Copa failings, Under-20s rock and more in the Mailbag

	A green U.S. team has been predictably manhandled at the Copa América, but Benny Feilhaber (left) has been a bright spot. Jaime RazuriAFP/Getty Images
	MAILBAG Grant Wahl will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

We're still unpacking at our new digs in Baltimore, where the big news is that Kima and Bunk from The Wire live in our building (separately, of course). Oh, and we're also putting the finishing touches on Sports Illustrated's David Beckham story for next week. (Beckham recently gave me an exclusive hour-long interview for the article.) But there's never a bad time for a Mailbag, so let's dig in ...

I'm disappointed you haven't written anything about the Copa América. You always have good stuff to say about our U.S. national team and can be an honest critic. How could Bob Bradley have taken such a young and inexperienced team to this tournament? We have been embarrassed, but we have fought well, just not for 90 minutes.
-- Julio Berrios, Miami

I've always had a soft spot for the Copa América. Back in 1995, I saw my first live U.S. game when I was spending the summer in Buenos Aires and schlepped with some friends over to Uruguay for the U.S.' 1-0 semifinal loss in the Copa to Brazil. We froze our butts off (it was winter down there), and I still have a picture of me posing with a bunch of cross-dressing Brazil fans at the game in Maldonado. Good times.

But that was a full-strength U.S. roster that did itself proud in Copa '95, beating Chile and Argentina and dispatching Mexico on penalties in the quarters. This U.S. roster is awfully green -- or as some scribes like to say, experimental, the same word people use when your favorite band (say, Radiohead) decides to go off the deep end and try some idiotic new style.

The U.S.' results have been predictably poor, too -- a pair of losses to Argentina and Paraguay by a combined 7-2 score -- and while I wouldn't blame Bradley for the roster as much as the soccer politicians responsible for scheduling, the fact is that we have learned several things. To wit:

• Benny Feilhaber looks like the real deal. The gifted midfielder has been a revelation for the U.S. in the summer of '05 (when he had a breakout U-20 World Cup) and now in the summer of '07 (with his sick goal against Mexico and continued excellence in Venezuela). Feilhaber still makes his share of mistakes, but his vision is remarkable.

It was Feilhaber who sent the marvelous through-balls springing Eddie Johnson against Argentina (which led to a goal) and Justin Mapp against Paraguay (which should have, had Mapp not botched the finish). Now all Feilhaber needs is a new club that will give him lots of playing time, unlike his current employer HSV Hamburg.

• The U.S.' finishing is terrible. Johnson sure can turn on the jets ... until he reaches the box and slows to a crawl. (Not good if you're supposed to be a goal-scorer.) And Taylor Twellman isn't making the statement he could have made in this tournament, causing you to wonder how many more national-team chances he'll get. They aren't the only ones who've failed to put away goals: Drew Moor, Sacha Kljestan, Mapp and Jonathan Bornstein have also missed great opportunities.

• There have indeed been some positives: Rico Clark has looked smart, dangerous and mobile in the central midfield, Jay DeMerit has proved he belongs in the central defense and Ben Olsen has been a valuable gadfly on the right. Several promising young players are gaining useful international experience: Bornstein, Feilhaber, Kljestan, Mapp, Moor, Marvell Wynne and Lee Nguyen.

And yet some of that "experience" has been painful to watch: See Bornstein's brain-lock back-pass against Paraguay that killed off the U.S.' tournament hopes and Eddie Gaven's matador defense that helped lead to Argentina's second goal.

• All told, it's a shame the U.S. showed a lack of respect to a great tournament by bringing a sub-standard team. But unlike the CONMEBOL teams, the U.S. (as a guest team) couldn't force its European-based players' clubs to release them, and once the decision was made to prioritize the CONCACAF Gold Cup this was more or less what we should have expected. (All the same, it would have been nice to see Landon Donovan there, and Rafael Márquez was able to get away from his European club to play for Mexico.) Here's hoping more learning takes place in what's now a meaningless game against Colombia on Thursday (6:30 p.m. ET, GolTV and Telefutura).