CHICAGO — There was shock, maybe a bit of denial, and obviously all the anger and despair when the U.S. national team sunk to its lowest moment 20 months ago in Trinidad. The Americans would miss the World Cup. The sky was falling.

Defender Tim Ream was there that night in Couva, and he remembers all of that and more—an apprehension of what might or might not be next.

“It just felt like we might not have any direction. We didn’t know where we were going to go,” he said.

More than a year of limbo followed, meandering and then leading to Sunday night here at Soldier Field, where once again the USA suffered a dispiriting defeat. This time, the stakes weren’t as high as World Cup qualification. But it was a Gold Cup final. A trophy and title were on the line, and it was against archival Mexico, who brought their usual majority of fans. It felt like a big occasion–it was a big occasion–and the U.S. started strongly and probably should’ve taken an early lead. But momentum turned after halftime and the Americans ultimately fell short, 1-0, on a goal by LA Galaxy star Jonathan dos Santos.

Disappointment, sure. But this was a “completely different feeling,” said Ream, who put in another good shift at left back against El Tri, despite typically playing center back with his club.

“Now, I think everybody would say that there are very distinct roles. There’s a system. There’s a way that we want to play and want to go about things and there's a culture within the team,” he told SI.com following the final. “The way we’ve grown together over the last six weeks, is something that we’re going to take forward.”

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It’s not a trophy or a title. But it’s more than this national team was able to rely on for a while, and it’ll be necessary for any long-term progress to be made. The rebirth has to start somewhere. So let it begin there—the U.S. players seem to want to be in camp, seem to like each other and seem to know what’s expected of them. You can’t put that in a trophy case, but you can’t win trophies without it. This Gold Cup wasn’t as successful as it could’ve been. But it was hardly a failure, and it provided a couple of obvious object lessons on which the team can build.

“I think what we lacked was some of the calmness, some of the composure,” coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We knew it was going to be a big event. We knew it was going to be a semi-hostile crowd, and I think that what I’d say is the calmness was what we lacked. And Mexico certainly had it.

“But overall, proud of the guys, proud of the development this month,” he continued. “We did make strides as a group. The group became much closer. I think the general understanding of our game model was much better over the course of this month, so in one sense we did make progress.”

The “calmness” exhibited by Mexico, not to mention the game-breaking skill displayed by Dos Santos and energetic winger Rodolfo Pizarro, was evidence of the disparity in quality between the two sides. There are things under Berhalter’s control and things he can’t do anything about. The difference in depth between the USA and Mexico is one of them. El Tri won its eighth Gold Cup without many of its most recognizable names. Javier Hernández, Carlos Vela, Héctor Herrera, Hirving Lozano, Diego Lainez, Jesús Corona and Miguel Layún all missed this tournament for one reason or another. Meanwhile, Berhalter’s substitutes Sunday were Cristian Roldan, Gyasi Zardes and Daniel Lovitz.

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