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[QUOTE="Forza Azzurri, post: 5458157, member: 1452"]
Sorry to reply to myself again.

One thing that does appear to be back is a tight-knit team with good to great locker room camraderie.

I haven't seen it written about at all but I do wonder how much toxicity the Berhalter-Reyna situation injected into that locker room.

Pretty clear to me that Reyna (the player) has issues which keep him from getting on the field at every single club team he plays for despite his immense talent.

European soccer is different from American sports in that, for the most part, uber talented prima donnas are not tolerated.  The harmony of the team is paramount.

I have to imagine that a player with both what seem to be work ethic issues as well as meddling parents, had to rub at least some in the locker room the wrong way.

Nothing more toxic to a national team than bad chemistry.

And that could (emphasis on could) explain the lackluster performances.

To be successful, especially the US team which does not have the same talent as the top countries, needs the whole to be more than the sum of its parts.  Camraderie enables that.  Locker room tension destroys it.

World Cup results are littered with really talented sides going out at the group stage because of locker room issues.

Not that the US team would have advanced, but the Harkes/Wynalda issues in 98 made a shambles of that team.
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