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It's Roch and the World Cup is at the quarter final stage. In the United States, we're only still in the tournament deep inside the mind of Alexey Lalas.

No, we were balanced, we were given a cruel footballing lesson by Louis Van Gogh and the Netherlands. And in the United States, defeating a men's world cup is always a strange, emotional experience.

We yearn so much, we so badly want to dream, and we always accentuate the positives.

Talk about the experience we get out the next time, next time, next time. The headlines in the English media, though, are actually more fascinating to read, more objective.

USA face harsh reality of next step after Netherlands tactical dissection.

The good news is, the weight for the next world cup is just three and a half years away, because of this idiotic guitar and November thing. Yes, it's just 1,280 days until the men's world cup, which will take place on home soil.

So as the World Cup pauses for breath ahead of its heavyweight climax to come, I want to pause for thought when the smoke on the United States defeat is cleared. And welcome back my friend to me the smartest analyst in the United States, from ESPN and the mighty football America's on ESPN+.

To join to welcome back from Qatar, Mr. Hercules Gomez. Thanks for the introduction. How you doing, man? Mr. Oh, man, I'm alive, like you, and anyone that is covering the day to day wonders, the day to day grinding wonders, I'd say, of the world cup with both barely hanging on.

So let's dive right in. Herc, the United States have been out of the tournament for four days as we pod. Take me back though, to the final whistle of the game against in Netherlands. What were your dominant emotions? Were you proud of the boys? Or were you disappointed?

I was definitely proud of them. My expectation level heading to this tournament wasn't as high as most from the outside looking in. I definitely saw a team with a lot of doubts. And then that first half versus Wells, I started thinking to myself, wow, this is a different team.

I'm not a mindset, the execution, tactically, physically, they deployed a lot of things that the U.S.M. national team has always been known for at the World Cup, the fight, the spirit, the discipline, being trying to be defensively sound.

But they were very nuanced in the way they attacked, which is something that the U.S.M. national team, we've not seen at this level for quite some time. And in the second 45 versus Wells, you get brought down. You're like, well, I've seen this before. This is something we've seen in World Cup qualifying, especially on the road.

And for Greg Berholtz and the guys to respond the way they did versus England, who you can see how potent they are going forward. You can see how powerful and how dominant they can be. You can see that bench and how any team in this World Cup would love to have those options coming off the bench.

And how they are one of the tournament favorites, you're like, wow, that's a complete performance. 90 minutes where you thought they should have had more than a 0-0 tie. The fight, the battle, mental, fortitude that it takes to withstand a team like Iron and that emotional type of game.

So that complete performance for me, that was a group stage because you have highs and lows and you manage to complete a goal of advancing, which is no easy feat. People shouldn't take for granted how difficult the World Cup can be. There's a reason only eight teams have won it, right, Raj? It's no cakewalk.

To play against a team in the Netherlands, who many thought they had a great chance. I'm one of those people that thought they had a great chance. I work here at ESPN and in English with our UK colleagues and Spanish with our Latin American colleagues.

I work in a bunch of different shows and as the days are progressing, everybody's picking the US in this match up and I'm thinking to myself, I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this one bit. My Spidey sense is they're tingling. I'm like, there's too much favoritism going on here.

And if I'm not liking it, I know the Dutch aren't liking it. Van Gaul is not liking. He's sitting there thinking, like, wait a second. These kids are going to beat us? Wait a second. Greg Berholtz, it's going to beat us? They think they're good? Okay. Show us how good you are. Here's the ball.

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