ONE YEAR PLUS TWO DAYS ago, the United States men’s national team dropped a 5-1 loss to Colombia in a pre-Copa America friendly in Maryland. In the following 367 days, the team has proceeded to crash out of a Copa America - which it hosted - in the group stages, fire its head coach, have an unsuccessful camp with an interim coach, spend a fortune on a new “big name” head coach, finish fourth out of four on home soil in the Nations League with losses to Panama and Canada, and finally complete the cycle right where it started – a four goal loss on home soil to a very good team in a pre-tournament friendly.

Following Tuesday night's disaster that was a 4-0 loss to Switzerland in Nashville, head coach Mauricio Pochettino took the blame.

“I’m the guilty one here,” he stated point blank.

Accountability is a good thing, and it was missed terribly during the Jurgen Klinsmann-era when the German-coach seldomly took the blame for anything that went wrong. It is also a hallmark of a good coach to shield the players from the blame to improve morale while trying to fix problems.

But it is true that Pochettino certainly shares blame. He is insisting on building from the back with a lineup that has little experience with each other. His teams play a high line yet don’t effectively press. Defensively, the team’s shape doesn’t make sense, and it gives opponents acres of space to pick the game apart.

But when looking at the big picture, it is not possible to blame Pochettino for everything. He might not have fixed the problems yet, which was/is his job. But he didn’t create the problems either.

The 5-1 loss to Colombia and the 4-0 loss to Switzerland were under two different coaches and only one player, Johnny Cardoso, started in each game (seemingly in place of Tyler Adams).

What we look at is a mess overseen by two coaches and a wide range of players that covers many different starting XI combinations (sometimes with very little overlap). We can debate all we want about the talent level of this group and each of the specific players, their background or whatever, but that doesn’t get to the heart of the issue.

Some are quick to point out the number of typical USMNT starters who are missing. It’s a fair point but it only takes you so far. First, lineups over the past year which included Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah had mostly underwhelming performances and results. Second, a serious naional team needs to be able to compete and play well with players who might not be automatic starters, but who are in contention for the final roster.

The team’s ceiling using various players is always debatable and it certainly does change based on each lineup. It’s not debatable that whatever each ceiling might be, the team only rarely comes close to it these days. The product is consistently far below the sum of its parts even if the both the parts and assembler of the parts change.

That is a serious problem because it is systemic. It's beyond one coach or a specific set of players. 

The loss to Switzerland

The specific team problems in the loss to Switzerland were obvious. It was a very inexperienced group that made some very bad mistakes. Max Arfsten and Nathan Harriel struggled to stay with Switzerland’s wingers, which opened space.

Debutant Sebastian Berhalter was one of the team’s lesser problems but the physicality of Switzerland bothered him. Johnny Cardoso has skill on the ball, but he continues to struggle whenever he plays in place of Tyler Adams and is tasked with shielding the backline.

The attacking midfield of both Brenden Aaronson, Paxten Aaronson, and Quinn Sullivan all came up through the Philadelphia Union system but seemed to have no chemistry with each other. Brian White simply couldn’t ever touch the ball.

Neither Walker Zimmerman nor Mark McKenzie had games to remember in central defense, but the entire team was collapsing around them making it a near-impossible assignment.

The substitutes all fared a little bit better, but this too was misleading given that Switzerland were coasting and in control. The intensity of the game dropped in the second half.

Moving forward

Sometimes the Gold Cup is the right solution for teams with confidence problems. Even before they face teams like Mexico or Canada, they get the opportunity to improve their mindset in the group stages.

In the bigger stage of competing to make the World Cup roster, no one on this roster really helped their case other than Jack McGlynn who might have moved into a better position on the bubble. Arfsten was in a tight competition for the backup left back role and lost ground. Cardoso should make the World Cup but his case for playing meaningful minutes took a hit. Sullivan hasn’t combined well with others. Both Aaronson brothers need to show more. Harriel seems like a long shot, behind many others.  

In the meantime, Pochettino has a lot to figure out.  

Reason for hope

In this sport, a lot can change very quickly. There are plenty of examples of teams who have gone from bad to good in a very short period. On the flip side, playing well heading into the World Cup sometimes gives teams a false sense of security. Long-time fans will note that the best the team has looked prior to World Cups was in 1998 and 2006, its worst World Cup finishes since 1994.

Things can also change in the matter of days. People fondly remember the 2009 Confederations Cup for the U.S. team when it defeated Egypt and Spain before losing to Brazil in the final. But people forget how bad the team was in the first two games of the group stage. Also in 2002, the same team that beat Portugal, Mexico, and nearly Germany also didn’t look like it belonged against Poland.   

Heading into next year, the U.S. team will be heavily motivated by hosting a World Cup. It seems very unlikely that you will see a very dysfunctional like what doomed France in 2010. The question for the team will likely be when it gets out of the group and then has to face a good team. That has always been the stumbling block and winning knockouts against good teams is a sign of strength. Based on what we’ve seen, it is hard to be confident about this team breaking through the good/decent level and into the very good level – which everyone hoped.