The USMNT fell short at the World Cup, but were odds and expectations unrealistic?

The manner of the United States men’s national team’s World Cup exit raises a discussion point about the way they were discussed at the tournament.Dreams came crashing down as they suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Belgium, ending their run in the tournament at the round of 16. This was not the outcome anyone associated with the co-hosts had envisaged after such a positive run to that point.Indeed, the U.S. had been a force to be reckoned with. Comfortable victories over Paraguay, Australia and Bosnia and Herzegovina had fueled belief that they could reach the quarter-finals of a World Cup for the first time since 2002.But many of the same old issues came to the fore, and Pochettino’s team were made to look grossly out of their depth.It leads us to consider whether they were overrated, after all.Did supporters and betting markets get carried away by over-indexing a handful of results against — in hindsight — poor opposition?Before the tournament began, the U.S were available at 66-1 to win the World Cup, but that quickly dropped. After the impressive opening 4-1 Paraguay win, their odds for success were 40-1. After the next win against Australia, 33-1.By the time the USMNT had beaten Bosnia 2-0 in the round of 32, their odds were slashed to 30-1.