USMNT vs. Colombia score: USA suffer worst defeat in Gregg Berhalter era in 5-1 thrashing

LANDOVER, Md. – The United States men’s national team’s preparation for the Copa América began with a 5-1 loss to Colombia on Saturday, in what is the worst defeat for the team led by Gregg Berhalter. After quick goals from John Arias and Rafael Santos Borre, the USMNT managed to recover the goal after a good pass from Folarin Balogun for Tim Weah, but it was not the start of a comeback as Colombia scored an insurance goal in the 77th minute via Ricardo Rios. When things were already out of reach, Jorge Carrascal scored the fourth quickly followed by Luis Sinisterra with the fifth for Colombia. As the USMNT faced its toughest opponent this year, 12th-ranked Colombia, it was a match that still showed there is a lot of work to do.

This was still a friendly match where Berhalter seeks to get to know his team, as shown Christian Pulisic being taken off at half-time for Haji Wright to manage his minutes along with Tim Ream It is Weston McKennie both being removed before the end of the match. But with the Copa América starting on June 21 with a match against Bolivia, improvements are necessary and fast. There will be another friendly on Wednesday, but it will be against an even tougher team Brazil as Americans look for momentum.

How did this happen

It couldn’t have started worse for the USMNT as Antonee Robinson the clearance fell straight to the feet of Arias, who landed a direct kick at Matt Turner it was impossible to open the scoring after six minutes of play. That was bad enough, but just 13 minutes later, after losing the ball in the first stage of a corner kick, Santos Borre’s bicycle kick found the back of the net. These are two goals that alone aren’t so bad, but when combined at the same time, they really put the USMNT behind the ball.

It’s true that Balogun was unlucky not to find the back of the net and the USMNT attack found good pockets while Gio Reyna found ways to get out of tight areas, but going into the Copa América, just being good isn’t going to bring down a team like Colombia. These are games where the USMNT needs to unlock new gear, but it’s one they haven’t shown they have done so far while playing under Berhalter.

That’s why they’re playing games like this against the world’s top teams, but so far it hasn’t told us much that we don’t already know. Colombia knows its identity and knows it can count on the counterattack, but with so many rotations, the USMNT defense looked disjointed. Replacing Sergino Dest It’s a process, but the lack of balance in the USMNT’s build is one of the things lost without his ball skills.

In the second half, things didn’t improve much, with Colombia having multiple chances to press for goals by targeting the USMNT defenders. Robinson rarely looked comfortable dealing with overloads on the left, and while the USMNT attack created chances, they didn’t do enough to stop Colombia from counter-attacking when they had chances to advance. Overall, while some things can be attributed to Dest’s lack of preparation, hesitation in play so close to a major tournament can only be a concern.

The Copa America is when the USMNT will learn a lot about itself, whether good or bad, before 2026, but not correcting the mistakes made on Saturday in Landover will lead to a quick exit from the tournament.