The U.S. Soccer Federation fired men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter, one week after the USMNT failed to advance out of the group stage during the recent 2024 Copa América tournament in Atlanta. Berhalter departs after five years on the job over two separate stints.
CBS Sports reported that the teams’ losses to Uruguay and Panama that ultimately knocked the U.S. out of the competition resulted in Berhalter’s firing, effective immediately. U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement: “I want to thank Gregg for his hard work and dedication to U.S. Soccer and our men’s national team. We are now focused on working with our Sporting Director Matt Crocker and leveraging his experience at the highest levels of the sport to ensure we find the right person to lead the USMNT into a new era of on-field success.”
U.S. Soccer’s sporting director Matt Crocker made the decision to fire Berhalter after a 10-day review that included meetings with Cone, U.S. Soccer vice president of sporting Oguchi Onyewu, chief executive officer J.T. Batson and the U.S. Soccer board of directors. Crocker said that the review considered not only the Copa América but the entirety of the past year. It was “not broad at all — specifically quite narrow… it was clear that benchmarks hadn’t been met. There has been progress made, but now is the time to turn that progress into winning.”
Crocker and U.S. Soccer did not announce any interim coaching plans, but aim to have a new coach in place prior to the next USMNT games in September. Crocker will lead the search for a replacement with the hopes of guiding the USMNT successfully toward the 2026 World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting. Said Crocker: “I’m 12 months into the program now. I’ve been in the environment. I think I’m a lot clearer and a lot more confident in what I see. … I’m in a better place to have much more of a targeted search, where I’ll be more inclined to go hard and go early with specific candidates that I feel meet the criteria that we’re looking for.”
When asked if he preferred a domestic coach or a foreign one, Crocker said: “I just want to get the best coach possible that can help the team win. Whether they’re from the U.S. or elsewhere, they’ve gotta fit the profile, which is a serial winning coach, somebody that can continue to develop this potential group of players, somebody that’s got a huge interest and a passion for player development.”
Editorial credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com