[washingtonismoney]

WIM, Do you believe that the USMNT has the talent available to win the Cops America not factoring in coaching? Where do you rate the the US talent pool relative to the global superpowers of the game? Do you believe that this team has underachieved by getting to the semis of the Cops?

1. Depends on what you mean here. Do you mean "favored"? If so, then no, I don't. "A contender"? I do think so, yes. Note that I mean "by performance" rather than merely by results, i.e. that I think the U.S. has the talent to actually have an edge against the opponents it faces, rather than play them more-or-less even.

2. Can't say I have immediate familiarity with, like, every single team out there. So if that caveat, I'd say that France, Spain, Germany, and Argentina have the clear-cut best talent pools out here. There's another tier -- of, say, Brazil, Chile, Belgium, and Italy. And then a vast third tier, from around 8 to, say, around 25ish that are all pretty similar. I'd put the U.S. in that group.

3. In the first question note the distinction between results and performance. By results, the team has fulfilled my expectations. But of course, part of the judgment is not just what you did but how you did it -- we've seen teams in every sport that momentarily overachieve despite so-so underlying talent or performance. (I think 2012 N.D. might be an example everyone on this board can agree upon.) Right now the U.S. are...that team exactly. Part of that, to be fair, isn't quite Klinsmann's fault; I don't blame him for the ref's decisions in the quarterfinals. But a good deal of that is his fault, particularly his insistence on playing good players out of position and his failure to position the team properly in the first place. (He could've selected a better roster, which would've been better-positioned to perform throughout the tournament. Contra StanfordMatt I don't see why taking a player so bad he doesn't play represents some sort of coaching achievement.)

[washingtonismoney]

WIM, Do you believe that the USMNT has the talent available to win the Cops America not factoring in coaching? Where do you rate the the US talent pool relative to the global superpowers of the game? Do you believe that this team has underachieved by getting to the semis of the Cops?

1. Depends on what you mean here. Do you mean "favored"? If so, then no, I don't. "A contender"? I do think so, yes. Note that I mean "by performance" rather than merely by results, i.e. that I think the U.S. has the talent to actually have an edge against the opponents it faces, rather than play them more-or-less even.

2. Can't say I have immediate familiarity with, like, every single team out there. So if that caveat, I'd say that France, Spain, Germany, and Argentina have the clear-cut best talent pools out here. There's another tier -- of, say, Brazil, Chile, Belgium, and Italy. And then a vast third tier, from around 8 to, say, around 25ish that are all pretty similar. I'd put the U.S. in that group.

3. In the first question note the distinction between results and performance. By results, the team has fulfilled my expectations. But of course, part of the judgment is not just what you did but how you did it -- we've seen teams in every sport that momentarily overachieve despite so-so underlying talent or performance. (I think 2012 N.D. might be an example everyone on this board can agree upon.) Right now the U.S. are...that team exactly. Part of that, to be fair, isn't quite Klinsmann's fault; I don't blame him for the ref's decisions in the quarterfinals. But a good deal of that is his fault, particularly his insistence on playing good players out of position and his failure to position the team properly in the first place. (He could've selected a better roster, which would've been better-positioned to perform throughout the tournament. Contra StanfordMatt I don't see why taking a player so bad he doesn't play represents some sort of coaching achievement.)