U.S. males’s nationwide group head coach Gregg Berhalter believes he’s nonetheless the proper particular person to steer the squad after their shock group stage exit from the Copa America, which was sealed with a 1-0 loss to Uruguay on Monday. It marked the second lack of the group stage for the USMNT, who completed in third place with three factors. Uruguay topped Group C with an ideal 9 factors out of 9, whereas Panama completed in second with six factors, three of which got here of their 2-1 win over the U.S. final Thursday.
The U.S.’ failure to dwell as much as expectations means there’s renewed strain for U.S. Soccer to half methods with Berhalter and led to a point-blank query about whether or not he’s nonetheless the proper match for the job. The top coach supplied a easy response to the query in his post-match press convention: “Sure.”
Berhalter admitted that the group underperformed significantly on the Copa America however chalked their early exit down to some moments moderately than an general subject with the group’s gameplan. He singled out the Panama sport as the place issues all began to show within the improper course for the USMNT. The group went all the way down to 10 when Timothy Weah picked up a pink card within the 18th minute and the defeat meant that the U.S. wanted to at the least match Panama’s consequence on Monday and had to take action towards the group’s high group in Uruguay.
“Clearly, the loss towards Panama actually damage and I believe if you speak about being, eightieth minute, in a great place to get a draw and get one thing out of the sport, we did not get it,” he famous, time-stamping some extent shortly earlier than Panama scored the game-winner. “Once you take a look at that second particularly, there’s some points there. I believe in that sport specifically, a low block defending, wanted to enhance in that second.”
Berhalter, now in his fifth 12 months as the pinnacle coach, additionally advised the group wanted to discover ways to handle huge tournaments higher. Many had circled the Group C finale towards Uruguay because the hardest match on the U.S.’ calendar, nevertheless it was clear that the hosts couldn’t dwell as much as their potential even in statistical mismatches towards Panama and Bolivia.
“We will do a evaluate of the entire event and see the place we fell quick,” Berhalter mentioned. “The margins are so small and there is little or no separating any of those groups and you must deal with each sport as the identical. Once you see the hassle tonight that we put in, it is unimaginable. The fellows did an awesome job. They labored extraordinarily exhausting, put in an awesome effort towards a extremely good group however that must be the usual each time we step onto the sector. That must be the identical effort so we’ll take a look at every little thing. I believe we’re not going to depart any stone unturned.”
Although this model of the USMNT remains to be pretty younger — simply three gamers on the roster are 30 and older — there’s little purpose to suggest they lack huge event expertise. A majority of the Copa America roster competed on the 2022 World Cup, a event by which they launched themselves as a group on the rise. A 12 months and a half faraway from Qatar, although, many will argue they haven’t progressed a lot since.
Berhalter, naturally, isn’t in that camp.
“Defensively, we’re an excellent group,” he mentioned. “Most video games, we’ve got greater anticipated objectives than the opponent. We create probabilities, we transfer the ball properly. To me, the entire thing is, you need to hold transferring the group ahead and I really feel like we’ve got. You concentrate on the depth of the squad, the variety of gamers which have performed in video games, so there is definitely enchancment and we have to hold going. In my view, it isn’t one thing you say, ‘Okay, this program’s doomed.’ It is not the case in any respect. It was a poor efficiency, we did not get the outcomes we anticipated and we have to get higher.”
Berhalter’s declare on anticipated objectives isn’t precisely true — they’ve solely outpaced their opponents in half of the 14 video games they’ve performed since he returned to the job final September. The one Copa America match they added to that checklist was their 2-0 win over Bolivia, however even then they had been wasteful and did not put some sturdy goalscoring probabilities behind the online.
The center-of-the-road efficiency displays poorly on the 2026 World Cup co-hosts, who hoped to make use of the Copa America as a measuring stick for his or her progress with the event on residence soil quickly approaching. As an alternative of sharpening their expertise towards the world’s high groups, although, they as an alternative did not show their price towards a variety of opponents. There is likely to be extra progress to make than they’d initially anticipated, bringing this system to a crossroads for the primary time in a very long time.
U.S. Soccer’s assertion teased as a lot, with the federation saying post-match that “our event efficiency fell in need of our expectations. We should do higher. We might be conducting a complete evaluate of our efficiency in Copa America and the way greatest to enhance the group and outcomes as we glance in direction of the 2026 World Cup.”
Although Berhalter made his case, he is simply as lifelike as anybody else that the choice doesn’t relaxation in his fingers.
“That is less than me,” he admitted.