U.S. Soccer fired men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter on Wednesday, one week after the USMNT, according to a .
Berhalter departs after five years on the job, over two separate stints, the first of which was . But throughout the first 10 months of his second stint, it .
As the team trudged toward an earlier-than-expected Copa América exit, fans chanted: “Fire Gregg!” At least two official U.S. supporters’ groups, the American Outlaws and Barra 76, soon .
After what it called a “comprehensive” post-tournament review, U.S. Soccer, led by sporting director Matt Crocker, reportedly relieved Berhalter of his duties.
They will now search for a replacement to lead the USMNT toward and at the , which the United States is co-hosting, and which represents an opportunity to, as Berhalter would often say, “change soccer in America forever.”
Fans will fantasize about a big-name hire, such as Jürgen Klopp, who recently left Liverpool and said he “probably will not be a manager again.” Others who’ll be mentioned include Thierry Henry and Mauricio Pochettino.
Among the more reasonable candidates would be domestic coaches like Steve Cherundolo or experienced international coaches like Hervé Renard, the Frenchman who has said he will leave the France women’s national team after the upcoming Olympics because he is eying a third men’s World Cup. (He coached and at the last two.)
Berhalter, meanwhile, will most likely return to club soccer, in MLS or abroad. He also could look for another national team job outside the U.S.
He first took charge of the USMNT in December 2018, one year after its modern-era nadir, the . In his first year on the job, he struggled to adapt to the international game, and to fill gaps in a player pool that had arguably . The U.S. lost to and Venezuela that June; ; got two months later, and then by in the CONCACAF Nations League a month after that.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and a mostly empty 2020. By the time international soccer fully resumed, those gaps in the player pool had begun to fill in. , and had matured. , and eventually others emerged. A .
To some extent, it fell into Berhalter’s lap. But he also worked intentionally to usher it into the national team and build strong chemistry, a “brotherhood,” within it and around it. He recruited multi-nationals like Sergiño Dest and to join it. In June 2021, they broke through, — the first of what would become , and the first of seven games unbeaten against their archrival.
In World Cup qualifiers beginning that fall, they wobbled, but responded when necessary in Honduras and at home. They went to for the 2022 World Cup, and , , and . It was an acceptable result. To some, , it had been a successful campaign. for a second cycle.
What happened next came to define, delay and linger over his now-terminated second cycle. He went to a leadership summit in New York and told a now-infamous story about Reyna. He didn’t name Reyna, but when the (without Berhalter’s knowledge or permission), dots got connected. Reyna’s parents went to Berhalter’s boss, Stewart. Their mention of a decades-old domestic violence incident involving Berhalter and his then-girlfriend, now-wife, sparked , and left Berhalter in limbo for six months.
Berhalter’s first contract expired at the end of 2022. As the investigation played out, Stewart left U.S. Soccer, leaving the federation’s sporting department rudderless. As it searched for Stewart’s successor, who would lead the now-on-hold USMNT coaching search — and even after it settled on Crocker in April 2023 — the external assumption was .
But in June, after a — and as interim coach B.J. Callaghan, a Berhalter assistant, was leading the USMNT to a Nations League title — U.S. Soccer brought Berhalter back.
He retook charge in August. But throughout the fall and spring, he failed to meet rising expectations.
“If we continue to develop in the way that we have,” Berhalter said at his reintroductory news conference last June, and “if this group continues to go where we think they can go, the sky’s the limit.” Instead, they flat-lined, or perhaps even regressed. They had grown from the 34th best team in the world at the onset of the Berhalter era to 14th, per Elo ratings, entering 2022. They are now back down to No. 31.
They . They needed a “miraculous” own goal to save face against Jamaica in March. They beat Mexico again, but it has since become apparent that this Mexico team, , is the worst in decades.
A 5-1 loss to followed. It was a “wake-up call” that shouldn’t have been necessary. A 1-1 draw with stabilized the USMNT entering Copa América. But a quarterfinal berth was the minimum expectation. The U.S. didn’t meet it. The failure was heavily influenced by . But the trend had become obvious. And now, the Berhalter era is reportedly over.