The last time the United States men’s national team entered into the final stretch of their preparations for a World Cup on home soil, the results were dire. From January through April of 1994, the Americans, who were mostly sequestered in a full-time training camp, played 12 games and won just twice. They even managed to lose to Iceland, who were a total non-factor in global soccer back then.
Then, that ’94 team went on to survive the group stage and narrowly lose to eventual champions Brazil, 1-0, in the round of 16. They delivered on expectations in spite of their deflating run-in.
This precedent may bring some measure of consolation to present-day USA fans. When their team next gather in May to get themselves ready for the World Cup proper with friendlies against Senegal and Germany, they will have gone more than six months without winning.
Over the course of their March camp, the USMNT played three solid halves. One against Belgium, wherein the Yanks were slightly superior in the first act before caving during the second in a 5-2 smackdown on Saturday. And two against Portugal, forcing plenty of high turnovers and forging promising breakaways, but nevertheless losing 2-0 on account of a pair of loose defensive moments. All the USMNT have to show for more than a week of work, then, is a pair of unflattering defeats, utterly zapping the momentum from a team that had cruised through the fall with four wins and a tie against five World Cup-bound opponents.
Roberto Martínez, the current Portugal and former Belgium manager, warned about reading too much into the results a few months out of a World Cup. “If I can give you a little bit of my experience, it’s don’t take too much of your assessments and evaluations in March,” Martínez said. “Because they are quite worthless.”
He said it of the Americans’ defeat to Belgium, before Martínez’s team plunged the US fans further into a crisis of faith.
This message may soothe England fans as well, considering their own side’s mirthless March with a tie with a rudderless Uruguay and a loss to Japan. England, it should be noted, went into the 2022 World Cup with no wins in six and nevertheless had a broadly successful tournament before running into France in the quarter-finals.
It’s something of an American tradition to post successful World Cups on the back of shaky, concerning results.
The USMNT did it as early as 1950. Back then, they lost their one tune-up game to an assortment of English players headlined by superstar Stanley Matthews. And then the Americans stunned England, 1-0, at the World Cup in Brazil.
In 2002, the US lost to Italy, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands in the run-up to the World Cup – beating only a handful of regional foes and a Uruguay side that would go winless at the tournament. But in South Korea, the Americans made their deepest run in more than 70 years, reaching the quarter-finals and pushing Germany to the brink there.
In 2010, the Americans were dominated by the Dutch, 2-1, in a March game, and lost 4-2 to the Czech Republic in one of their two send-off games, before recovering with a 2-1 win over Turkey. Still, they had a fairly strong World Cup, making it out of a difficult group.
Conversely, the US went into the 1998 World Cup on a five-game unbeaten run, and won their two send-off games to the 2006 World Cup. They went winless at both those tournaments.
More recently, the 2014 World Cup team lost to Ukraine and tied Mexico in March and April before surviving the group of death in Brazil that summer. And ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Gregg Berhalter’s team looked uninterested in a loss to Japan and a tie with Saudi Arabia in September friendlies ahead of the November competition.
So there’s that.
There’s also optimism.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the results,” misfiring US forward Christian Pulisic told TNT after the game. “But, to be honest, I’m taking a lot of positives from it. I think we’re a lot closer than we may seem. … I still feel positives and I have belief in this team. I feel good things coming.”
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino was similarly inclined, as befits his sunny disposition. “We cannot be negative because of the result,” he said. “But, of course, the results are negative.”
“I am happy about the camp,” Pochettino added. “I think this camp is very positive. It was the end of our trajectory of our preparation for the World Cup. I am more positive now than before. Seeing the team compete, we are not far away. It’s only details that we need to improve.”
Details, sure. And, well, probably results, too.
But then history suggests that for the USMNT, both are likelier to follow than not once the World Cup actually kicks off.
Leander Schaerlaeckens’ book on the United States men’s national soccer team, The Long Game, is out on 12 May. You can preorder it here. He teaches at Marist University.
