, or when veteran DeAndre Yedlin said, “The most important thing is that the group learned how to lose in a World Cup, and that goes a long way”, or when Christian Pulisic said, “We don’t want to To feel it again.”
First came Turner, 28, who began by saying, “The silence is deafening [in the locker room]; Everyone is disappointed.” He told how the Dutch seemed to have “expectations” about the accidental cross that hit the first two goals, said he “got into both boxes” as they “finished their chances,” said it was an honour, said he hoped boys and girls were watching and aspired to tradition.
“There is huge potential,” he said. “If you don’t see it, I don’t know…the potential is obvious.” He didn’t want it “to be our MO”, and said: “It’s part of changing the expectations of our fans, changing the expectations of the players in the dressing room, not just feeling like we won the cup because we made the round of 16.”
Next came Adams, 23, who spoke about those “margins” – they’re everywhere, in fact, across the 32-team event – and how the centre-back “was really good”, and how he wasn’t there in 2010 and 2014. When the United States reached the same juncture, so he does not know, but this feels “special.”
Soon came Walker Zimmerman, the 29-year-old centre-back. He analyzed the Dutch hole-in-the-wall American airtight who made it through Group B but couldn’t hold out against Denzel Dumfries’ passes in the first half. He said “Well, you never know if it was something they might have seen on tape. I mean, I have to go back to the group stage and see if those spaces open up. We obviously didn’t get hurt by those chances in the group stage. Maybe it’s something they saw. Maybe. It was just execution at that moment, but again, definitely that second, we have to be able to mentally stop this play from happening.”
summarize. “That’s what makes it more difficult, just to go out and see how special this team is, how hard we work,” he said. He believed they arrived with the goal of winning it all and “showing we can compete with anyone,” and he ticked off a list of promising traits including “team youth,” “community,” and “the love we have for one another.” This World Cup has been “something that a lot of American fans can look back on and be proud of — the way we play and the way we do our job. So I think we’ll come back hungrier than ever, a lot of guys in what we used to consider their boss, we’ve got a lot of guys going through the pipeline that I think they can contribute. So, it’s an exciting time to be an American football fan, and I just hope the legacy — and that what hurts us is that we thought this was a group that could have done something no American team has done.”
Andreas Neubert snapped. He’s not American but Dutch, a goalkeeper, and he answered a few questions and answered this: “They’re crazy, like hell. They work together. They don’t give up.”
Younes Moussa, then only 20, was brief but said, “The team we are, we could have done a lot better.”
Brendan Aronson, 22, was somewhat less succinct and said, “Sad and so many feelings. It’s just tough.” And, “I mean listen, we’ve had as many chances as they have.”
Walked Anthony Robinson, then only 25, of the previous two goals: “I don’t know. He said he hoped coach Greg Berhalter would stick around: “He’s given a lot of the boys a chance to develop with this group. You look at the whole campaign and almost everyone has played their first World Cup.”
He said he felt “like I gave everything I could get”, and that “a lot of these guys could have been together for years and years now.”
Here comes Weston McKinney, 24, who proactively defended Pulisic for missing in the third minute: “For anyone in the future who might try, ‘Oh, if Christian had scored that,’ we’ve all seen the things he’s done for the United States.” Football. We all know it’s a group here. We’re all trying to support each other.”
Speaking of a “common goal from four years ago” after he missed the previous World Cup, he said, “This tournament has brought back a lot of confidence and respect. We’ve shown we can be giants. We may not be there yet, but we’re definitely on the way.”
“There was a lot in the tank,” he began, responding to a question asking about exhaustion.
“It’s going to hurt for a while,” he said of the early loss.
“We’ve definitely come a long way,” he said.
He said that the Dutch team appeared early on as if it had two real chances, but also two real goals. “I felt like we were at 2-0, but it didn’t feel like it had to be like this. That’s what good teams do, they punish you.”
Yedlin, 29, the only player left from Brazil 2014, paused and said: “I mean I think we’ve given a lot of hope. People see the talent of this team, they’re excited. The camaraderie of the group is exciting.”
“Now it’s a completely different story,” he said. “They know that feeling of what you’re going to lose after they’ve put so much into it.”
Finally, came Tim Ream, a 35-year-old fullback. The evening, the World Cup and his career in the US dwindled one night, as he said from much experience: “Sometimes, you know, good players jump on you. Expect it. Those two players [Dumfries and Memphis]They were a little faster. Maybe it was something they were working on.”
“Yeah, I mean,” he said, “I’ve tried to convey to the players: You can never guarantee anything in this game. I’ve been in the program for 12 years, never guaranteed anything. A lot of these guys guarantee another World Cup. For me, It’s not going to happen… I gave it my all, and I hope those people take that advice. I’ve seen them take that advice in the three weeks we’ve been together, so I hope they continue to do that.”
With that, the Mixed Zone concluded for the night.
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