Agreed. But that’s not what ussf wants. They want to keep Berhalter. That’s why everything over the last 2 days has transpired.
They are getting ahead of the media narrative shifting criticism to the Reynas (and turning Gregg into the victim somehow). This could have been handled in house quietly. It’s public because ussf are trying to retain Gregg.
Why do they wanna keep Gregg you think? I have no clue there
No idea. He’s underperformed tactically and clearly from a leadership standpoint.
He was hired in a pure nepotism play. Guessing it’s just relationships.
He’s totally unqualified and shouldn’t be in the job.
Man I like your theory for sure
I’m a little bit more rosy in terms of how he performed; didn’t lose to Mexico during this qualifying cycle, beat them in regional tournaments, and met expectations in the World Cup (didn’t exceed them but met them). Underperformed tactically is up for debate, there are plenty of articles from international media impressed with his tactical approach during the World Cup. That being said, I think they should change the coach because second-cycle coaches haven’t tended to work out, and it can be good to get fresh ideas in.
To be clear, if it wasn’t already, Berhalter is not my guy. But if Claudio’s your guy maybe ask him WTF he was thinking.
So, I don’t usually pay much attention to soccer (other than UVA) so I was kind of vaguely anti-Berhalter. But after looking into it, I’ve actually come around to the idea that he’s fine and I think the real problem is most people (like me) don’t pay that much attention to soccer. We remember there was some kind of disaster a few years ago, and we expect America to do great in every sport, and Berhalter has been around a while, so obviously he must be trash.
In reality, the disaster was mostly Klinsman’s doing with, unfortunately, an assist from Arena parachuting in and failing to save the day in 2018. Berhalter was coaching Columbus while that all happened so he wasn’t close to any of it.
Yeah, he lost the Gold Cup to Mexico in 2019, but came back and beat them in 2021 along with the CONCACAF Nations League (whatever that is) in 2021. We made it to the world cup, got out of the Group stage and lost to the Dutch in the knockout round. Which is exactly what we should have done. Sure, it’d have been nice to pull off a big upset, but failing to score an upset isn’t a disappointment.
Berhalter has been… fine. Which, in the grand scheme of US soccer coaches is probably above average. He could have handled this kerfuffle better, but on the field his results are acceptable.
I mean, Berhalter’s tactical performance certainly isn’t indisputably bad. But I certainly think he underperformed - if not in pure outcome than in his actual tactical decisions and impact as a manager. Consider:
He inherited the best player talent pool in USMNT history. And that’s not really debatable. We’ve never had a field player (i.e. non-Goalie) who started for a top tier side (i.e. regular Champions League) from a top 5 or 6 European league. Gregg inherited players who started for Juventus, Chelsea, Barcelona/AC Milan (same player), Borussia Dortmund, Valencia, RB Leipzig, and Benfica. That’s not counting players who start for more historically relevant USMNT represented clubs like Fulham, Celtic, Rangers, Leeds United, Celta Vigo, Lille, Union Berlin, and Crystal Palace or are reserve players for teams like Arsenal and Man City. He inherited those players too.
Gregg took the top player pool in USMNT history and finished behind Canada and tied with Mexico in qualifications. Meh.
Gregg took the top player pool in USMNT history and won 1 game while only scoring 3 goals in a World Cup group that included Wales (first time in the World cup in half a century) and Iran.
Gregg failed to make any adjustments to Wales bringing on a second striker and equalizing the score in a game we really HAD to win.
Gregg lost a knock out round to a Holland side that may have been marginally better on talent but got blown out because he was completely outcoached by LVG, who simply decided to man mark the midfield and take the USMNT out of its Plan A (play through midfield and hit runners breaking the lines in attack).
Gregg consistently showed very little tactical flexibility, forcing a Pep Guardiola style on the USMNT without any Plan B. That style marginalized our best striker talent, pushed our best creator to the bench because there was no natural fit for a #10, and failed to call up our best defenders (e.g. Ream, Brooks) because they didn’t fit his style.
Gregg made horrific player personnel decisions in the lead up to and during the World Cup, including leaving both our top scorer from qualifications and our top scoring striker playing in Europe at home, not playing our best creative player but for a handful of minutes during the tournament, and subbing in players like Jordan Morris, Jesus Ferreira, and Shaq Moore – none of which should have ever been close to the USMNT roster - when there were established European league players like Reyna and Joe Scally as options.
But he did qualify for the World Cup and made it out of the group stages only to be embarrassed by Holland. From a results standpoint, I agree that he gets a “meets expectations” or B. From a tactical nous standpoint, I’d give him a C- or D+. From a leadership standpoint, I’d give him an F.
@zvillehoo knows soccer My opinion on USteam as it relates to international stage is continuously playing Comcacaf we will never get to levels of the real teams: Netherlands and beyond, despite having more and more guys playing in Europe
I am surely biased, but not using Gio regularly and possibly telling Gio not to expect to play is his greatest fail; tactically and leadership
That’s a great analysis.
I don’t follow soccer much and I don’t know the tactics all that well, so this is me talking out of my ass.
Seems to me that 6 of our 7 best players play 4 positions, all on the attack, and our striker pool is not world class and doesn’t seem to have world class prospects coming up either.
If that’s the case, why’s he trying to shoehorn the roster into a 4-3-3 instead of adapting the formation and strategy to the strengths of the player pool?
Agreed that the striker position is our weakest talent pool at the moment. There is a British-American player named Florian Balogun who is on loan from Arsenal to Reims in Ligue 1. He’s currently 3rd in Ligue 1 in scoring behind only Mbappe and Neymar. He’s scored 3 more than Messi.
Whoever the new coach is needs to have his #1 priority convincing him to play for USMNT instead of (likely being 2nd-4th string) for England. Would be the final piece to our attack.
Well, when you put it that way…yeah he sucks.
I just want him gone. It would be a shame if this Reyna stuff somehow bought him an extension.
You can kinda see what you want with Berhaltar. Overall record was good. Record against World Cup level competition not so much. Home record was great. Away record not so much. Really just comes down to if we want to try to make a run at a medal or be content with another R16/QF appearance.
Seems clear to me a cycle with a home Copa America and home World Cup is the time to swing big. Hope this scandal doesn’t somehow buy him another opportunity
What a goal today from Reyna… Sorry Dragon for getting soccer up top on the board but this is ridiculous and speaks to his talent. Given they are not renewing the contract of the US GM, McBride, I hope that means a change at coach as well… And I hope not Mourinho as some are speculating.
You can post it but it doesn’t mean I have to read
