USMNT loses to Uruguay, crashes out of Copa América

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. males’s nationwide staff crashed out of the 2024 Copa América right here on Monday after dropping a full-blooded combat.

It squared as much as Uruguay, Group C’s strongest puncher. For an hour, it neutralized one of many Copa’s most spectacular contenders up to now. It endured bruising bodily duels. In moments, it seemed able to profitable.

What it wanted, although, was to attain.

Over 90 tense and frantic minutes right here at Arrowhead Stadium, it by no means did.

As a substitute, it conceded a controversial second-half objective to Uruguay’s Mathías Olivera — which gave the impression to be offside, however was confirmed by a video evaluation — and lost 1-0.

Panama, taking part in concurrently, beat Bolivia 3-1, leaving the Individuals in a distant third place and eradicated.

On the last whistle, some gamers sunk to the bottom; others keeled over on the waist; others simply stood there, defeated and dumbfounded.

In the long run, although, it was their earlier match that value them. They arrived in Kansas Metropolis wounded and reeling, beaten by Panama and pushed to the brink in Group C. Per week in the past, it appeared so easy; all of a sudden, failure lurked within the bowels of Arrowhead, able to pounce if the U.S. couldn’t beat Uruguay, a flyweight giant of the sport.

“We’ve to go and play the perfect sport of our lives,” Christian Pulisic stated Thursday.

On the eve of the Uruguay showdown, he amended that assertion; it was hyperbolic; “possibly I used to be a bit emotional,” he stated. However the dimension of the duty and the stakes have been clear. “We’ve to play a very sturdy sport,” Pulisic stated.

Thirty hours later, they tried.

In some respects, they did.

However Uruguay was stronger. Uruguay is stronger. Uruguay was the staff that grew into Monday’s sport within the second half and compelled the U.S. to fade. Uruguay was the staff much less perturbed by the physicality.

The primary half was forceful and infrequently unhinged. Crunching tackles floored a number of gamers. Two — Uruguay’s Maxi Araujo and U.S. striker Folarin Balogun — exited with accidents after scary collisions.

It was additionally plagued by sketchy refereeing. On one event, official Kevin Ortega whistled for a foul on U.S. defender Chris Richards, and whipped out a yellow card — then tucked it away to permit Uruguay to play benefit. The ensuing probability almost yielded a gap objective, however Tim Ream scrambled again to clear.

The U.S., on the whole, matched Uruguay’s depth — which was no straightforward feat. The Individuals have been higher for the opening half-hour, a minor victory by itself given the energy of Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguayan staff.

However, as has been the case far too usually underneath head coach Gregg Berhalter, they couldn’t discover a objective. They created simply 0.3 Anticipated Targets to Uruguay’s 1.3.

“I imply, we had an excellent begin and introduced quite a lot of vitality,” Pulisic said postgame, “however on the finish of the day, simply not sufficient high quality. I felt like we gave it all the pieces, however we simply could not discover the options to attain.”

As soon as Panama scored within the twenty second minute in opposition to Bolivia in Group C’s different match, the U.S. needed to conjure some high quality; it needed to create one thing.

For a couple of transient second-half minutes, Bolivia gave the USMNT life. The Bolivians equalized in opposition to Panama. Had each video games led to a draw, the U.S. would have snuck by means of to the knockout rounds on objective differential.

However lower than a minute after Bolivia’s objective was confirmed by a video evaluation, the U.S. conceded on a set piece.

Panama later scored a second to return forward, after which a 3rd.

Uruguay maintained management, noticed out its 1-0 win, and despatched U.S. gamers trudging towards their locker room to confront failure, towards Copa América exits.

They trudged, crestfallen, shattered, despondent, sooner than anybody anticipated. Many had been requested within the previous weeks about expectations and benchmarks for the Copa; exterior assumptions have been {that a} quarterfinal berth could be acceptable and a semifinal profitable, however some gamers went additional: Why not attempt to win it?

Few appeared to even take into account a group-stage flop. It was up to now beneath the USMNT’s apparently inflated sense of self. And it will so clearly represent colossal disappointment.

But it surely occurred, and now all eyes will flip to what occurs subsequent. They’ll flip to U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker, and to Berhalter. A majority of followers and pundits now appear to agree that he ought to be fired. Will he be? In that case, who will exchange him? And if not, how will he and the USMNT reply?

A mostly-under-23 staff will head to the Paris Olympics later this month. However for the complete USMNT, the subsequent 18 months will probably be comparatively barren. There will probably be monotonous, low-profile friendlies. There will probably be tiresome regional competitions.

This Copa América fracaso will cling over all of them, as a result of this was the event that was purported to elevate this system; this was its stepping stone towards the 2026 World Cup in North America. As a substitute, the U.S. will enter 2026 with roughly zero proof that it could possibly cling with the elite of worldwide soccer and contend.

Here is how the match performed out in real-time: