The United States Soccer Federation fired U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter on Wednesday, one week after the team was eliminated from the 2024 Copa America, Fox Sports reported.
Berhalter is stepping down after five years in the position across two stints, the first of which was reasonably successful, but the first 10 months of his second tenure saw the U.S. men’s national team become increasingly stagnant.
As the team headed toward an earlier-than-expected elimination from the Copa America, fans chanted “Fire Greg!” At least two of the official U.S. supporters’ groups, the American Outlaws and Balla 76, immediately called for Berhalter’s removal.
The U.S. Soccer Federation, led by sporting director Matt Crocker, reportedly fired Berhalter after what was called a “comprehensive” post-tournament review.
Now they will look ahead to the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. will co-host and the search for a successor to lead the U.S. team at the tournament — a chance, as Berhalter likes to say, to “change soccer in the United States forever.”
Fans will be dreaming of a big name hire like Jurgen Klopp, who recently left Liverpool and said he would “probably never be a manager again”, with other names being mentioned including Thierry Henry and Mauricio Pochettino.
More likely candidates would be a domestic coach like Steve Cherndullo or an experienced international coach like Herve Renard, who has said he will leave the France women’s national team after the upcoming Olympics as he seeks a third men’s World Cup appearance. (Renard has coached Morocco and Saudi Arabia at the past two World Cups.)
Berhalter, meanwhile, is likely to return to MLS or club soccer overseas, or he could look for another national team job outside the United States.
He first took charge of the U.S. national team in December 2018, a year after the team had hit its lowest point in recent memory, failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. In his first year, he struggled to adapt to the international game and fill holes in a roster that was weakest in more than a decade. The U.S. lost to Jamaica and Venezuela in June, lost to Mexico in the Gold Cup final, was humiliated by Mexico in a friendly two months later, and lost to Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League a month after that.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and 2020 was all but empty. By the time international football fully resumed, the holes in the depth charts had begun to fill: Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams had developed, and Gio Reyna, Tim Weah and, eventually, others had emerged, forming the so-called “Golden Generation.”
To some extent, that played into Berhalter’s hands. But he brought it to the national team, deliberately working to build a strong bond, or “brotherhood,” both within and outside the team. He called up international players like Sergiño Dest and Yunus Musa to the team. They broke through in June 2021, beating Mexico in a top-flight Nations League final. It was the first of three consecutive titles in the tournament and the first of a seven-match unbeaten streak against their arch rivals.
The team wobbled in World Cup qualifying that fall, but fought back when they needed to, against Honduras and at home. They toured Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, drawing with England and Wales and beating Iran before losing to the Netherlands in the round of 16, an acceptable result. To some, including Ernie Stewart, then U.S. Soccer’s sporting director, it was a successful campaign. Berhalter left Qatar as the favorite to take over as manager for a second term.
What happened next would define, delay and prolong his now-aborted second election cycle. He went to the Leadership Summit in New York and told the now-infamous story about Reyna. He didn’t mention Reyna by name, but once the story was made public (without Berhalter’s knowledge or permission), the dots connected. Reyna’s parents went to visit Berhalter’s boss, Stewart. They mentioned a decades-old domestic violence incident involving Berhalter and his then-girlfriend, now-wife, which sparked an investigation that left Berhalter in limbo for six months.
Berhalter’s original contract expired at the end of 2022. As the investigation was ongoing, Stewart left U.S. Soccer, leaving the organization’s athletic division without a helm. The organization had been searching for a replacement for Stewart to lead the pending U.S. men’s national team coaching search, but outsiders expected Berhalter would not be rehired after Crocker was selected in April 2023.
But in June, after a murky selection process full of buzzwords and few big-name candidates, the U.S. Soccer Federation reinstated Berhalter after his assistant, interim coach B.J. Callahan, had led the USMNT to the Nations League title.
He took command again in August, but through the fall and spring he failed to live up to the growing expectations.
“If we continue to grow like we have,” Berhalter said at his return press conference last June. “If this team keeps going where we think it will, the sky’s the limit.” But the team has plateaued or even regressed. According to Elo ratings, the team was ranked 34th in the world at the start of Berhalter’s tenure, but has grown to 14th in 2022. Now it has fallen back to 31st.
Mexico lost to Germany in the first big test match of the second cycle, saved face with a “miraculous” own goal against Jamaica in March, and then beat Mexico again, but then this Mexican team, which also exited the Copa America group stage, proved to be the worst in decades.
A 5-1 loss to Colombia was a wake-up call that wasn’t needed. A 1-1 draw with Brazil had the USMNT’s place in the Copa America all but assured. But a quarterfinal appearance was the bare minimum expectation. The U.S. just couldn’t deliver. The failure was heavily influenced by Tim Weah’s red card against Panama. But the trend was clear. And now the Berhalter era is reportedly over.
