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Gulati assigns significance to third place game: “Part of the overall assessment”

Legendary Pele and World-Renowned New York Cosmos Score a Comeback

NEW YORK - AUGUST 01: (L-R) Soccer Legend Pele, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President of the United States Soccer Federation Sunil Gulati chat before the announcement of the return of the World Renowned New York Cosmos at Flushing Meadows Corona Park on August 1, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for the New York Cosmos)

Neilson Barnard

USMNT captain Michael Bradley didn’t know how to feel about playing Saturday’s third place game in the Copa America Centenario, or what such games should even mean to a team.

His boss, US Soccer president Sunil Gulati, said it means a great deal. Gulati found lots to like from the team’s Copa America, but stopped short of calling it a success.

[ MORE: USMNT loss, the morning after ]

In a post from Goal.com on Gulati’s post-match comments after the U.S. was blasted 4-0 by Argentina in a Copa America Centenario semifinal on Tuesday, the president assessed the mixed bag from the Yanks’ five-game run:

“We don’t base decisions on one game, whether it’s today or one win against Ecuador,” Gulati said. “We look at all of this and we’ll do that after the tournament is over and assess where we are and how we’ve done. Obviously the three consecutive wins was good. Today and the Colombia game were less good.

“The semifinals are the teams that are ranked 1, 3, 5 and 31 in the world. We’re still going to play a top-five team on Saturday — let’s make that part of the overall assessment.”


Is Jurgen Klinsmann in trouble after Saturday with a loss? And if a federation is anywhere near a “one game” decision, is Klinsmann’s ouster inevitable? Given the critical World Cup qualifiers coming up later this summer, the decision better be taken wisely.

Follow @NicholasMendola