Paulo Bento, current manager of the South Korea national team and former manager of Portugal 2010-14.
Cherundolo has one season at the MLS level, which I agree is light. He's won the MLS Cup and Supporter's Shield. Pirlo? He has won, um, nothing. So we just built a strong team culture, and you want to bring in a guy to tear that down and replace it with HIS culture, because that's less boring for you? Like I'd said, look what happened to us from 2014-17. Not good.
I'll throw a name out there for a non-American who I think might be the next Argentine coach to hit Europe after a great deal of success domestically. Although that might make it unlikely as he's been linked with La Liga, Serie A and Prem clubs and is somewhat coveted. Marcelo Gallardo His contract with River Plate is up in Dec I believe.
The American options are Matarazzo, Marsch, Wolff, Cherundolo, Wolff, and Curtin Currently available international coaches include (who may not accept): Low, Tuchel, Martinez, Pochettino, Zidane, Gerrard, Tedesco, Benitiz, Martino,
Just thought I’d chime in about Pirlo. The lone year he was given the reigns at Juventus, everyone celebrated him qualifying for the champions league. It was the first year that Juve didn’t win the scudetto in 9 seasons. They wanted Maurizio Sarri out but he at least won the Serie A. As that season was interrupted and resumed in June because of Covid, the season ended in August. Three weeks later the season began again and they fired Sarri and hired Pirlo. Pirlo was hired initially to be in charge of Juve’s Under 23 Serie C side but he hadn’t coached them yet. Then because Sarri was show the door, they gave the job to Pirlo. The criticism for Andrea was he was too young , inexperienced and never won anything yet. He was replaced at the end of his first year when Max Allegri was hired back. He basically should not have ever been given a job for a top team like Juve. I personally don’t think he would be a good coach for the USMNT. I don’t know if a foreign manager will change or help anything either. They may be better off to keep Berhalter for now.
I don't know what managers are available. But considering the bulk, if not all, of our core is playing in Europe I prefer that the next USMNT team comes from Europe. If that coach doesn't have international experience, then I'd hope that he has experience in the UEFA Champions League. I'm not going to spitball names for the sake of it. But that's what I'm seeking in the next manager. And what I'm seeking may not be feasible.
Joachim Low is available according to Transfermarkt. Can’t think of any better foreign coach to hire.
I think Curtin would be a good choice; very pragmatic, adaptable, and better yet, understands how to maximize the #9. Whoever it is, strongly feel it has to be an American. Cultural fit is important.
His high water mark at Portugal was making The Euro semis, but it was a pretty meh tenure otherwise. They only qualified for The Euro's playoff spot on goal differential (not even a direct sport). In World Cup qualifying they finished behind Russia for a direct spot, and finished behind Jurgen's USMNT in the final tournament.
Mourinho. I think the way he works would translate better at the international level than it does at the club level (he's a small doses coach, and that's what international football is). There aren't many better at navigating tournaments. There aren't many better at getting the most out of an underdog. He will be coming to the end of his typical cycle here very soon at Roma and should be available.
I remember Lionel Scaloni in Italy but I never knew he was in MLS as a player or coach. When was that exactly? His wiki page doesn’t talk about MLS… Lionel Scaloni - Wikipedia
I think we vastly overstate what a coach can do and what kind of difference a coach will make to our ultimate bottom line. Berhalter was a thoroughly OK coach with a mediocre resume, decent not great in MLS, not particularly successful in Europe, bit of an old boys club insider hire, and we hit par with him, maybe even a bit better. We're not likely to find a magical replacement who will do much better. We won the trophies that we had a legitimate shot at, played well in the opening round and then ran up against a much better opponent. I don't think Berhalter was ideal, but I also don't know that there is a coach on the planet that was likely to give us a better than long shot chance at a win against Netherlands. That's where we are as a player pool, that's where we are in terms of coaching, and that's where we are as a soccer country. Regardless who we hire, as fans we are going to expect and want more and ultimately be disappointed in whoever is selected. That said, there should be plenty of coaches available and I don't feel any need to roll through a list of all of them who are going to be better qualified and have a better resume than what we had this cycle. How much that will help is an open question though. Ultimately, how well we do in 2026 will depend much more on younger players stepping up and matching this generation as well as the guys who played in this World Cup having good success at club level and developing further as players. Those are the most important things for this team and no coach can do much about them outside rewarding those who succeed. Don't get me wrong, I think we should hire the best guy we can find. It's the one key position where we don't have to worry about nationality and we can throw a little money around and get the best available. And I don't think it is hard to find a better coach than we had this time around. But, I'm skeptical of how much improvement we can expect regardless of who we hire. And when we are still not world beaters there will be a lot of disappointment in whoever it is once again.
One of the things that I think really hurt/over-protected Berhalter’s legacy is the lack of quality opponents in the build up to 2022. It’s almost impossible to judge a coach when the best teams he will play in four years are Mexico and Canada, and it seems those are the only teams that they play. That’s not just knocking them. It hurt them too that they only played us. The USSF failed the US this cycle.
Actually, you are 100% correct. Berhalter did well with what he had but I really don’t think any other coach, foreign or domestic will have done much better. The USMNT went from being eliminated from the World Cup four years ago to a second round birth this time. Another coach may have picked a few different set of players here and there and maybe employed a different style, tactic or system but I seriously doubt anyone else will have beaten Holland the way they play yesterday. The US is a very young team and inexperienced which they showed at times but they still played above their heads.