It wasn't. I think Berhalter did a pretty good job in his first cycle. And I'm not even willing to put the onus on him completely for the Copa and the blahs before that. But it's pretty common for coaches to lose their ability to strongly affect a team over time, especially from a motivational angle, and it's pretty clear the team needed a level of shakeup that wasn't coming from Berhalter. I think he did a good job, but I also think there's a lot of good coaches out there. Moving on from someone where things have gotten stale is often necessary, regardless of how good the coach is. Especially on a team where you can't really change the players. I don't think twitter had anything to do with it. I do think there was internal USSF pressure that overlapped with the media. But either way, I also think that Berhalter wasn't meeting expectations that he probably largely set. I doubt he would disagree. I'd bet he'd think he could fix it, but in Crocker's role, you have to think what's more likely -- that Berhalter would fix it regardless of whose "fault" it is or that you can find someone more likely. It's not about being fair to Berhalter. It's about optimizing the team's performance and progression. There's no reason to believe that Pochettino won't take the work seriously. He's a notorious hard worker as a coach -- most of these people are very self motivated and his lack of connection to the US will probably only play a role in things he doesn't want to do (i.e., the admin work). But coach? Yeah, I think he's just a coach. He comes in with a completely different rep than Klinsmann. And he's not overrated. There's a very real question of whether his secret sauce for winning works in a national team, but the sheer number of people who are like "yeah but what has me won" tells me that people don't overrate him as a coach. Do people overrate his potential impact? Yeah, people put way too much on the coach. But he's a top coach for a reason.
Sources: Mauricio Pochettino, as I reported, already met with USSF executives. It’s all settled. Papers have been signed.USMNT players have been informed. Announcement is coming this weekend, I can confirm.Pochettino is now the USMNT Head Coach.— Jose Alvaro Tejano Deportes 🇲🇽🇺🇸 (@tejanodeportes) September 6, 2024
I have always been a fan of the way Marsch communicates. You never get the sense that he is dissembling, which makes what he says more impactful. To me, that's a good quality in a coach.
Pretty much. But if we only got fullbacks and wingers starting in first divisions, we're going to need Potter, as in Harry Potter, to make that QF run.
We hired a very good manager but he can only take us as far as the talent at his disposal allows. The key is he can't do less than the talent at his disposal.
There was no way in hell I thought we'd get a coach with the pedigree of Pochettino. That is beyond our wildest expectations. Will it work? Will he take this team farther at the World Cup than Berhalter did? To be determined.............................. I think what the fans on this board would say is that Berhalter took us as far as he could go. He wasn't going to elevate the program further. So now we roll the dice on a guy that might be able to. If it doesn't work; it doesn't work. [By the way, in 25 years I think we'll look at Berhalter's tenure differently. We'll view it as the first stepping stone getting us on the proper trajectory after the 2018 debacle. Just like I think we look at Bob Bradley's tenure differently today than right after he was let go in favor of Klinsmann.]
"By the way, in 25 years I think we'll look at Berhalter's tenure differently. We'll view it as the first stepping stone getting us on the proper trajectory after the 2018 debacle. Just like I think we look at Bob Bradley's tenure differently today than right after he was let go in favor of Klinsmann.]" And where it should have ended was after the World Cup. Nothing he did after that furthered the program.
Sure. We thought the same thing of Bradley following the 2010 cycle. People on the boards from that time remember the vitriol directed at Bob Bradley in his 2nd cycle. Particularly following the 2011 Gold Cup in which we really struggled. We made the final, but really struggled. Scraped by Guadeloupe 1-0 with a fairly loaded roster. But now there's enough distance and time gone by to have a different viewpoint of the pool and the landscape. That vitriol has completely died off, and the Bradley era is mostly remembered for the good times of the 2010 cycle. Finishing 1st in our group at the 2010WC and then playing a really close game with Ghana in the Round of 16 (before losing in extra time). The same will be true of the Berhalter era. The vitriol will die off and people should remember the Nations League and Gold Cup triumphs. The qualification for the World Cup and making it to the Round of 16. There were actually a lot of good times if people actually took the time to enjoy it.
True but at the time there weren't the choices there are now and it was easy to make him sink or swim and replace after the Copa if he didn't measure up. He didn't and the shorter time frame allowed better candidates. The pool was sort of exposed to which may have been hard for most coaches after a pretty successful WC for such a young team. Usually it's easy to make changes as players age out but not who almost all are so young. I'd add it seems the players are now ready for a change when after the WC they weren't. Should make them much more humble and likely to try new things. We'll see if it actually all worked out pretty ideal or if the idea of having such a good coach doesn't work as good in reality.
I appreciated Berhalter grabbing the Nations League title again. True, it didn’t further the program but I’m a fan who mostly lives in the present with the national team. If Mexico regains momentum and racks up a few titles in a row over us I won’t be thrilled.
"That trip [to Spain] didn't happen. It was canceled at the last minute... this deal remains very very close to getting over the finish line. I think we could see an announcement in the next 48 hours."@ByDougMcIntyre has the latest on the USMNT announcing Mauricio Pochettino pic.twitter.com/BPH8iWLwKI— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 7, 2024
So listening to this answer: Q: Why hasn't anything been officially announced yet by US Soccer? A: The short answer is money. Mauricio Pochettino is one of the highest paid coaches in global soccer. He had a 2 year guaranteed contract with Chelsea. The Blues let him go after the first year of that deal. And he needs to be made whole. So it's been Chelsea and US Soccer haggling over who pays what. Neither side wants to spend more than they need to. I believe they have reached a conclusion now. But that's the main reason this has dragged on for so long. As I suspected, that indicates there isn't clear language in Pochettino's contract with Chelsea (or any subsequent severance agreement he may have signed) that obligates Chelsea to continue to pay the remainder of what he's owed, or to cover the difference, if he takes another job that doesn't pay as well. Which surprises me a bit, because my understanding is that in a normal contract agreement, as long as everyone is acting reasonably, Chelsea would typically be on the hook for whatever amount is still owed to him that US Soccer isn't paying. Instead, it sounds like Chelsea and USSF are having to haggle over the precise split now.
Normally, a corporation paying a ton per month and not much time left on the fired manager's contract would jump at the chance to claw some money back. Makes you wonder if squabbles at Chelsea are at issue: “Civil war” coming at Chelsea as Todd Boehly prepares £2.5bn bid for full takeover - Yahoo Sports
aw rats! another extension! who could have seen this coming? and why were they going spain when hes clearly in kc giving some pregame pointers the team he selected, decked out in ussf gear, before he heads up to a luxury box...right?
Why sign Poch when he's already secretly coaching the team for free? "That trip [to Spain] didn't happen. It was canceled at the last minute... this deal remains very very close to getting over the finish line. I think we could see an announcement in the next 48 hours."@ByDougMcIntyre has the latest on the USMNT announcing Mauricio Pochettino pic.twitter.com/BPH8iWLwKI— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 7, 2024 Why is it taking so long for US Soccer to announce Mauricio Pochettino? #USMNT #FutbolAmericas pic.twitter.com/iuSGaLYBmg— herculez gomez (@herculezg) September 7, 2024