GRegg Berhalter’s job, most fans and observers of the US National Team agree, is on the line. US Soccer has not wavered in its public support for the 50-year-old, but a poor performance in the 2024 Copa América would certainly prompt a reconsideration. With the World Cup taking place on home soil in two years’ time, there is a bigger picture to think about.
For some, even a strong performance at the Copa would not be enough to justify Berhalter’s appointment. There are plenty who never saw him as the right man for the job. The “Berhalter Out” movement has existed in one corner of the internet in one form or another for years. Lately the rhetoric has become louder and more mainstream, but partisanship when it comes to Berhalter has long been an unavoidable part of following the national team.
Then again, which national team fanbase is actually happy with their manager? Gareth Southgate has been England’s most successful manager since 1966 but is constantly the target of criticism. Didier Deschamps led France to victory at the 2018 World Cup and two other tournament finals but continues to come under attack for his selection and tactics.
International managers are not supposed to be liked by fans. They’re not even meant to be good, in the conventional sense. At a time when head coaches are seen as philosophers first and football coaches second, national team managers are an anomaly. They simply don’t have the time on the training pitch to implement the complex systems that define the club game. The criteria are different.
Berhalter, of course, was club manager until he took over the USMNT in 2018 and that was part of the problem. He was hired in December 2018 and initially talked about his plan to transfer much of what worked for him at Columbus Crew. “We want to use the ball to disorganize the opponent and create scoring opportunities,” he said, also highlighting his “game model” that would make the USMNT a modern, dynamic outfit.
Over time, that model has changed. The USMNT under Berhalter has become more pragmatic. They do not control possession games as Berhalter originally envisioned. Some might argue that this is because the US doesn’t have the talent to play this way. Others may point out that even national teams with such talent do not dominate in the way some of the best club teams do – see England and France, for example.
There is a disconnect between what can realistically be expected from Berhalter as USMNT head coach and what much of the fan base demands of him, which can be attributed to the unique landscape of American soccer. In most other countries, supporters rank club over country. In the US, however, it is largely the opposite.
It might be a generational thing. After all, MLS has only been around for 28 years. Soccer culture has grown rapidly in the US, but it will take generations to develop the kind of deep-rooted club associations that are common elsewhere in the world. However, the USMNT has been the center of American soccer fandom for decades.
While the American soccer ecosystem at the club level has continually changed, the national team has been a constant. They are in every respect a club team for many supporters. In other countries, the discussion about the national team is parked between international counters. In contrast, the discourse surrounding the USMNT – and the USWNT – never ends.
This is an honor for the US: the community surrounding the USMNT is among the most vibrant in international football. However, the knock-on effect is that expectations are often distorted. The USMNT may be a club team to some fans, but that doesn’t mean Berhalter can coach them like a club team.
The reality is that national team managers largely act as figureheads and not as coaches. Their job is to ensure a happy camp and the American players appear to be behind Berhalter. Christian Pulisic, for example, publicly supported Berhalter amid US Soccer’s re-recruitment process after the 2022 World Cup.
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None of this is to say that Berhalter should not be scrutinized. The current generation of US players are among the best the country has ever produced, and the 2026 World Cup on home soil is too valuable for American soccer to simply cross its fingers and hope for the best. If there is a chance that a different path would lead to greater success, they have a duty to explore it.
However, at the moment there is no clear alternative. If not Berhalter, then who? Jesse Marsch interviewed for the job after the 2022 World Cup but was ultimately passed over and recently hired by Canada. Jim Curtin was another name linked to the position last year, but the Philadelphia Union head coach has no experience outside of Major League Soccer. Tata Martino met a number of criteria but instead joined Lionel Messi at Inter Miami.
One report last year linked to José Mourinho with the USMNT task. However, Mourinho earned $8 million a year at Roma and has just joined Fenerbahçe on a contract believed to be worth $11.5 million a year. By contrast, Berhalter’s USMNT contract paid roughly $2.3 million in 2022. Mourinho may have expressed a desire to work in the US in the future, but he was never a realistic candidate.
Canada came up with a creative solution to hire Marsch as their new head coach, rallying the support of the country’s MLS team owners to finance the national coach’s contract. Can US Soccer convince Arthur Blank, who has already committed $50 million to build a new national training center in Atlanta, to provide the money to hire someone like Jürgen Klopp or Joachim Löw?
This summer’s Copa América seems to be a turning point. If this is meant to be a trial run for the 2026 World Cup, the consequences of failure should be as dire as they will be in two years’ time. Berhalter had to apply for his own job after the 2022 World Cup and will take another exam the following month.