There's zero question that the US generates a ridiculous amount of top-tier athletes every year. If soccer ever gets enough of a foothold that top athletes begin choosing it in HS and college instead of football and basketball, we'll see the US competing on the world stage.
The thing is, though, that we're closer than we think. In truth, we are already competing on the world stage.
Look at this World Cup. Yes, we struggled with Ghana and were lucky to get a win. And, yes, we were supposed to beat Ghana - a team that was ranked in the mid 30s on average heading into the tournament. However, Ghana is the team that sent us home from the last two World Cups and that can easily get into a team's head. Ghana also matches up better against our style of play and team strengths than they do against other teams. Finally, losing Altidore so early in the game completely changed the flow of the game and more or less forced us to abandon our game-plan coming in - and did so for pretty much this entire tournament. The player we could probably have least afforded to lose for the tournament was Tim Howard, obviously - though Guzan could have probably filled his shoes pretty well as a keeper, Howard's leadership was key. However, Altidore was a very, very close second - if they weren't 1A and 1B. And, unlike with Guzan for Howard, we have no one on the roster that can really play Altidore's role.
Then, after beating Ghana, we went on to face three Top 10 teams (Belgium is 11th in FIFA's but higher in other rankings) and more than held our own. Between two broken noses and three injured hamstrings to key players, we really had no business really doing anything in the group, much less advancing.
Yet we completely outplayed Portugal and were very unlucky not to win that game by a score of 3-1 or 4-1. We lost to Germany and, while they controlled the flow of the game, our defense kept us in it the entire time - against what may very well be the best team in the world at the moment. Finally, we lost to Belgium in a game where our goal was basically under siege for the entire game. Even so, if Wondolowski makes solid contact and puts a shot on goal - instead of basically whiffing and sending the ball 90 degrees in the wrong direction - in those last few minutes of regular time then we most likely walk out with a win. And, while Belgium was the lowest ranked team of those three, they are most likely quite underrated simply due to how young their team is; they will likely be a consensus Top 5 team for the next few years.
Looking at how we played in this tournament, I honestly believe that we were three players away from being a semifinal team instead of losing in the Round of 16.
Now, a lot of people are harping on our lack of technical ball skills - especially in the midfield - leading to our possession problems but I'm not sure that's as big of a factor as many want to think. I like what van Nistelrooy said about it: we have good defensive midfielders but no true attacking midfielders and we have problems moving the ball forward from the back [switching from defense to offense]. I think that chemistry and vision have as much to do with our possession problems as our lack of technical ball skills. Our back four was largely unsettled heading into the tournament and that makes it much more difficult to develop chemistry between the Backs and Midfielders. We also ended up having to depend upon two key players while playing them out of position: Bradley and Dempsey. Bradley is a true Defensive Center Midfielder and we were forcing him to try to play an Attacking Midfielder role and be the guy moving and distributing the ball up through the midfield. Bradley needs to be the guy in the back of the midfield forcing turnovers and then getting the ball to an Attacking Midfielder who will push the ball forward. We put Dempsey in Altidore's Striker role, since we really had no one else, when Dempsey really needs to be a Center Forward working behind and then to the flank(s) of a true Striker. Had we been able to give our back four and midfielders a year of playing together in friendlies to develop more chemistry and been able to play Bradley and Dempsey in their natural positions then we very well may have had more productive possession, better flow in moving the ball forward, and better creativity in our attacking.
So, what are the three players I believe we needed to have a legitimate shot at winning this World Cup?
First, a second Josie Altidore.
Seriously, we needed someone else who could come in and play a true Number 9 role at Striker - whether Josie would have gotten injured or not. Lukaku, who we saw up close in this last game, would be perfect for that role - able to come in late after Josie has put in 70 hard minutes or as a serviceable replacement so we wouldn't have to change our whole offensive strategy.
Second (and third), we needed two true Attacking Midfielders. Bradley did fairly well, considering that he was playing out of position, but just never was able to flip the switch and get comfortable in that role. He showed flashes but it was really too much to ask. Zusi served as a serviceable option for the second CAM/RM role but, to be honest, he needs to be the backup for that position. Two relatively young players we saw in the last two games the U.S. played, Eden Hazard of Belgium and Mesut Ozil of Germany, would be the perfect "missing links" in our midfield.
The lineup would have looked like this:
4-1-2-1-2
(4-4-2 with diamond midfield)
ST: Altidore / Lukaku
CF/LF: Dempsey / Johansson
CAM: Hazard / Wondolowski
LM: Jones / Yedlin
RM: Ozil / Zusi
CDM: Bradley / Beckerman
LB: Beasley
CB: Besler
CB: Cameron
RB: Johnson