i don't know if they didn't step up as such. the US went away from what makes it unique. what teams around the world feared about the US was not skill or talent, but fitness and doggedness and organized tenacity and hustle. when the us went away from focusing on that and started trying other things is when they lost. Brazil went away from their flair and lost terribly. germany focused on their efficiency and won a world cup, spain won with their tiki-taka. even italy won with an impenetrable defensive mindset. i feel like i'm talking about husker football, but national teams have to find their uniqueness and use that as a foundation.
the reason why that works is because that is how the youth of all those countries are developed in soccer. i grew up outside the us so i saw this everyday. if you want to have your youth make impact and carry on the torch, you have to be deliberate about finding talents that accentuate that uniqueness in your country. the defense of the team that played today cannot hold a candle to even the folks from the last world cup, not to talk of the guys from years before that. taylor twellman almost made it into the british leagues mostly because of his hustle and just not knowing when to quit.