So Close to Glory, But Getting Closer

With only 45 minutes left in the final of a major FIFA tournament Sunday, the United States of America looked poised to take home a significant piece of hardware.

Forget, just for a moment, what happened in the second 45 minutes against the indefatigable Brazilian squad and think about the accomplishment. Sure, the Confederations Cup final was not the final of the major FIFA tournament, but the two and a half matches ranging from the beginning of the backs-against-the-wall final group match against Egypt until halftime against Brazil may be the best the United States has ever played against top-level competition.

Over the past decade or so, the USA has a strong history of dominating play in their home CONCACAF region wherein Costa Rica and Mexico are the other significant players among a large crop of forgettable teams in smaller nations. The four times the USA has won a tournament, it has been in the Gold Cup, the CONCACAF championship. Holding off Brazil to win a tournament that featured every continental confederation's current champion plus the defending World Cup champion would have ranked miles ahead of any of the Gold Cup triumphs. And it could be argued that the fantastic win over Spain rated that far ahead of the Gold Cups anyway.

The Confederations Cup helped to solidify some important things about how and who the U.S. should play going into the 2010 World Cup. First, and perhaps most importantly, the U.S. needs to play in a 4-4-2, instead of the 4-5-1 Bob Bradley went with in the first two games of the competition. In the first two games against Brazil (the first time) and Italy, the U.S. was outscored 6-1. In the last three matches, the U.S. outscored its opponents 7-3.

Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Oguchi Onyewu, and Jozy Altidore were all outstanding from the Egypt game forward and are all crucial pillars for American success in the World Cup. National team captain Carlos Bocanegra returned from injury against Spain and is an equally integral part of the squad at left back. The remainder of the first-choice 11 is likely up in the air, but the starting back four in the final three games was strong, confident, and never put a foot wrong until the skill of the Brazilians took over in the last 45 minutes of the final.

The central midfield duo of Ricardo Clark and Michael Bradley (and then Benny Feilhaber after Bradley was suspended for the final) was also solid when it needed to be. The most impromptu piece of the U.S.' success was the addition of Charlie Davies to the lineup up front in support of Altidore. Davies' scrappy goal against Egypt was the first of three that the U.S. needed to advance (plus Brazil's 3-0 win over Italy). However, Davies seemed to want to take on too many defenders at once without a willingness to pass and make the right decision once he did. Nonetheless, he is the type of player that should partner with Altidore up front.

The main problem with the U.S. side seems to be depth at this point. Against Egypt and Spain, the main cogs of the team were so energetic and in form throughout the match that the substitutes that did not need to have an impact. In the final, they needed to make their mark in order to have any chance to hold off the samba footballing dance that was Brazil in the second 45 minutes.

Obviously, none of the play we've seen from the U.S. since the Egypt game means anything towards the World Cup. Yet, there were a bunch of good signs that were absolutely nowhere to be found after the first Brazil game and against Italy.

The consensus expectation for the national team in South Africa next year seems to be to get out of the group stage. If the U.S. plays like they did the last week and a half, that expectation seems like it could even be exceeded like it was in 2002 when he U.S. went to the quarterfinals. The thing about the World Cup that gets lost behind all the excitement is that it is very reliant upon the draw.

For instance, in domestic leagues and competitions like several continents' Champions Leagues a team almost always plays another team twice, home-and-away, whether it be in a group stage or knockout phase. In the World Cup, and most other big international competitions you get the one game against a team and a total of three games.

If you have a bad game and a half, you are usually done. If you get a couple bad matchups in style, you are usually done. Nothing can be done to prevent this, because that's just the nature of the beast when club football is so important around the world through the autumn, winter and spring. But this is also a reason why the U.S.' road to the last 16 may not look so easy once the draw happens in December.

One surprising part of the Confederations Cup was how much more the tournament seems to matter than it did four years ago, when it was last played, or when the U.S. last qualified for the 2003 tournament. I consider myself a knowledgeable soccer fan, but I can't remember anything about the 2005 Confederations Cup other than Germany hosted it and Brazil won it. And unfortunately, all I can remember about the 2003 edition was the stunning and tragic death of Cameroon's Marc Vivien-Foe after collapsing during a match, dying of the same condition that claimed college basketball's Hank Gathers some 13 years earlier under similar circumstances.

Back then, nightly recaps of the tournament with Alexi Lalas live in the "SportsCenter" studio surely did not happen. In fact, if memory serves me correct, the last two Confederations Cups were only available on Spanish-language television. This time, the tournament got similar coverage on ESPN to last year's Euro 2008 tournament. Also, it seems as if players didn't decide against playing in the tournament after their long European club seasons as they had in the past.

Much good came out of the U.S.' Confederations Cup run. As of yet, there has not been a grand symbolic announcement to the rest of the footballing world that the U.S. is going to be the type of team that will always be able to beat Spain and take Brazil to the brink in a Cup final. However, the team is as skilled and talented at the moment than at perhaps any other time.