http://bit.ly/2TFrPPb Not official from US soccer, but it sounds done to me. Moderator note: See post #43.
No offense to the original poster, but I'm still not considering this full confirmation. I'm not ready to give up that little sliver of hope that things might go in a different direction.
Again, in my opinion Berhalter is a reasonable choice. Again, in my opinion, there are currently no American coaches who are better than him. That said, I think that if we were going to wait one goddamn frickin' year [+] to name a coach who is not better than what we could have named last November then we completely shat this year away. Name Berhalter by last Christmas, I'm ok with it. Name a world class coach by this Christmas, I'm ok with it. But to have last year's hire be this year's hire is absolute horseshit.
I think this is a really good hire. Hope it works out. A lot of other planets have to line up for his tenure to be successful.
Except this time last year, we were waiting for the USSF election, and there were different ideas floated but it seemed to make everyone happy to know that a position and process would be created to hire the coach. And then we had to figure out how that would all really work, and who could hire that person. And then that person had to be identified, and do their due diligence. All in a minefield of bad faith and pretty ferocious second guessing. Here's to better days.
He is going to be good. But more importantly: 1. Thank god the wait is over 2. Can we all wipe the slate clean and root For him to succeed
I see this a lot and completely don’t get it. Sunil was leaving. It was completely unfeasible for him to make a hire on his way out the door!
I think expectations are so low that 90% of the fanbase will be flabbergasted when we qualify in the top two. Which is the typical.
Seriously? the USSF could have easily made the Berhalter choice by the end of the MLS season that year. But even if they thought it judicious to hold off until the elections, then what about all the time since then? Do you seriously believe that it was necessary to bring Earnie Stewart to hem and haw for the better part of this year, only to bring in last year's guy? I like Berhalter, and I hope he does well in resurrecting our team, but this year has been squandered on Sarachan and nothing good has come from it. We start from scratch.
This hire would have been...fine, had it happened 12 months ago and we not completely pissed away a year. As it is, he’s not got a fan base that’s disillusioned at best or more indifferent at worst, with seriously issues to work out in the attack.
My guess is that Berhalter without Higuaín will be like Arena without Donovan. Berhalter really should have taken the Galaxy gig.
Yeah, you can tell a reasonable story why the USSF moved slowly at each particularly juncture. "Well, we need to wait until the election of the new president." "Well, we need to let the new president salvage the 2026 bid before figuring out who should be GM." "Well, we need to let the GM wrap things up with his club before starting with us." "Well, we need to let the GM talk to former players and develop a list of attributes we'd ideally want in to coach and develop a list of candidates." "Well, we need to give the GM time to thoroughly interview all the top candidates." But taken as a whole, it just comes off as extremely incompetent and inefficient, especially when the outcome of the process is to hire the guy whom most people had pegged as the leading candidate a year ago.
Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. USSF couldn't show their lack of ambition any more clearly than this hire, if it is indeed Beerholder.
1. Gulalati correctly did not want to appoint a coach as he was leaving and waited for the election of the new leadership 2. Once the election was done, they hired a new technical director first 3. The likely candidates were in MLS and they were going to wait until the season was over. 1 & 2 we’re fine by me 3, less so. They could have hired him and announced it a couple months ago, contingent on the seasons ending.
If this is true, it's mediocrity at its finest. Who gives a shit about what the fans think, but what do the players truly feel about this hire? This team is not going to lead by guys like Trapp, Acosta, and Nagbe. Its core will be Pulisic, McKennie, Sargent, Miazga, Horvath, etc. What do these guys really feel behind closed doors. Are they going to respect the guy coming in to lead them? Are they going to be learning anything from him? Is he even at the level of their club coaches?
I'm going to root for him to succeed because I want the team to succeed. I always root for our coach to do well, from Bradley to Sarachan. But I'm not going to forget the shitty and incompetent way this was handled. I'm not going to forget the inconsistent criteria, the incoherent "vision", nor the... convenience... of hiring a candidate that will not change or challenge anything about USSF whatsoever. And I'm damn sure not going to forgive Stewart and Cordiero for this year's worth of purgatory that they have put the fans through after the hell that was Couva.
I quibble a little bit on the "there are no better American coaches" bit, but like all of us, I think I broadly agree on the general point. (Is there anyone here who actually pointedly disagrees and believes that this worked out well for us? Bueller? Bueller?) Our fed basically managed to misplace 2018 under the seat cushions is the long and short of it.
Clean slate, arguably best American coach fir the job, I’ll go into it with optimism. We needed a clean slate. ( disclaimer: That optimism will plummet drastically if trapp is considered a key cog in the machine )
Berhalter was hired months ago. Garber did not want anything to scare off potential investors in Columbus, and required the announcement be delayed.
Dude, I think you hit the nail on the head. Professional courtesy for Columbus. It makes the delay at least justifiable to a degree , good call