HOUSTON — For some of the thousands of American soccer fans who steadfastly chanted, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” down to the final, desultory minute of their team’s sobering thrashing by Argentina on Tuesday night, it might be just fine if the United States never played the Argentines again. The loss seemed that bad.

Still, a few minutes after it ended, after his team had endured the 4-0 rout in a Copa América Centenario semifinal, Coach Jurgen Klinsmann spotted Sunil Gulati listening in at his news conference and expressed the exact opposite sentiment.

He asked Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, for more.

“I see Sunil sitting there,” Klinsmann said. “If ever we can get a friendly with Argentina, please do it. With Brazil, please do it. Even if we get lessons here and there, that’s part of our process. You’ve got to take those teams on in order to learn.”

What Klinsmann, those American fans and millions more watching on television learned Tuesday night was that there remains a huge talent gap between Argentina and the United States.