After the thunder of some resounding wins early in the World Cup, the USA men's team left the stage with a whimper, not a bang.
On Monday, they were well beaten by Belgium, 4-1, and never reached the heights of previous games.
For a few weeks, some pulsating performances by the men's team seemed to lift the sport to new heights in the US. Now, the morning after the nightmare in Seattle, there is gratitude for all the excitement but also the sense of a missed opportunity.
The American squad was stacked with players performing in Europe's top leagues, and in coach Mauricio Pochettino they had one of the world's foremost coaches.
Yet they failed to match their best World Cup in the modern era, when they reached the last eight in 2002.
Afterwards, Pochettino said his team were never in the game and a learning process would begin to explore why.
One of the team's star players, Tyler Adams, said it had been a bad day and they had come up short. "We didn't go as far as we'd like."
Here's what pundits and fans have been saying.