The US U-17's crashed out of the World Cup yesterday in less than dramatic fashion, courtesy of a 4-0 thumping from the Germans. And it really wasn't that close.
After Wilmer Cabrera's boys opened the tournament with a victory over fellow group heavyweights, the Czech Republic. After that, the Americans never seemed to find that same form, falling to Uzbekistan and barely showing up for a 0-0 draw with New Zealand to squeak into the round of 16.
While there were some brights spots, the shot stopping of Kellen McIntosh, timely goals from Alfred Koroma, and inventive stuff in the midfield from Alejandro Guido, it seems to be a frightening plague for American teams at all levels to not be able to string performances together. We saw it in the Gold Cup where the senior could not muster two solid efforts together, we saw it as the U-20's failed to qualify for the World Cup with a crushing semifinal loss and we see it again in Mexico with the U-17's.
After watching the latest short coming for the US, it is still obvious the only area of the game which we approach an elite level is goalkeeping. Though commendable, not the way to grow the game and/or players. The US is solid in most areas, i.e. skill, speed/athleticism, organization, intelligence, etc., but are not elite in any. Any match where they do encounter a team at a high level in any one of these multiple measures and they can be greatly exposed.
Germany looked highly superior in every category, but looking back to the Uzbek match one can only cite a superior commitment and organization (with a bit of individual skill from Timur Khakimov) to a gap in level.
This could be a indictment against the training and managing of the players. Or, as postulated before, we could be looking at the middle of a generational dip in form for the US.
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