And they include most of the commentariat (among which are numerous ex players), including his most staunch former defenders. Among the well informed who have expressed an opinion it is a virtual consensus.
They were willing to pay off Klinsmann who was getting paid more than Berhalter. I think none of us know how Crocker is going to handle this but I’d take a look at the Tannenwald story which is instructive. It’ll just be a process to actually fire him. And the news would likely leak if/when he goes to the board for approval.
I have become one of them (though screaming it isn't really my thing). Gregg should be fired. Circumstances sucked--the Weah red, the refs in the two games we lost--but this team has failed under pressure on the two biggest stages under Berhalter. He shouldn't get a third chance.
GB has not improved the team since Qatar. That's the problem. Not making the quarterfinals in Copa America is NOT the problem. Just look at two of the quarterfinal matchups: Canada v Venezuela, and Uruguay v Brazil. The difference in quality is laughable. Advancement in a short tournament depends on the luck of the draw, as well as the luck with referee decisions et al. Under the circumstances, the USA played well, and got excellent experience with two warm-up games and three group games. Those games were better experiences than any recent games in the Nations League or in friendlies. We need a new coach. I prefer someone who had been a starting player for awhile, has coaching experience, and above all, is NOT subservient to the USSF. For example, Dolo or Tab. History to Consider: We once hired Steve Sampson off of an excellent 1995 Copa America (finished 4th), but which was mainly due to the stars of 1994. But he turned out to be real bad in WC98.
Got our guy ✍️We've named B.J. Callaghan as our second head coach in Club history pic.twitter.com/Vk4u2TkSNW— Nashville SC (@NashvilleSC) July 3, 2024 BJ to Nashville is official for anyone hoping he’d be interim.
This is 100% fact. Twitter and BigSoccer aren't the mainstream fan. And yes, this is one thing that differentiates soccer culture in the US versus that in Argentina, Spain, and many of our competitors. That level of public pressure leading to accountability. That's not necessarily a bad thing at times, because some nations change their coaches too often. Mexico is an example of that. Are Mexico's results improving by how often they change their coach? No. Because the pool of players is the pool of players. There's also this delusion that Euro federations just fire their coaches willy-nilly when results aren't great. Neither FIGC President Gabriele Gravina nor coach Spalletti resigned after Italy’s exit. We'll see what consequences come later, but they haven't resigned. Has everyone resigned after yet another disappointment for Belgium?? What we can all agree on is that Berhalter has been on the job for most of 5 years. And his results have been fine, particularly at the CONCACAF level. But I don't think any of us on Big Soccer think he can lead us to victories over the "big" nations at WC 2026. I don't know if another coach can. The pool of players is the pool of players. But we have enough evidence that Berhalter isn't going to lead us to those victories.
I don't know that the CEO of Coke or Nike gets on the phone, but whoever has the sponsorship budget can absolutely apply pressure and in many cases do. They paid a LOT for this sponsorship; they want to see value. That said, the FAR more valuable sponsorship is the USWNT right now, and that seems to be positive, so I can't imagine there's a lot of pressure today. And this loss is hardly what a push to fire comes from anyway. The public perception would certainly be worrying. A loss of ratings -- and these were the highest rated games ever not in a WC for the USMNT, so no -- would also be an issue.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/soccer/gregg-berhalter-replacements-usmnt/3479776/ Sergio Conceicao, free agent Conceicao just left Portugal's FC Porto after a seven-year stint where he won three league titles, among other domestic trophies. From his 17-year playing career to 14-year coaching career, there's not much Conceicao hasn't won or seen. He also had 56 caps for the Portuguese national team and played as a forward, though he's yet to coach a national team. Conceicao's teams have a blend of high technical prowess and grit defensively, which have deeply troubled some of Europe's elites in the Champions League. He most recently used variations of a 4-2-3-1 with Porto, which is a formation that would work well with the current U.S. setup. He may not be a household name for most fans, but the quality is certainly there.
https://x.com/HenryBushnell/status/1808152816004857936 This is the question before the game, and then the first reply is Berhalters response after the game.
I am not known for agreeing with @jond ... but here I think I have to. Money-men want bang for their buck. In this case, they advance their own monied interest by using the popularity of the product they are sponsoring. I can't be reasonably told that sponsors are fine with the product (that they are using to push their own interest/product) flailing, foundering, floundering, and bringing disrepute to their own company. People will say no one cares, I know. But if no one cared, companies would not be sponsoring products to begin with, as that would simply be a sunk cost. Sponsors may make mistakes, but they are not that stupid. Companies involve themselves in sponsorships for a very good reason -- they see results in their bottom line when it works well. So, yes, I could absolutely see sponsors going to the Fed and asking what the hell is going on. I guarantee you that the Fed gave sponsors the rosiest outlook possible when they were soliciting their money. And that is going to be thrown right back in their faces now. They may not say overtly, "fire Gregg now." But the conversations are going to leave the Fed knowing that money is on the line if something does not change pretty immediately.
Mexico moves way faster than the US does, so I'd say if either get fired Lozano is definitely 1st. The USSF moves at glacial paces and will wait til the end of the month to say anything one way or another, unless Gregg steps down. I still don't see Gregg leaving, not the same people, but the Fed wanted Arena to continue after Couvo, and this isn't nearly as bad as missing a WC. But I'd say if both are fired, Gregg comes out in August and Lozano by 15th July. Just my guess.
Most fans couldn't care about who the coach is and there's no way a CEO of a company would be saying "fire him now and figure out the next coach later." They wouldn't do that in their own business so they of course wouldn't tell another business to do that. The Copa was a mess. Greg as the coach needs to take the blame because he's the coach. But I am also realistic. Doesn't matter who the coach was, we were screwed trying to get a positive result against Panama once we went down a man 14 minutes in. Panama is a good team so it's delusional thinking to expect a tie or win against them under those circumstances. Thinking other wise is incredibly disrespectful to their players and coach. What's really ridiculous is people are saying we should have still earned a point against Panama but then also saying how good of a coach Christensen (sp) is. You don't get it both ways. Our players are our players. Whoever the next coach is won't get much more out of them. Our 9s are all midlevel players and our goalies are all sitting the bench (for the most part). Those facts aren't changing. We're not going to be playing creative attacking soccer against any highly talented teams any time soon. International soccer is an f***** grind. Look at the Euros and the eggs some highly talented teams laid. Asking for more than what is realistic is setting yourself up for failure. Weah dug a hole the rest of the team couldn't get itself out of because we didn't have the talent to do it (and the reality is, not many teams have the talent necessary to overcome that adversity)
So... I've actually worked in this space a bit. Not at the level Coke or Nike has invested with US Soccer, but as a middle-level sponsor of both a team and a person. I've also seen the other side in college athletics. The #1 thing is public perception. At this level, Nike isn't likely calling because someone lost a game, they are looking at brand equity, exposure, etc. A scandal of some kind is far worse than losing. And I am absolutely certain ALL of these sponsors are more focused on the women's side. It's vastly more valuable right now -- and the excitement and press around Emma Hayes and the young squad ... in terms of marketing value, it's far more important than Berhalter. I can imagine there's a phone call there that focuses maybe on a couple of things: one, the terrible online culture around US Men's soccer. This ain't Berhalter, really, and if I were a brand, I'd stay pretty far away because it's cancer. But they can't change that. And two, some concern over how deep they go in 2026. But I really can't imagine they are demanding a change; just more ... "um, hey, we need a run." Or at most, we're planning on committing X, but we need confidence that we're going to run these ads for more than a week. It seems unlikely they'd be like donors at a college level. I think there's likely some dual sources of concern, but pushing for a specific solve seems unlikely to me, FWIW. But I wasn't at a Nike or Coke.
The hubris and self-imporance in this statement is striking. it's actually hilarious you think other national team fans give any thought to who our coach will be next month. Uruguay fans couldn't care less who the next coach is because they believe their players are better than ours. Period. End of story.
He resigned because of issues with the fed and some of the top players, not fired. I imagine it's why Leon decided to not come. And then the money he wanted invested wasn't being put in by the JFF, though that's just through sources. But yeah he was out fast, so if Gregg does step down I would say Friday at the latest (I don't see there being any way he resigns).
My wager is we keep Berhalter. There just isn't the sense of unanimous outrage here when Klinsi was let go. Doubling down, iirc Klinsi lost the team, Berhalter hasn't. It's easier and cheaper for those in charge to accept what we have.
I don’t think Berhalter is going to resign. But I do expect he’ll ultimately be let go (and it will take longer than people would like). If you extrapolate out say two weeks to fire Berhalter and 2.5 months to find a replacement (which is how long the process took previously, though it took Crocker three months to hire Emma Hayes), I think you’re looking at Varas as the interim for the September window with the hope of a new coach in place by the October window.
Again, you are vastly oversimplifying the sponsor relationship. No, the CEO of Nike won't call Matt Crocker and say you fire Gregg right now. What would happen is they'd see a downturn in interest of their expected views. So for example let's say the next friendly games are lower rated. Or the grumbling on social media continue (people are tagging the USSF sponsors), someone in the ad department will call the USSF and say we paid x for exposure and we are getting y, what's going on? Now, does that lead to a firing in itself, no (unless they drop the sponsorship all together, but that would take more than on field results), but it does set more reasons to let Gregg go. It's not common for teams to overcome a red, it happens though a few times in Brazil and some other tourneys, but the red encapsulates some issues. Dest got a similar red for just a dumb move, Gregg said there'd be no internal pressure on that because Dest is mature. They also talked about how they had no plan of what to do if they went down to 10. They scored and then looked lost for 15 minutes letting Panama get an easy goal. Had they had a plan, and executed it well they get to halftime 1-0. Then even Panamas second goal gets a point. The little margins is where Gregg's teams keep coming up short. That is coaching. And absolutely a better manager could get more out of this group of players. Are they going to be WC contenders, no. But should they be better than barely above .500 in the last year, yes.