Colombia's class overwhelms young USMNT despite a flash of promise

The start of the second half of the U.S. national team's friendly against Colombia on Thursday went about as well as American fans could have hoped.

Michael Bradley circled his teammates and gave them an impassioned speech on the field before the half began, and his teammates responded by taking it to the Colombians for the most inspired 10 minutes of soccer we have seen from the USMNT in over a year.

Unfortunately for the Americans, and their fans, Colombia responded by turning on the class and teaching the USMNT the latest in a string of painful lessons for the young U.S. squad.

Featuring many of the same players who helped take Colombia to the World Cup round of 16, the Cafeteros picked and prodded the U.S. defense through the first 30 minutes, but started to find space to operate even before James Rodriguez opened the scoring with a dream finish in the 36th minute. Rodriguez and Santiago Arias overloaded the left side of the U.S. defense repeatedly for most of the match, leaving Antonee Robinson overwhelmed and Zack Steffen helpless to stop Colombia's second-half onslaught.

Colombia's 4-2 humbling of the United States felt a lot like the 2-0 loss to Brazil in September, and the 2-1 loss to Ireland in June, with another veteran team beating this new generation of Americans by either being tougher, more experienced, more skilled, or in the case of Colombia, all of the above.

Where Thursday's match was different is that the USMNT actually put together an impressive stretch of team play, winning tackles, connecting passes and finishing chances. They played as a group, and the result was a pair of well-orchestrated goals against a Colombia side that is no pushover. It only lasted 10 minutes, but it showed us the best of what this team could be, even if only briefly.

Dave Sarachan also deployed his team in as attack-minded a setup as we have seen since he has been in charge — excluding the win against an overmatched Bolivian C team that was never going to be a threat. He played Kellyn Acosta in place of Wil Trapp, when a Trapp-Michael Bradley tandem in the middle would have been a safer defensive approach. He also put two attack-minded players on the wings. There were no miscast defensive midfielders playing out of position, like Acosta against Mexico — though Kenny Saief looked uncomfortable in his left wing role.

If Sarachan wanted his team to attack more, it didn't show in the first half, but it showed at the start of the second period with Acosta surging into the penalty area for a beautiful finish, and with Tim Weah setting up a Bobby Wood goal to give the Americans a 2-1 lead that lasted just two minutes.

Mike Ehrmann

That two minutes wasn' even long enough to get caught up in the hysteria of the USMNT's comeback. In a blink, Colombia shook off the two U.S. goals and proceeded to get right back to attacking the left side of the U.S. defense, putting Robinson through a torture session led by Rodriguez and Arias.

It was easy to pin multiple breakdowns on the Wigan defender while overlooking the fact he was being eviscerated by a Bayern Munich midfielder and Atletico Madrid fullback, both of which spent the summer at the World Cup rather than on an extended vacation.

If that difference in class wan't clear enough, Rodriguez and Arias made it obvious when they helped combine to set up Colombia's fourth goal after Robinson had left the match and replacement Ben Sweat entered in time to get skinned the same way Robinson had been.

That sort of context is important when considering the multiple losses the USMNT has suffered. It doesn't excuse Robinson for his breakdowns, but it also should offer a reminder of the differences that still exist in the player pools of the USMNT and teams like Colombia, to say nothing of teams like Brazil. The USMNT has a collection of promising talents who still need to actually reach the high levels of achievement their potential suggests is within reach. In being thoroughly outplayed by Colombia, Brazil, and France (in a match that ended in a draw, but was dominated by the eventual World Cup winners), the Americans have been given repeated reminders of how far even this talented generation has to go.

Things should improve once Christian Pulisic returns to the national team fold, along with Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams, and more importantly when a head coach is finally hired and implements a system to build around. Even when those things happen, the transformation won't take place overnight.

Multiple players need to still grow, learn and gain valuable experience. Adams needs to move to Europe and develop into a top starter. Josh Sargent needs to break through at Werder Bremen. Weah needs to develop into a contributor at Paris Saint German. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Matt Miazga need to develop into players who their clubs keep instead of loan out. Robinson needs to improve enough to eventually start at Everton after his maturation is completed in the English second division.

The list can go on and on, with players ranging from Pulisic to McKennie to Zack Steffen to Jonathan Amon. There is more talent in the U.S. pipeline than ever before, but as a group it's still just promise at this point, which we are reminded of every time a tough opponent puts this young USMNT through the ringer.

The good news for the USMNT is the 2022 World Cup is still four full years away. That leaves plenty of time to develop and hopefully grow and make use of the experience earned in friendlies like these.

Thursday's loss gave U.S. players plenty to think about. They should look at those promising 10 minutes at the start of the second half and think about what could be in the future, but also remember the other 80 minutes in order to understand just how far away they still are.