“We’ve always believed we deserved more respect than we receive,” he said. “In sports, you’ve got to earn respect, you can’t just ask for it, and we’ve earned some respect this past week.”

Then the roof caved in: Brazil scored three unanswered goals in the second half. And just like that, the United States was back to being the little engine that could someday win on the world stage.

“Of course it’s disappointing, especially when we were up, 2-0,” Gulati said after the match Sunday. “On the positive side, we made progress at this tournament and are proud of reaching the final.”

Nice try, good effort. For the rest of us, it’s back to baseball until next summer’s run to the World Cup.

Garber was far from discouraged.

“Today, we proved that we can compete at the highest level,” he said. “For 45 minutes, we had one of the best teams in the world shocked and on their heels. Our guys weren’t happy to just play in the final, they wanted to win. And for a time, I thought we would.

“Over all, this was a great day for U.S. soccer that will go down in history as one of the truly great moments for our sport.”

Still, instead of talking about a great triumph, we’re back to talking about what United States soccer needs to break through at home.