In March, after dropping two home games in the Concacaf Nations League to Panama and Canada, the assessment of the U.S. men's national team was that things couldn't get much worse. That came nine months after the poor showing at the Copa América, where the USMNT failed to get out of the group stage.
All was not lost, though. The 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup was on the horizon. There would be extended time for manager Mauricio Pochettino to get to know his players better and come up with some tactical wrinkles to maximize the team's potential at next year's FIFA World Cup.