If you haven't been paying attention, you may have missed the roll the U.S. Men's Soccer Team has been on recently. After defeating El Salvador 5-1 July 21, the team upped its winning streak to nine matches.
Since beating a backup German squad June 2, the U.S. has gone on the longest winning streak in team history. Three of the wins have come in World Cup qualifying matches, as the U.S. begins to put a strangle hold on a bid for Brazil 2014.
The United States has had a goal explosion in this year's Gold Cup—scoring an average of four goals per game—the soccer equivalent to the New Orleans Saints offense.
New coach Juergen Klinsmann started rockily after taking over for Bob Bradley, but something has finally clicked for Klinsmann. Bradley was a good coach, but the team never saw much progression under him. The U.S. played tough and could even scare some of the top teams, but every game was a struggle to win.
Even when matched with inferior foes that they shouldn't have had to struggle to defeat, Bradley's team tended to win 1-0 or 2-1. Klinsmann's team is becoming better at putting away lesser teams with room to spare, as seen by the 6-1 win over Belize and 4-1 win over Cuba.
The U.S. team has always played good defense and has a history of solid goal keeping. Scoring goals was the biggest problem for the United States, but it looks like Klinsmann is fixing that, if the Gold Cup scores are any indication.
Brazil 2014 will be Klinsmann's chance to showcase to the world what he has done with the U.S. team. It will also be the chance to define American soccer for the next decade.
United States soccer might not ever be at the same level as Brazil, Germany, Italy or other top squads, but it can become a solid contender in the next tier, alongside teams such as England, Argentina, Portugal and other squads with potential to win World Cups.
Klinsmann has less than a year before the World Cup begins, and he needs to make lot of decisions about which players will make the team, and how many minutes Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey will play in the lead-up to the opening match.
It feels like U.S. men's soccer finally has a chance to compete with the top squads at some point under Klinsmann—but that doesn't mean the U.S. is ready for primetime, yet.
The last A-squad the U.S. faced in a friendly was Belgium, a team many consider a dark horse to win the World Cup. That game was not kind to the U.S., as Belgium rolled to a 4-2 win in dominating fashion.
The Klinsmann era will be successful if the U.S. can keep beating lesser teams with ease and build their way to besting the top soccer squads in the world. Right now, the indication is the US is on the right track.
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