🇺🇸 Gregg Berhalter & the USMNT knew the measuring stick going into Copa América
They fell well short.
Reporting from the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs1
The measuring stick for the United States, and its manager Gregg Berhalter, in this summer’s Copa América was clear. “You must get this far to continue riding this ride,” it may have said. The minimum was the quarterfinals. Stand on tippy-toes and maybe it’s a semifinal - or something even more memorable.
Reach that standard, and it would’ve been a clear signal to U.S. fans and the world: This team is going in the right direction. Big things are coming when it hosts the World Cup in 2026.
Instead it fell short, and it’s impossible to believe it’s true that things are progressing well, that things are going in the right direction. It’s impossible to believe the United States is a team that could actually lift the World Cup in two years.
That means changes, and in international soccer where you can’t go out and buy another forward or midfielder or anyone else, the easiest thing to do is to change the manager.
Even when you think about the players you’d buy, this U.S. team really should be good enough. Sure, you can come up with upgrades, but compared to other teams in Concacaf and even the Americas, it’s a very talented group.
It should’ve gotten out of the group. It should challenge Argentina, Brazil, the Uruguay team that controlled it and secured a 1-0 win in what goalscorer Mathías Olivera told me “you could see was the most difficult game of the group because of the team they have.” And it didn’t. It fell short of the standard.
“It’s really about learning from this whole month,” Berhalter said after the contest. “It’s learning from these high-level games we’re playing pre-tournament and in-tournament and us having the collective understanding that the margins are so small, and there’s very little separating any of these teams and we have to treat every game as the same.”
Despite what some frustrated fans might say, Berhalter is a smart guy, and he’s been in the game a long time. He’s right about the margins in international soccer. They’re tight, and they’re only getting smaller.
That’s why Berhalter has to go.
Whether this team needs someone who is less of a ‘players coach’ and makes life less comfortable for them, someone with more experience as a club manager or just a fresh face with new ideas, something has to change.
The margins are slim. The difference between success and failure at this tournament was, functionally, one goal. But everyone knows that going into a major tournament. Calls might not go your way. Mistakes will be made. The manager has to lead the response to those moments of adversity. The U.S. collapsed in those tough times.
“Do I think this team is good enough to compete with good teams? Of course I do,” defender Jedi Robinson said after. “We didn’t put ourselves in very good spots last game. If we don’t go down to 10 men I think we win comfortably. This game is a test to show we can play against a good team and advance. That didn’t happen. We didn’t get the job done.”
The players aren’t free of blame by any stretch, either. Whether red cards, defensive errors, a seeming fear of creativity in the final third or too low a work rate, the team wasn’t good enough as a unit in the Copa América.
“We have to look at each other and speak to each other and look at ourselves and have tough conversations with ourselves,” center back Tim Ream said. “There’s no other way to get around it. You can’t paper over the cracks, you can’t hide from the facts.
“That’s conversations among the players, and that’s important. It’s where the leadership group comes in. We’re all very, very experienced players and we have to speak up and be that type especially with the disappointment of tonight.”
U.S. Soccer’s leadership group also will be having those conversations, with sporting director Matt Crocker saying in a statement “We will be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance in Copa America and how best to improve the team and results as we look towards the 2026 World Cup.”
My suspicion is that means lining up someone who can replace Berhalter to be announced shortly after the, ‘Thank you, Gregg,’
Those conversations will be tough. These are human beings, people with families, people who get to know and like each other. But this also is a results-based industry. The results needed were clear, and the U.S. didn’t measure up.
More: Bleacher Report asked me to run through the reasons Berhalter and the U.S. failed at Copa América
Today’s matches
Brazil-Colombia - 9p ET
Costa Rica-Paraguay - 9p ET
Last night’s scores
United States 0-1 Uruguay
Panama 3-1 Bolivia
Having been at the other match, I honestly have no idea what happened in this game beyond the score. I’ll catch up, but feel free to leave a few notes or tweet some thoughts to me!
Have I mentioned I’m a Chiefs fan?
“We will be conducting a comprehensive review of our performance in Copa America and how best to improve the team and results as we look towards the 2026 World Cup.”
This sounds more to me like they haven't made up their mind whether to fire Berhalter or not. It seems more like a stall tactic. Perhaps their "measuring stick" was a bit more pliable than others.