WST – USA’s third place game against Colombia will be a true yardstick of team’s playing level

The Colombia match, depending on your perspective, was either an unmitigated disaster or two small mistakes away from being at worst a draw. Subsequent group stage matches saw the U.S. as the favorite, and a deflated or uninspired Ecuador only really pushed the U.S. in the final 20 minutes of their match. No one seriously took the Argentina match as a true measurement of the U.S.’s progress, just a way to see how the team matched up with the world’s best.

Saturday’s rematch against Colombia, however, is the first match that gives the USMNT a true measuring stick to determine where this team is for the 2018 World Cup.

Read my article at World Soccer Talk.