If this is what the U.S. men's national team will look like at the World Cup, their stay in Qatar will be a short one.
Friday's match against Japan served as a much-needed wakeup call for the young USMNT, who were thoroughly outplayed in a 2-0 loss in Germany. Goals from Daichi Kamada and Kaoru Mitoma were deserved, as was the whooping the U.S. received in what was likely their worst performance of 2022.
You could argue that there isn't a better time to have that performance. Japan, by all accounts, is a good team and offered the U.S. the test Gregg Berhalter desired. The problem was how miserable the U.S. failed that test in a lethargic, uninspiring display that saw them fail to register a single shot on goal.
Japan is good, no doubt, but this wasn't France on the other side. This was the type of team that the U.S. should be, at the very least, competing with and battling. They did neither.
This camp, and these friendlies, are all about finding those final few answers before heading to Qatar. But this game will provide more questions than answers as the U.S. remain a work in progress just weeks before the World Cup kicks off.
Friday's performance, quite simply, wasn't good enough but, fortunately for the USMNT, there's still time to prove that this was a lesson and not a glimpse into what would be a very frustrating future.