1990. Tomas Skuhravy and the Czechs destroyed the USA, 5-1. Bruce Arena, then the University of Virginia coach, travelled with the US team to Italia ’90, following a number of college players he was familar with. And he recalls how outclassed they were. As Arena puts it, “We didn’t belong on the same field that day. It demonstrated that we had a long way to go.”
The US established a glimmer of hope with their performance in the 2002 World Cup, as they beat Portugal 3-2, drew with S. Korea 1-1, and were humbled by Poland 3-1. To advance out of the first round the US had to wait for te Koreans to beat Portugal.
The best match was against Mexico beating them 2-0, before falling to Germany 1-0.
The US had its first bonafide heroes in that World Cup. Landon Donovan, Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna, and Brad Friedl in goal.
Today, they go up against the Czech Republic, and their performance will encapsulate the intervening 15 years of progress that the US team has made.