U.S. men's soccer can't lose sight of goals

THE CONCACAF Gold Cup was never going to provide all the answers for the United States' men's national team, but it wasn't expected to produce so many questions.

The big question after USA lost to Panama in the third-place game on Saturday at PPL Park is: Was the tournament simply a disappointment or was a huge setback?

As always with the United States, roster selection was an issue of debate with some saying Jürgen Klinsmann again sacrificed quality for the sake of future development.

The use of young defenders John Brooks (22), Ventura Alvarado (22) and Timmy Chandler (25) drew scrutiny.

Klinsmann refused to pin anything on any particular player and said, "We put out the best team available.

"That's what's we had. We had the best team [for this] tournament. When it's tournament time, it's tournament time and you want to win it. We didn't win it."

It is not quite as simple as getting spanked on home soil in a tournament for the championship of the region - although that is bad.

Had the United States advanced to the finals and lost to Mexico yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field, the disappointment would have been the same. But, losing to the nation that is your equal as the top power in CONCACAF would have been understandable.

That would have been Spain losing to Germany in Spain or vice versa. It happens.

The United States' Gold Cup ended in Atlanta last Wednesday when it lost to Jamaica in the semifinals.

Sure, as Klinsmann noted, playing a third-place game is something neither team wants to do; but it can't be an excuse for losing 1-1 (3-2 on penalty kicks) to Panama.

The United States does not have the resumé of success that would allow it the luxury of taking any match off.

I don't see a Lionel Messi (Argentina) or Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) on this roster.

The development of the U.S. program is an ongoing process. Players should view each game as an opportunity to secure their position or seize one.

There were high stakes for the USA in this Gold Cup. A championship would have sealed a berth in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup that is a tune-up for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Now the United States must beat Mexico - which defeated Jamaica, 3-1 in last night's Gold Cup title game - in a playoff match in October to earn the Confederations Cup bid it desperately wants.

"Any time you don't win it's a setback of sorts," U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said, noting that Klinsmann is in no danger of being fired. "But when you win, it's a step forward.

"A step back to what? We're not going to win every game, so that means every team in the world has a lot of setbacks by that definition."

That is true, but it is also true that some nations can weather setbacks much more easily than other ones. The United States is one of the other ones.

It's a transitional period for the USA, a time when stars from the last generation are being phased out and younger players are trying to put themselves in the mix.

It comes just as the initial draws for 2018 World Cup qualification took place. The United States is in CONCACAF Group C with Trinidad and Tobago along with the winners of playoffs featuring Guatemala vs. Antigua and Barbuda, and Aruba vs. St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

It is not a dangerous draw, but the United States cannot play as it did during the last two matches in the Gold Cup.

Klinsmann has the old-versus-new dilemma.

On one side, veterans like Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman and Brad Evans might be the USA's best chance to take care of immediate business. But, if they are the players you are still counting on three years from now in Russia, that will be a problem.

The other side is that eventually, the young players who you hope will have prominent roles in 2018 need international game-experience. However, their current inexperience could endanger business that must be handled now.

"You always have an eye on the growth of the program and at the same time you zoom in when a tournament is happening," Klinsmann said, adding he does not anticipate many roster changes for the Confederations Cup playoff. "We keep building in the background then.

"We build an Olympic team [Rio 2016] that goes into qualifiers in October. We build the next cycle for the Under-20s that did extremely well in the [U-20 World Cup] in New Zealand, just losing against the eventual word champions in the quarterfinals.

"For us, it's clear that we look towards September - two friendly games to prepare for the playoff in October. Overall, I think we could have won this tournament, but at the end of the day we didn't."

All of which raises more questions.

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood

Blog: ph.ly/DNL