LOS ANGELES: For most national soccer teams, playing a tournament on home turf is a huge advantage. For the United States, it can be the opposite.
In the Gold Cup final last year, the US lost in a Houston stadium overwhelmingly packed with rival Mexico fans. The semifinal in St. Louis, Missouri, was a sea of light blue for their opponents Guatemala.
There were similar scenes at the US-hosted Copa America a year earlier.
It is a huge concern for the US players under extraordinary pressure to deliver as co-hosts at this summer’s World Cup, documentary filmmaker Rand Getlin told AFP.
“It devastates them. It hurts them. It makes them sad. They’re disappointed in themselves for not giving fans more to cheer for,” said Getlin, who spent the past four years embedded with the US team for an HBO series.
