Funny thing about this thread and this World Cup it shows how Americans want instant gratification and the fickleness of sports fans in general.
If you really think about it. This is evolution. At least 2 decades in the making to get this point in football in the USA. And the USA is already better than the Africans (
)and a host of other nations and continents, yet people still want to throw shade.
What casual football fans never realize is that change and the gaining of experience is glacial in football. There are no overnight successes, there are seldom once in a lifetime players (hence, once in a lifetime) and you just don't throw money at something in international football for immediate results. It's very often times decades and decades of playing and cultivating batches of players, and contingent historical forces which bring about success in international football. For instance Spain's dominance was a touch of all those. The once in a life time player in Xavi, decades and decades of players, historical forces that included the rise of La Masia, a late night meeting held between Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola, Diego Costa falling out with the nation of Brazil and Tito Vilanova succumbing to cancer all of which, directly or indirectly contributed to their dominance and subsequent fall.
In America this is never understood. We're the moneyed unmoneyed, falling back on assumed dominance even in foreign fields. In short we must blame the American fans and others for buying into the great American exceptionalism machine. Though you can't really blame people. The PR machine for American sports has the strength of a Luis Suarez image restoration campaign after a bite incident.