Yep. I only got to watch the first half but saw the other games and they just refuse to take good shot opportunities. Messi just scored by firing it through a crowd from 18 out. Goalie had no chance because he never saw it. Our guys won’t do that and instead try to pass it through that crowd to a guy with not chance of scoring. We were taught from a young age to fire at will and crash for a rebound. Also gets some PK’s as well from potential hand balls. But we instead try to setup low percentage headers against a back line of guys that were 6’5”. We are essentially running a Muschamp game plan while the rest of the world is running Spurriers.
You're right that our strategy left a lot to be desired and our attackers tried to be too pretty rather than to just take shots; but to the italicized: most of the world runs a pretty defensive gameplan because they don't have the talent to compete with the top countries. The amount of countries that have the talent to play intricate, high-quality soccer is pretty small--not coincidentally enough, usually around 15 or so in any given cycle.
We have a lot of pieces in place to do just that (fast, athletic MFs, wingers, and fullbacks)--but no top-quality, proven goalscorer as of yet.
Still, getting to the round of 16 isn't a bad result. Dozens of countries have never even made it that far; and even traditional world powers like Germany, Italy, mexico, Uruguay, and Colombia can't say that this time around.