The United States' elimination from the Gold Cup last week represented a checkpoint of sorts. For most of the year, various iterations of the team gathered in the wake of the FIFA World Cup with a pair of interim coaches and a hazy understanding of how the team would be shepherded forward.
It wasn't an ideal way to begin the new World Cup cycle ahead of the tournament's return to home soil in 2026, but the past seven months always figured to be mostly inconsequential regardless of who was roaming the sidelines.