If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Gregg Berhalter’s firing as head coach of the U.S. men’s national team, it’s probably this: When a respected coach says they need a year off from the monotony of a never-ending job, they probably mean it.
That is understandable Jurgen Klopp will veto US soccer It’s been less than two months since we broke up emotionally. LiverpoolStill, in the Federation’s eyes, it was worth a try.
The German is as ambitious a target as the federation will allow: a serial champion at the highest level of club soccer, a culture builder with tactical flexibility with a clear guiding philosophy, and because he’s unemployed there would be no buyout cost, and the U.S. Soccer Federation seems willing to make its salary budget public.
Here’s the thing: if we take Klopp’s announcement to leave Liverpool in January at face value, this isn’t a case of the manager needing a new challenge. He made the decision despite having a year left on his contract. He seemed troubled and strained by the stress of constantly adapting to the constant change that comes with managing one of the world’s biggest clubs.
Even if Klopp had decided that dabbling in international management would provide him with a much-needed break after admitting he was “out of steam,” it would have saved U.S. soccer a headache for exactly two years.
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I’m not sure USMNT fans fully understand the huge difference in risk and reward if Klopp were to replace Berhalter.
The best-case scenario is clear: an ambitious hire that boosts the federation’s reputation, a genuinely good coach who can make some strong Black Forest lemonade out of the bitter experiences he inherited, perhaps a run to the World Cup semi-finals in 2026, and fond memories as he leaves to return to club football or retire altogether.
The worst-case scenario is that the constant headaches turn into diagnosable migraines. One is that Klopp is right: he’s out of steam and incapable of mastering the nuances that distinguish international football from club football. The other is that he simply can’t handle the crash course in international football, extracting more from the individuals but not enough to bring the team together in time for the World Cup. A Luis Enrique Spain scenario, if you like.
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp turned down an approach from the US national team (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Either way, the result will likely be a disappointing and costly solution that will leave the U.S. Soccer Federation back at the recruiting desk after the World Cup and in financial straits as it searches for long-term alternatives.
So while Klopp looks great in a USMNT hat in Photoshop, the reality is that this gamble is far more expensive than a subscription to Adobe Suite.
If a federation can’t get the best unemployed manager in the game, what is the “best” possible hire? Matt Crocker and the U.S. Soccer Association try to find answers Over the coming weeks, as they hope to have a World Cup-worthy manager by September, names will be flying around the rumour mill like an endless conveyor belt, with several of my colleagues naming some of the most talked-about candidates, with Klopp among them.
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Perhaps the rush to meet Klopp’s asking price through a combination of salaries, sponsorship considerations and NFTs was an expensive Band-Aid that didn’t address the bigger problem.
Is this a hire driven by process, an approach that Crocker emphasized when he re-appointed Berhalter in 2023? Does this hire address issues that arose during Berhalter’s brief second tenure and build the program on a better foundation? Or was it an extravagant scramble that could have been better planned and executed given Klopp’s months of notice?
Does the U.S. Soccer Association really know what it wants from its next men’s coach, and have they had enough time to figure it out?
“Progress has been made,” Crocker said Wednesday following Berhalter’s firing, “but now it’s time to translate that progress into wins.”
Victory! What a great start. American sports fans love to win.
The thing is, if it were as simple as just wanting to win, the U.S. Men’s National Team would have won 22 consecutive World Cups.
Regardless of what has been done in the last six years under Berhalter, saying it’s time to win is a veiled admission of failure. If you buy a few citrus trees on a shoestring budget, wait for six years for occasional fruit in the hope of a bumper crop, and then uproot the trees before a big event and import the harvest from a Brazilian orchard…how do you think you’ve gotten better at growing citrus? What was the point of growing that little plot in the first place?
Gregg Berhalter was fired on Wednesday. (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
Crocker has repeatedly asserted that Berhalter’s second appointment was the result of rigorous interviews, research and data-driven evaluation. To ignore that process and adopt a “spend big bucks on a big-name club coach” model would be to admit failure beyond one hire. As the saying goes, trust the process, but update it as new information comes along.
Thankfully, Crocker appears to have learned from one of the federation’s foibles in the 2018 process that led to Berhalter’s initial hiring: His predecessor, Ernie Stewart, decided the team needed an English-speaking coach to bounce back from its failure to qualify for the World Cup, eliminating alternatives like Marcelo Bielsa and Tata Martino and significantly narrowing the field of candidates.
Of course, Berhalter isn’t the first home-grown man to head coach of the U.S. national team. The team has had all but one home-grown talent since the 1994 World Cup, when it was led by Serbian coach Bora Milutinovic. That exception, Jurgen Klinsmann, comes with a caveat, as he’s someone who put down roots in California years before being appointed in hopes of making a mark on the federation’s memory whenever Bob Bradley was fired.
In many cases, being coached by a coach from the United States helped. The program’s best results in recent years were managed by Bruce Arena and Bradley. Both had in-depth knowledge of the player pool at a time when scouting and identifying talent was not as easy. Both had clear ideas about how they wanted their teams to perform, taking advantage of the pool’s strengths while also taking into account its weaknesses.
Neither was afraid to embrace stereotypical ideas about national “grit” or straight-ahead soccer play. Both used parts of that DNA to their advantage: Arenas led the U.S. men’s national team to the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, while Bradley led the team to a runner-up finish at the 2009 Confederations Cup, defeating an all-time great Spain on the way to the final.
As Crocker figures out what’s “best” for his next hire, the final hire may indeed be domestic. Steve Cherundolo and Pat Noonan are former U.S. national team players. MLSJim Curtin, on the other hand, is familiar with many of the players in the pool and offers a fresh perspective, and if these or other replacements are hired, there will be increased pressure to perform above expectations as the fan base moves past the second Berhalter era.
The best hire may have been an international one. Milutinovic has developed USMNT players into team legends and brought a fresh perspective to lead the team to domestic success. He Mexico When the World Cup was held in 1986.
The U.S. national team, which will host the 2026 World Cup, was eliminated in the group stage of the Copa America (Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
His CV rivals that of Herve Renard, the equally wanderlust-filled international coach who recently took charge of the France women’s national team. Renard has the face to be found in a catalogue, but he is not a household name coach. But he does have some notable achievements to his name, including two Africa Cup of Nations titles (with Zambia in 2012 and Côte d’Ivoire in 2015); Saudi Arabia Won the match of the century at the World Cup Argentina He was named France coach in 2022 and led an upset France team to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Women’s World Cup just a few months after taking the job. He ticks many of the boxes for a potential interim solution, with very high potentials and low minimums.
Klopp may be the “best” option, but bringing out the best in him may require a big salary plus a year of patience — two resources U.S. Soccer simply can’t afford to waste. Again, there’s a risk and reward at stake.
Ultimately, the need to get this hire right extends beyond the field. You don’t need to scroll through the comments section to know morale among USMNT fans is at an all-time low. Depending on how you view the Gold Cup, the team likely won’t play another high-level, meaningful match until the first match of the World Cup group stage in 2026. This hire is one of the few remaining chances to inspire fans, revitalize morale, and garner maximum support ahead of the World Cup.
Crocker and the League leaders said nothing. Tim Weir They put their arms around the back of a defender’s head, but they’re to blame for rehiring a coach who didn’t prepare the team to compete at the top level. Copa AmericaWhoever is ultimately hired, the federation needs to make the choice with full confidence that it is the “best” choice for the next two years — and it needs to be clear what its definition of “best” is in order to justify the choice.
(Pictured above: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC/Wolves via Getty Images)
