Copa América

U.S. players struggle for answers after Copa collapse: 'We need to mature'

Updated Jul. 2, 2024 11:54 a.m. ET

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Laken Litman

College Football & Soccer Analyst

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. men's national team was eliminated from Copa América on Monday night after an emotional 1-0 loss to Uruguay. So much has been made of this talented and young generation of players competing in the top European leagues, and they entered this summer's tournament with legitimate hopes and expectations of making a deep run. They wanted to show the world that they had made progress since the last World Cup and that they were gearing up for the next one.

But Monday's result, coupled with Panama beating Bolivia in a match happening simultaneously, sealed the Americans' fate. And in the process, it proved that the USMNT has not grown enough over the course of this cycle and must course-correct before co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

"I mean, we've got time to improve until then," captain Christian Pulisic told reporters after the match. "I think everyone has to take a step back and we need to find our identity, find the motivation. I mean, I don't think it's a lack of motivation — I want it so bad, everyone does. So I'm not exactly sure what specifically [is missing]. But I think we are on a good path and I think we can expect good things."

Added Jedi Robinson: "This team is still young, still has a lot of potential. But potential doesn't really matter if you go out onto the pitch and you don't get the job done. I think we need to mature as a group really quickly. Everyone needs to try and have that level, myself included, and play their best football at club level, and then when we come together, we need to find a way to make the sum of our parts perform as good as we're expected to."

The U.S. was drawn into a manageable Copa América group, and it was realistic that it would easily advance to the knockout stage. But as Matt Turner said while reflecting late Monday night, "we weren't killers in the box" in a 2-0 win over Bolivia in the opening match. The U.S. lost its cool and played with 10 men in a stunning 2-1 loss to Panama in the second. It was then flat-out beaten by Uruguay 1-0 in the third.

Oftentimes, when teams are preparing for critical matches like these, players and coaches say things like "we control our own destiny." Unfortunately for the USMNT, that wasn't the case here. Regardless of what ended up happening against La Celeste at Arrowhead Stadium, the Americans also needed a certain result from the Panama-Bolivia game. 

On Sunday, Berhalter told reporters that the coaching staff would not give its players live updates on that match. But they did. Berhalter told the team at halftime that Panama was leading 1-0. Then TV cameras caught him putting up both index fingers to mime to his players that Bolivia had equalized and the game was tied right before Uruguay scored on a free kick in the 66th minute. Had the respective score lines stuck, the U.S. would be flying to Phoenix to prepare for a quarterfinal right now. But Panama scored two more times and the U.S. failed to respond. 

"It sucks. It hurts. It wasn't for a lack of effort," Pulisic said. "At the end of the day, we hurt ourselves in the second game and that put us in a tougher position today. And we just couldn't get the job done today."

On a more fundamental level, the U.S. didn't score enough goals to win. Three in three group stage matches wasn't going to cut it, just like the three goals it scored in four matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar didn't cut it.

United States eliminated from Copa América: Carli Lloyd & Alexi Lalas react

Berhalter and the players were directly asked about missed opportunities, especially in the first match against Bolivia, which many inside and out of the program thought would have ended in a more lopsided score. The team didn't outwardly appear concerned at the time, though perhaps they should have been — goal differential was the first tiebreaker in this tournament.

Issues run deeper than putting the ball in the back of the net, however. Berhalter's side has not evolved enough since its Round of 16 finish at the last World Cup. And if Copa América was truly supposed to be a dry run before 2026, the USMNT has still not proven that it can compete with the world's best teams. The U.S. lacks a signature win under Berhalter.

About 90 minutes after the loss, the U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker released a statement saying, "Our tournament performance fell short of our expectations. We must do better. We will be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance in Copa América and how best to improve the team and results as we look towards the 2026 World Cup."

Players, led by Pulisic, were vocal in their support of Berhalter before he was rehired by U.S. soccer last year. Do they still believe he's the right person for the job?

Should USMNT replace Gregg Berhalter?

"We have all the faith," a visibly frustrated Tim Ream said. "It's not just on him, it's on us as players as well. There are things we can all continue to improve upon, there are things that we can do in games that will help us win games and there are things that we can eliminate from our games that will help us be stronger and more solid as a group.

"We have confidence in each other and right now it's just a difficult moment not moving on."

Copa América was the last major tournament the U.S. will play before the next World Cup. Being knocked out early denies the squad a chance to keep battling against quality competition — a matchup against Brazil or Colombia, teams it faced ahead of the tournament, would have awaited them in the quarterfinal.

"That's very important," Ream said. "Those opponents aren't going to come about as often as we'd like, and they've been rarer and rarer in the last four, five, six years. It would have been another amazing test and a chance for another high-level game and a knockout stage game. So unfortunately, we don't make it there and we don't get that opportunity."

In the days and weeks ahead, a decision on Berhalter's future with the team will be made. Ream said there will also be some "tough conversations" among the players.

"There's no other way to get around it," Ream said. "You can't paper over the cracks, you can't hide from the cracks."

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.

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