The USA gains nothing from winning the Copa America Centenario. In fact, this is actually a series of international friendlies posing as the Copa America. It's the matches in September that will really determine whether or not Jurgen Klinsmann is still our manager. I actually prefer to have Jurgen Klopp as our manager of the USMNT. Character, personality, mystique, resilient tough talk, able to work up a crowd like those college football coaches and assistants in the SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, etc.
The 2-0 loss to Colombia was expected. They had actual players like Juan Cuadrado and James Rodriguez. On our national team, we have incompetent geriatrics like Michael Bradley who have no business playing international soccer anymore. The only incentive for the USA to show up at the Copa America Centenario is image purposes, to assure the locals that they have the right to wear the shirt, wear the colors and play for their country instead of sulking on a paycheck that will be coming anyway.
Very skeptical that the USMNT will take down Paraguay and Costa Rica, but the match with the Ticos would be a nice warmup match for WCQ qualification against the likes of, say, Trinidad and Tobago. A country that was unfortunate to be drawn with the States and Guatemala, but it's really Guatemala that are under the pump and need the States to do the unthinkable and get scalped by Vincy Heat.
Making the Hexagonal has been a tradition for USA and Mexico in this region. It is an iron-clad expectation because fans in both countries will pack stadiums for their respective teams during the Final Round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualification. A lot of money is also into play as a result. From the Rose Bowl, to MAPFRE Stadium, to the Azteca, to Soldier Field and the Meadowlands, the matches in the Hexagonal that involve El Tri and the USMNT are always the hottest tickets in town, and the USA are on the verge of breaking with tradition and not qualifying for the Hex, which they have done for the past few cycles, often times finishing on top of Mexico.
So this has been a cycle of regression for the USA. It takes a proper team to defeat the Nats, but it also has to do with Jurgen Klinsmann trying too hard to come up with a winning formula and not going with stability and consistency. For the time being, it is the duty of CONCACAF's second fiddle to show up at the Centenario and play for their shirts. Thw national team's image is now at stake.
Cue Uma Thurman.