If we’ve learned one thing since Gregg Berhalter was fired as manager of the U.S. men’s national team, it’s probably this: When a revered coach says they need a year away from their never-ending work routine, they probably mean it.
It is understandable that Jurgen Klopp rejected the NFL’s offers just two months before his emotional departure from Liverpool. However, it was worth a shot in the eyes of the federation.
The German is the most ambitious target the federation has set. He is a serial winner at the highest level of club football, a culture builder with tactical flexibility within a clear guiding ideology. He is also unemployed, eliminating any buyout costs, and the US Soccer Federation seems willing to open up its payroll budget.
The truth is, if we take Klopp’s announcement that he was leaving Liverpool in January seriously, this was not a case of a manager needing a new challenge. He made the decision despite having a year left on his contract. He seemed beleaguered, overwhelmed by the constant change that comes with running one of the world’s most prestigious clubs.
Even if Klopp had decided that stepping into the international game was sufficient relief after admitting he had “run out of steam,” it would have cured U.S. soccer’s ongoing headache for exactly two years.
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I’m not sure the U.S. national team fan base fully appreciates the huge risk-reward gap if Klopp replaces Berhalter.
The best-case scenario is clear: an ambitious hire who makes the club look good, a truly great coach who makes a strong batch of Schwarzwalde lemonade from the lemons he inherits, perhaps a 2026 World Cup semi-final and some fond memories when he leaves to either return to club football or retire outright.
The worst-case scenarios could turn from a constant headache into a diagnosable migraine. One is that Klopp was right: he lacks the energy and will not have the ability to master the nuances that distinguish international football from its club alternative. Another is that he simply will not be able to cope with the rapid adaptation to international football, that he may get more personnel but cannot convert that into teamwork in time for the World Cup. It is a “Luis Enrique’s Spain” scenario, if you will.
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has rejected an offer from the United States national soccer team (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Either way, the result will be a disappointing—and very expensive—decision. The NFL will be back in the recruiting office after winning the World Cup, and it will feel financially strapped as it looks for a longer-term alternative.
While Klopp looks great wearing a U.S. national soccer team hat, the reality is that the risk is much more expensive than an Adobe software subscription.
When a federation can’t find the best unemployed coach in the game, what does the “best” possible hire look like? It’s a question that Matt Crocker and the US Soccer Federation will be working on over the coming weeks in hopes of securing the right coach for the World Cup by September. The names will continue to roll through the rumour mill like an endless conveyor belt. Two of my colleagues have highlighted some of the most popular options, including Klopp.
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Perhaps rushing to meet Klopp’s asking price through a combination of salary, sponsorship considerations and NFTs was a costly stopgap solution that wouldn’t address the bigger issues at hand.
Is this a process-driven hire, an approach Kroker emphasized when he reappointed Berhalter in 2023? Does it respond to the issues that emerged during Berhalter’s short second spell and put the program on a better footing? Or was it a sham fight that could have been better planned and executed given Klopp’s months of notice?
Does the NFL really know what it wants from its new coach? And has it had enough time to find out?
“Progress has been made, but now is the time to turn that progress into victory,” Kroker said Wednesday in the wake of Berhalter’s dismissal.
Winning! That’s a great start. American sports fans are very fond of winning.
The truth is: If it were as easy as just wanting to win, the United States national soccer team would be a 22-time World Cup champion.
To say that it’s time to win after six years of everything they’ve done under Berhalter is an indirect admission of failure. If you set a modest budget to buy a handful of citrus trees, wait six years until they occasionally bear fruit in the hope of a bountiful harvest, and then uproot those trees to import an entire Brazilian orchard’s worth of produce before a big event… are you any better at growing citrus? And what was the point of tending that small plot in the first place?
Gregg Berhalter was fired on Wednesday (Eduardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images)
Crocker has repeatedly sworn that Berhalter’s second appointment was the result of arduous interviews, research and data-driven evaluation. If that process is abandoned in favor of the “big spend on big name coaches” model, it will mean a failure that goes beyond just hiring one coach. Trust the process, they say — but please keep updating it along the way based on new information.
Encouragingly, Crocker appears to have learned from one of the FA’s follies in the 2018 process that led to Berhalter’s appointment in the first place. His predecessor, Ernie Stewart, decided that the coach who would help the team bounce back from its failure to qualify for the World Cup must speak English. He ruled out alternatives such as Marcelo Bielsa and Tata Martino and narrowed the field of candidates sharply.
Of course, Berhalter was not the first American to coach the U.S. national team. The program has strayed domestically with all but one signing since the 1994 World Cup, when the team was coached by Serbian Bora Milutinovic. The one exception, Jürgen Klinsmann, bears an asterisk, having established roots in California years before his appointment in hopes of staying on the federation’s mind whenever Bob Bradley is fired.
Often times, coaching from the US proved fruitful. The program’s best periods in the modern era were under Bruce Arena and Bradley. Both had intimate knowledge of the player pool at a time when scouting and identifying talent was not easy on a global level. They each had clear ideas about how the team wanted to achieve results, taking into account the strengths of their groups while also taking into account their weaknesses.
Neither was afraid to embrace the national stereotypes of “grit” and direct play. And each used parts of that DNA to his advantage. Arena led the U.S. to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup, and Bradley led the team to second place in the 2009 Confederations Cup, beating the Spanish giants on the way to the final.
While Crocker is trying to figure out who is “best” for the next hire, the final pick may actually be homegrown. Steve Cherundolo and Pat Noonan are former U.S. internationals who are thriving in MLS, while Jim Curtin is familiar with many of the players in the group and brings a fresh perspective. If either of these or other replacements are hired, they will feel increasing pressure to perform better as the fan base moves past the second Berhalter era.
It may also be the “best” international hire. Milutinovic helped turn a generation of U.S. national team players into legends in the program and brought a fresh perspective to preparing the team for success on home soil. He brings extensive coaching experience at the international level, having led Mexico when it hosted the 1986 World Cup.
The United States, which will host the 2026 World Cup, was eliminated from the Copa America in the group stage (Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
His CV is similar to that of Hervé Renard, another international coach on the move who recently led the France women’s national team. Renard is not a famous coach, even if he has a face ready for a catalogue, but he has notable achievements to his name: two Africa Cup of Nations titles (with Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015), leading Saudi Arabia to a surprise World Cup win against Argentina in 2022, and leading a troubled French team to the quarter-finals of the 2023 Women’s World Cup just months after taking the job. He ticks many boxes for a potential temporary solution with a high potential for success and a low base.
Klopp may indeed be the “best” option. But getting the best out of him could take a year of patience and a hefty wage bill—two resources the US Soccer Federation can’t afford to waste. Again, there are risks and rewards.
Ultimately, the need to get the right coach extends beyond the pitch. You don’t have to scroll far into our comment sections to find that morale among USA fans is at an all-time low. Depending on how you rate the Gold Cup, the team won’t play another high-profile, meaningful game until the opening group stage of the World Cup in 2026. This appointment is one of the few remaining opportunities to galvanize the fan base and rebuild morale for maximum support ahead of hosting the World Cup.
Crocker and the FA leadership did not ask Tim Weah to put his arm to the back of a defender’s head. But they are responsible for reappointing a coach who has not prepared his team for the Copa America. Whoever is ultimately appointed, the FA must make its decision with absolute confidence that he is the “best” choice for the next two years – and it would be better if it had a clear definition of “best” to justify that choice.
(Top image: Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club/Wolverhampton via Getty Images)