Last Monday (July 1) the USA was eliminated from Copa America (click here to learn more about Copa America and why it was so important to US Soccer). US Soccer fans, pundits, and analysts (including Dos a Cero) immediately called for Berhalter to be fired. US Soccer announced shortly thereafter that they would perform a comprehensive review of Berhalter’s performance and make a decision about his status as manager. 

Yesterday (July 10) US Soccer officially announced they have decided to part ways with Berhalter. Berhalter leaves with several meaningful accomplishments, including rebuilding a program that was in shambles after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. He qualified for the 2022 World Cup and got us out of a tough group. The game against England was a notably great performance and a match we should have won. Over the years, we grew to dominate our FIFA region, CONCACAF, under Berhalter. In fact, Alexi Lalas actually said we’ve “outgrown” CONCACAF recently. 

Still, even before the Copa America disaster, there was a sense that Berhalter was holding us back. Exiting Copa America in the group stage was the final nail in the coffin, and who knows, perhaps we’ll all look back at it as a blessing in disguise if we end up with a great new manager and make a deep run in the 2026 World Cup. 

As noted above, the failure to advance out of the group stage at this year’s Copa America was the final nail in the coffin for Berhalter. It was a disaster on multiple levels. We became the first host nation not to advance out of the group stage in a Copa America since this format was introduced in 1975. We were in a group with Bolivia, the weakest team in the tournament, and with Panama, a CONCACAF foe who we routinely defeat. We should have advanced easily. Dos a Cero’s data analysis pegs this as the worst-ever tournament performance relative to our talent on the field. 

After our elimination, it was clear that there was no excitement about this program among the fan base as long as Gregg Berhalter was in charge. This was a huge test on a global stage, and whether his fault or the players, we failed. 

Ultimately Berhalter failed to accomplish the lofty goal he and US Soccer established when he took over, to change the perception of US Soccer on the global stage. 

Some might argue this is harsh on Berhalter given the impact of the Copa America exit on his firing. That exit can, in large part, be attributed to Tim Weah getting a red card in the match against Panama, and Berhalter sure as hell didn’t tell Weah to do that. But ultimately, we can’t fire the players, and that was the second inexplicable red card in an important competitive match in only a few months. Sergino Dest v. Trinidad and Tobago being the other. We think there was something wrong in the locker room for that to happen twice in such quick succession.

In 2006, when we failed to get advance past the group stage at the World Cup, Bruce Arena lost his job, and that was widely regarded as the “Group of Death” at that tournament. Mexico made a change at manager after a similarly (but less) embarrassing group stage exit at this Copa America. Every serious soccer nation would fire their manager after this and we simply had to do the same. It’s the nature of this game.

Mostly, US Soccer has said the right things, thanking Berhalter for what he did for the team and federation, while indicating their focus on the search ahead. During Fox’s pregame show for the Uruguay v. Colombia match (what a match by the way…incredible intensity and effort from both teams) the hosts on Fox stated they’d spoken to Matt Crocker, U.S. Soccer Sporting Director shortly before getting on air.

We are relieved by the latter statement. There had been reports that US Soccer may not be able to afford a more expensive coach after making Emma Hayes the highest paid women’s coach in the world, with a salary on par with Berhalter’s. Spending big money on someone like Klopp (more on him below) could necessitate matching his salary for Hayes. We’re genuinely all for gender equality here but sacrificing the success of the men’s team in the 2026 World Cup (and by extension the entire sport in this country) when we have the money and already the best women’s coach would make no sense.  Whether they up Hayes’ pay to match a new men’s team coach or not, we’re glad to hear money won’t impact the search.

US Soccer has not made an official public statement about when they want to make the new hire. We have several international friendlies in September and October, and our hope is that those will be the first matches with a new manager, and an opportunity for that new manager to begin working with the team.  

Many of you reading this article will have seen speculation that Jurgen Klopp, the recently retired world-class manager of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, could be the next USMNT manager. That would be incredible. Full stop. Major upgrade from Berhalter. 

But…that may not be realistic – even if “money won’t impact our search”. When announcing his retirement, he stated he will not manage elsewhere for a year after leaving Liverpool. He seems like a man of his word to us and seems to feel he owes the supporters of Liverpool to keep it. Perhaps we can get him as an “advisor” now and coach starting in June 2025? 

Even then, is Klopp the best possible option? He’s obviously a great candidate, but is he the best option? To answer that question we have laid out what we believe US Soccer should look for in the next USMNT manager.  

On July 11 it was reported that Klopp has declined the USMNT job. What follows is our original post that analyzes Klopp under the framework we developed above. We decided to leave it on the page because (a) it’s a fun read and (b) it sets a benchmark against which we can judge other candidates later.

We feel we’ve created a nice little score card that US Soccer can use when interviewing candidates to replace coach Berhalter. They are welcome to use it and we won’t even charge them a licensing fee…

Klopp seems to be the candidate that has captured the imagination of US Soccer fans. We have been more hesitant than most to get truly excited about that possibility. Not because we don’t think he’s a great manager, he clearly is. Our reservations stem mostly from being unsure if our players can pull off his system. For those unfamiliar, Klopp plays a very intense brand of soccer that requires maximum effort, superior speed, and incredible stamina. We honestly aren’t sure if that is the style that best suits our player pool.

Let’s dig in and see how he stacks up on our wish list

It is going to be a fascinating few months as a USMNT fan. We are a small and new site here, so we aren’t going to chase every rumor about the next USMNT coach, but we will give real, thoughtful analysis to those who seem to be in serious consideration, as we’ve done for Klopp above. 

We’ll be creating a section on this site with deeper thoughts on the main candidates. So far, the names that pop up the most have been Mauricio Pochetino, Wilfried Nancy, Tab Ramos, Steve Cherundolo, Patrick Viera, Thierry Henry, Thomas Tuchel, and Jesse Marsch.

And finally, we would be remiss not to thank Gregg Berhalter for all he’s done for the USMNT over the past few years. He gave everything he could and made significant progress in the fight to change the way the world thinks about US Soccer. Several of the current and former players have taken to Instagram to thank the coach, and we expect more to follow in the coming days.