U.S. Men Eliminated from Copa America

After conceeding a early first half goal, the U.S. Men's National soccer team was eliminated from the Copa America on a 1-0 loss to Columbia. However, even had the United States won, they would have been eliminated from Copa America anyway due to previous losses and goal differential.

Since the game would not have been decisive, U.S. Coach Bob Bradley fielded a young and internationally inexperienced team:

Only two players in the U.S. starting lineup – Eddie Johnson (29) and Dan Califf (15) – came into the match with double-digit caps, and six of the first XI for the U.S. had three or fewer caps. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan, defenders Drew Moor and Bobby Boswell, midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Sacha Kljestan and forward Herculez Gomez came into the match with a combined 10 caps.

After the U.S. victory in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and subsequent qualification for the World Cup tune-up tournament, the Confederations Cup in 2009, Bradley deliberately choose a squad with relatively little international experience. Indeed veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller has more international games that most of the squad combined.

Despite the disappointing results, Bradley put a good spin on the matter:

"In all three games, I think we had moments when we played well,” said U.S. head coach Bob Bradley. “We still must be more consistent over 90 minutes in order to move to the next level. As we have said over the last few weeks, it is a great challenge to play in back-to-back tournaments. You run into situations with the various clubs, and as a result we brought a younger team here.”

I would agree with Bradley on the consistency matter. But I would add the U.S. needs to put the ball in the net more. In three games of group play in the Copa America, the U.S. men scored only two goals and gave up eight. While consistency is the key to long term competitiveness, scoring goals is the only way to win tournaments.