The Copa America kicks off this weekend, and the American soccer media seem evenly split on whether the USA will manage to finish in the top two in the group and thus earn a berth in the quarterfinals. That's about as far as anyone can see them going in the tournament, which matches the best international teams from North and South America. Virtually no one is picking the American team to earn a spot in the final four.
Given the amount of pressure that is being heaped on the national team, anything less than a semifinal berth will prompt a thousand criticisms — of coach Jurgen Klinsmann, of his bosses at U.S. Soccer, and of the structure of American soccer itself. For a nation that is competitive but does not have an outstanding soccer history, this seems very strange.
Given the team's history, it wouldn't be too surprising if the USA, which played Colombia on Friday night, failed to reach the semis. Since they qualified for the World Cup in 1990, the Americans have been at every World Cup but can count their victories there on one hand, with five in seven tournaments.
In three previous invites to the Copa America, the USA finished fourth once, and 12th out of 12 the other two times. It finished in the top three a couple of times at the Confederations Cup. The team has traded North American dominance with Mexico, an impressive achievement given Mexico's storied soccer history. But apart from that, the USA is a little short on outstanding performances.
Over that period, though, American fans and media have gotten the idea that the upset victory is the natural state of American soccer. We remember the USA defeating Colombia and Portugal at the World Cup, and Argentina at Copa America, and Spain at the Confederations Cup. We remember World Cup draws with Portugal, Italy and England.
We forget about beatings at the hands of Poland, the Czech Republic and Paraguay. And that the USA under-23 team has failed to even qualify for three of the past four Summer Olympic tournaments
We remember the team's last-second victory to win the group at the 2010 World Cup. We forget that it was against Algeria, a team that hadn't previously made the World Cup since 1986. The pressure on the USA team is based on the expectation that there are more upsets to come, not on the team's history of dominance.
In short, U.S. soccer fans, we are turning into England fans — always expecting greatness with nothing to base it on, and therefore are always unhappy with anything but unlikely glory. It wasn't that long ago that we could enjoy the U.S. men's national team as an entertaining underdog, rather than an expectation-laden disappointment. The team's history hasn't changed that much. We'll enjoy this tournament a lot more if we instead change our attitude.
