CHRISTIAN PULISIC was on the losing team as the United States failed to live up to their female compatriots in the Gold Cup final.
Jonathan dos Santos' stylish winner fired Mexico to a 1-0 win at Chicago's Soldier Field.
Hours earlier the US women beat Holland 2-0 in the World Cup final, but the euphoria did not spread to the struggling men's side.
The 1-0 loss for the fellas in a regional competition the States had won six times before was a missed opportunity to take a big step forward under Gregg Berhalter, who was leading the team in his first tournament as coach.
Berhalter said: "When you talk about a step the team needs to take, we're close.
"But we weren't there tonight.
“We needed to score goals, we needed to put pressure on, and you saw tonight as the match went on, they took control and scored the winning goal."
Berhalter, who was hired in December, has called for patience during his short tenure but all results will be deemed meaningful after the United States failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup finals.
The Americans certainly had another opportunity to lift a major trophy against a Mexico side missing several key players.
Chelsea's £54million new boy Pulisic had a couple of good chances but missed both.
Still, Berhalter said, there were some positives to take from the final.
He said: "I think the guys will learn a lot from this game.
"There's a lot of guys playing in a game like this for the first time. For us, the whole month has been about making progress.
“And when I look back I think we did make progress.
"This experience will help us moving forward."
While the women's team is a model of stability from the coaching staff through to the players, the men are still searching for the right mix.
Berhalter added: "You're always searching for a perfect performance so when you evaluate at every game, there's things that can improve.
"Defensively, we conceded two goals all tournament, chance creation I think was positive in most games but overall … I think they did a good job of understanding that it's a long process, and you just keep having to build."
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