The expended energy and lifeblood was there, filling up the stadium in Jeonju in halting moments of American sadness. Brooks Lennon pulled his shirt over his head, sobbing. An exhausted Luca de la Torre seemed to wander aimlessly after the final whistle chimed, looking for a teammate to hug or a competitor’s hand to shake.
Tab Ramos dutifully surveyed the scene, the U20 MNT coach who’d done so much to organize a side that’d been battered in turns by club exclusions, injuries and card accumulation. Months after winning its first ever CONCACAF tournament, these U20s won their group, tied a record with a 6-0 knockout win and wrestled Venezuela into extra time with the game still scoreless. And then the dream shattered and fell apart.
MORE: Under-20 World Cup coverage
In reality, the U.S. was second best to Venezuela, which poached two extra time goals on the exhausted Americans and weathered a late goal to pull out a 2-1 win in the U20 World Cup quarterfinals. For the second U20 World Cup in a row, the U.S. reached the quarterfinal stage and was ousted outside regular time. And we’ll soon see if, for the second U20 World Cup in a row, the team that beat the U.S. ultimately won the entire tournament.
So what do we ultimately make of this tournament and, by extension, the previous two-year cycle in sum? Where does it stack up historically with its peers? And was enough done to prepare this group for the next level? Here’s a glimpse under the hood at what we learned, and perhaps how we learned it.
