Gold Cup Bootroom: Revenge is Spicy Edition

All hail Miss USA! USA! USA! Or is it Miss Oooo-sah!?

One of the big problems with the USMNT these days is that, while Tracksuit Bob needs to go, there might be a false sense of growth among us fans. Never has this question been more at the forefront than tonight, when the Yanquis take on Panama in one Gold Cup semifinal in Houston (6:30 p.m. EDT pregame, 7 p.m. start, FSC/Univision EN VIVO!).

Many of us have spent a ton of time ragging on Huh Bob and calling for his head, the head of Sunil Gulati, and just about anyone else associated with this team. After some Twitter banter and a long discussion with an old friend of mine, I started to ask a question that hadn’t crossed my mind: Are we just still not any good?

Think about it. Even back to the days of 1990 and 1994, the USMNT got the occasional huge win. England, Germany, Argentina, Portugal. All of these teams fell to our “lesser” sides over the years. Now, we win the occasional game against Spain (a huge upset), and we’ve turned the tide on Mexico (though I doubt we will in this tournament). But, other than building a mediocre domestic league and placing some guys into decent roles in Europe (admit it, none but Deuce and Timmay are lock starters for their sides), how are we truly better than we were 20 years ago?

The 1990 roster had Paul Caligiuri, Marcelo Balboa, John Harkes, Eric Wynalda, Peter Vermes, Chris Henderson, Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Tab Ramos, Des Armstrong. If you take these guys in their primes (and some of them were really young on this team) and gave them the MLS or Euro seasoning that some of the current generation have had, do we really think we have more quality now than we did then? I would argue it’s closer than we want to admit.

So then the grim realization is this: We’re still just not very good. We’ll win sometimes, we’ll lose sometimes, we will muddle along. We’re England, but with one less trophy.

This isn’t to say that I hate my country or that I hate this team. All I’m saying is that there was this promise. This expectation. Once we got the World Cup in 1994 and the domestic league started, the level of play would increase along with it. And it has, a little. I would concede that the player pool is deeper than it was then, but only because we know about these players now and we didn’t then, but that’s as much about technology as it is about scouting. I also concede that Clint Dempsey is class. In any generation. Just as Brian McBride was in England or Landon Donovan was in 2002.

As much as I dislike Bob Bradley, I’m putting the blame on US Soccer itself. Much like FIFA (without the piles of cash), the USSF is a tree that has self-perpetuated to this point, building a U.S. “style” and going with it. The “new” people who come along most often learned from the old people who just left. We will never be near the top of the world’s football playing countries as long as we continue to perpetuate a fallacy about our growth and quality. And that makes me a little sad.

What would make me happier is being the snot out of Panama tonight, and I think we can do so with this lineup:

TIMMAY!
Cherundolo-Goodson-Ream-Lichaj
Bradley-Edu (since Jones has a yellow)
Dempsey-Bedoya (though you might be able to talk me into Sacha)-Donovan
Agudelo

Panama will be without their best player, Blas Perez, because of the red he got against El Salvador, so this should be better for us, but you never know, especially if we go down early.

In the nightcap, Mexico takes on Honduras at 10 p.m. Since this game is being played in Houston, this should be a raucous affair, with a HUGE fan advantage to El Tri. After watching Mexico struggle for a while against Guatemala, I wondered if they’re in trouble. But really, no. They aren’t. I expect Chicharito to score again. Nice stat from ESPN’s Allan Hopkins: The Little Pea has scored more by himself (9) than the USMNT has combined (8).

So there’s my rant and set-up. Enjoy the matches tonight. Talk about them at your leisure. And as always, comment safely.