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Women's World Cup title raises expectations for U.S. men in Gold Cup

Women's World Cup title raises expectations for U.S. men in Gold Cup

Whether fairly or not, expectations have just been raised a few more notches for the United States men's national team at the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup, which it kicks off against Honduras on Tuesday in Frisco, Texas.

After the other, more successful, national team trudged and then romped to a third Women's World Cup title on Sunday, the spotlight will be on American soccer anew. And the next major tournament is just a few days away.

In a lot of ways, the Gold Cup is to the men as the World Cup is to the women. Whereas the U.S. women are a world power and perennial contenders for the big trophies, even it they hadn't won the biggest one since 1999, the U.S. men are a regional juggernaut. They have won the Gold Cup, which anoints the champion of the North- and Central-American and Caribbean region, five times in the 12 editions held, beginning in 1991 – including the most recent edition in 2013. Mexico, the other heavyweights in these parts, have won it six times.

[FC Yahoo: Watch Timmy Chandler's wonder strike in U.S.'s 4-0 win over Guatemala]

The men's is the same kind of dominance as the women's, only on a different scale. They are equally big fish, except in a pond made of the northern and middle bits of the Western Hemisphere, rather than the entire planet. But within those parameters, the expectations are the same – and now even more so.

Not every Gold Cup is created or treated equally, however. Every other edition, it coincides – and interferes – with World Cup qualifying, leading most countries to send diluted teams to the lesser shindig. They call those "off-year" Gold Cups. This, however, is not one of those. So, with the talent pools unadulterated, anticipation and expectations have been built up even higher.

High off a World Cup title – the first, if we're being quite honest, since this country came of age as a soccer nation sometime in the last decade – an eager viewership of mostly casual fans will yearn for more ways to express their patriotism. They'd quite like to feel like the way they did on Sunday night again.

Whether head coach Jurgen Klinsmann should see this as a blessing or a curse is debatable. Knowing Klinsmann's reach-higher, go-harder mindset and approach to his job, though, he'll likely embrace it. But the task is a towering one.

American fans have historically been able to rely on the Gold Cup to make them feel good about their program and, perhaps as a proxy, the progress of soccer in their country. The USA invariably slays a few minnows on their way to the business end of the tournament. In the last edition, they got to hammer Belize 6-1 and Cuba 4-1 in the group stage before battering El Salvador 5-1 in the quarterfinals.

But while Friday's 4-0 romp of Guatemala in the team's only pre-tournament tune-up – in spite of a penalty missed by Jozy Altidore – seems to suggest more walkovers could be in the offing, this tournament could present a few unpleasant surprises.First of all, the Americans' group is a tough one. Honduras reached the last World Cup and Panama almost did the same. They are teams in the ascent who have plenty of experience facing the Yanks and know just how to make life hard on them. So only the Haiti matchup looks like a predictable win ahead of time.

In the other groups, Costa Rica was one of the sensations of the last World Cup while Mexico is deep and talented and, as you might recall, the team that humiliated the U.S. in the final of the 2011 tournament, with a 4-2 come-from-behind win. In the most likely scenario – which assumes everybody wins their groups – the Americans would face Costa Rica in the semifinals and, should they survive that, Mexico in the final. Winning both with full "A" teams present will be no small feat.

While the U.S. women walked an arduous and treacherous path to winning the Women's World Cup, with the rest of the field developing quickly, their talent clearly overmatched that of their opponents. The men don't possess such an abundance of firepower and might face even more obstacles to their own gold medals in the coming month.

If the United States is to make it back-to-back championships this summer, it'll probably be the second one that was the most difficult to secure.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.