Once Again... Change Is Needed For The USMNT
Football has seen a lot of success at Arrowhead Stadium, the Kansas City Chiefs have 30 wins at home since 2019. Unfortunately, the success of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and others did not translate onto the futbol field on Monday July 1st. The U.S. needed to not just perform well, the U.S. needed to win against the #14 ranked team in the world, Uruguay. The need for such a large accomplishment stemmed from an embarrassing loss coming a few days prior that involved an early red card, an injury to Matt Turner, and just a flat performance against Panama. The U.S. went into the Uruguay game second in the group, but needed a win (and some help) to make it through to the Knockout Round. That did not happen…
The USMNT put up a hell of a performance against one of the top teams in the world, but ultimately a lack of offensive creativity led to a 1-0 loss. Sure, the loss was controversial as Uruguay’s Mathias Olivera potentially looked offside on his 66th minute goal… but the final result still stands. You can look at the lack of control from the head referee, you can look at the controversial goal, and many other factors but this U.S. team did not perform to the level that many expected them to in order to get the job done. But haven’t we seen this before? From 2014-2016 the U.S. failed to win a major competition losing at the World Cup, Copa America, and Gold Cup. Then, the U.S. missed the World Cup in 2018 and lost in the Gold Cup final in 2019. Sure, with the addition of the CONCACAF Nations League, the U.S. have found more success in the region in the last half decade, but have we truly grown as a soccer-ing country? Here are just some facts I want to lay out there in regards to the last decade of U.S. soccer:
-In 3 potential World Cups we’ve lost in the Round of 16 twice and failed to make one competition completely
-In 5 Gold Cups we’ve lost the competition three times, losing in the semi-finals of it two of those three times
-In 2 Copa America tournaments we’ve regressed from making a semi-final to now getting knocked out in the Group Stage (on home soil)
-We’ve averaged out winning some sort of CONCACAF competition every other year while having two major embarrassing moments
In my opinion in the last decade we’ve seen 0 change. Whether it has been a roster constructed of mostly MLS players, veterans, developing talent, players in their prime in Europe, it hasn’t changed anything in terms of on field results for the U.S. This is a larger issue and an issue that Matt Crocker and Oguchi Onyewu need to look at now and attempt to fix. Does this all stem from Gregg Berhalter? No. Other coaches and the players need to take responsibility as well, but Gregg shouldn’t slip by here as well. Unfortunately for him, the head coach is the one examined and usually the first on the chopping block. I’ve been on “team Gregg” for a long time now but a moment like this is where a change is needed, especially with the 2026 World Cup quickly approaching. Change is needed and it needs to start with Gregg. No matter who speaks up for him, results haven’t been there and a new manager needs to be put into place. This team has now failed in two of the four major competitions that they’ve played in since the end of the 2022 World Cup; losing in the semi-finals of the 2023 Gold Cup and losing in the Group Stage of the 2024 Copa America. Winning two CONCACAF Nations League titles in that same time does not show me growth, it shows me that this team won competitions it was supposed to.
The World Cup cycle from post-2010 World Cup until the 2014 World Cup was pretty standard, we won a Gold Cup and lost another in a final to Mexico. We then made the 2014 World Cup, losing in the Round of 16. The post-2014 World Cup until the 2018 World Cup was pretty standard in terms of winning a Gold Cup and losing in another Gold Cup. However, the U.S. would hit a “high” of losing in the semi-finals of the 2016 Copa America and the absolute “low” of failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. I’d say the 2011 to 2014 cycle was much more successful than our 2015 to 2018 cycle. But we move forward, we hit rock bottom now it's time for complete organizational change… right?
Gregg Berhalter was hired as the guy to steer the ship towards success after the meltdown of what the lead up of the 2018 World Cup was for the U.S. He was coming off of success with the Columbus Crew in MLS and had some tactical ideas that were different from the previous regime. Things started off pretty well in the Berhalter era as the team would end up losing in a Gold Cup final to Mexico but; would go on to win the first edition of the CONCACAF Nations League, win the 2021 Gold Cup, and qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The team was flying high, dual nationals came over, and life was good. But to me, this isn’t growth, this was just getting the U.S. back to where they were prior to the 2015-2018 cycle. Winning CONCACAF competitions… we did that in 2013 and now in 2021. Getting dual nationals… we did that in 2010 with the likes of Jermaine Jones just as much as we did under Gregg with getting Sergino Dest in 2019. Gregg didn’t advance us with this “young and exciting group of players” he got us back to the stability of being at the top of CONCACAF.
But once again, in the 2022 World Cup we lost poorly in the Round of 16 to a much better team on a global scale. We come back from that and win two CONCACAF competitions, which is a good thing but again… the thing that is the baseline for success in CONCACAF for the U.S. But I think we are starting to see a decline in Gregg’s teams now. We lost in the 2023 Gold Cup in a semi-final and now crashing out of the 2024 Copa America. Things get stale under managers who’ve had multiple World Cup cycles, it’s the nature of the beast at a certain point. International Managers need to keep things fresh, change things up, but I think we are starting to see this come into effect now with recent performances such as this 1-0 loss to Uruguay. The only saving grace here for the U.S. is that they don’t have to compete in World Cup qualifying due to getting an automatic spot for hosting in 2026.
Many are saying it “Gregg Out”. I’ve been against that for the longest time to be honest, but a string of performances like this shouldn’t save someone's job IF the federation is looking to grow past the same old USMNT. If the federation wants the U.S. to continuously be a top 15 ranked side, win every other Gold Cup, win every other CONCACAF Nations League, and just stay status-quo then let Gregg keep his job. But if the federation wants to push these young players who are playing at top clubs and push the USMNT into an actual global threat in soccer, then change is needed. From the top down (and that includes Berhalter) change is needed.
