"The Americans can still fix all this, of course"

Lol. Oh, the childest beliefs of sports fans.  If only Americans realized, Life is Not a Game.  (and all the money in the world can't always fix loud and stupid.)

This is why we don't let the athletes "lead" outside their field of training. They don't have the mental skills needed to think ahead to tomorrow, much like our military minds today.  

The Americans can still fix all this, of course. They can find their footing, grab a few goals, win the game and live to fight another day. They can advance with a tie. They could even still win the group with a flurry of second-half goals, and if the Netherlands would just take its foot off the gas for a few minutes.  But U.S. Coach Vlatko Andonovski and his team will need to find one goal. One way to turn this night around. But they will also need to avoid surrendering one. Because the only thing that could make this night worse for the U.S. is to fall behind Portugal, and then not find a way back.  The only thing worse than a frustrating performance would be a losing one. Do that, and the U.S. World Cup will be over before America wakes up.

Checks and balances are important still, and the Fifth Estate will always have proponents who haven't sold out truth for personal "fame" or the ticket to a much more comfortable lifestyle as  a "celebrity journalist" building up their name and personal brand over their work product.

We're not all sleeping on our watch.  And we're NOT rooting for America to lose, just acknowledging what likely will come, based on performances on the field and who wants it most and has put in the work (on the fundamentals) to get it versus who is best at fundraising and publicity and modeling skills.  ('Pinoe's on the field in this one:  look for the green-hair not pink this go around...  Like standing out on the team for appearance matters.)