Daily Times

Matt Turner kept falling to the field, the American goalkeeper punching the ground in frustration.

A defensive lapse by Antonee Robinson and aimless defensive play by Johnny Cardoso, Tim Weah and Cameron Carter-Vickers led to four goals in an embarrassing 5-1 defeat to Colombia in a Copa America warmup match on Saturday.

“I’m going to apologize to the fans,” Turner said. “That´s not what we´re about. And, yeah, we need to bounce back in a big way.”

Since a 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia in the 1990 World Cup, the U.S. had given up that many goals only in a 5-0 loss to Mexico in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. It was the Americans’ first four-goal loss since a 4-0 defeat in a 2016 World Cup qualifier at Costa Rica that caused the U.S. Soccer Federation to fire coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

“We´re not framing it as a lesson learned. We´re actually framing it as a wakeup call. Really poor performance against a top team,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “From the 75th minute on, it was I think a lack of respect for our opponent, the game of soccer and what we were doing.”

Jhon Arias put Colombia ahead in the sixth minute after the ball deflected to him when Robinson tried a sliding clearance without checking who was near. Rafael Santos Borré doubled the lead with a spectacular overhead kick in the 19th. The U.S. had not given up two goals in the first 20 minutes since a March 2016 World Cup qualifier.

“There´s some glaring things that you have to address if you´re going to compete at this level,” Berhalter said. “Guys just didn´t do their job. It´s about your role, your responsibilty and we didn´t do that.”

Weah cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 58th, but Cardoso’s turnover led to Richard Ríos’ goal in the 77th, Weah’s giveaway to Jorge Carrascal’s in the 85th and Carter-Vickers’ pass that didn’t appear aimed at anyone to Luis Sinisterra’s in the 88th.