HE WANTS TO CONTINUE: Berhalter says he’s the right person to take USMNT forward

Gregg Berhalter before the US’s only Copa America win, against Bolivia. (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio’s question to U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter was 32 words long.

“Do you believe you are still the right voice, the right person within this group to take it forward in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup and in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup?”

His answer consisted of one word:

“Yes.”

Yes, Berhalter wants to stay on as head coach, despite the team being eliminated in the group stage of the Copa America in Kansas City, Missouri, where the team lost 1-0 to Uruguay.

The US completed their embarrassing performance with a 1-2-0 score and a painful 2-1 loss to Concacaf rival Panama in the second leg.

There is a chorus in the American soccer world that wants Berhalter to step down as head coach, especially given the disappointing performances in the Copa.

During the post-match press conference at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, Berhalter claimed that the team has made progress in the 14 games since he was re-appointed as USMNT head coach in 2023.

“Yes, I do,” he said. “I think in a number of ways. Defensively, we are a very good team. In most games, we have a higher expected goals than the opposition. We create chances. We move the ball well. The whole point is that you want to keep moving the team forward. And I think we have done that. You think about the depth of the squad, the number of players we have who have played in games. So there is definitely improvement and we have to keep going.

“I don’t think it was someone who said, ‘Okay, this program is doomed.’ It’s not that it’s not. It was a poor performance. We didn’t get the results we expected and we have to get better.”

Berhalter said the team’s players and staff were “very disappointed with the outcome.”

“We know we can do more, and this time we didn’t show that,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. … With a high level of competition this tournament and we should have done better. We will do an evaluation and find out what went wrong, why it went wrong, but I think it’s definitely an empty feeling now.”

Under Berhalter, the USMNT is 5-7-8 against teams ranked in FIFA’s top 20. He has a 44-17-13 record as coach.

Asked what needed to be improved, Berhalter replied: “I think I’ve learned from this whole month. It wasn’t just the Copa America, but it’s learning from these high-level games and having the understanding, the collective understanding, that the margins are so small and there’s very little that separates these teams. You have to treat every game as the same. When you see the effort we put in tonight, it’s unbelievable and the boys did a great job. They worked extremely hard and put in a great effort against a very good team. But that has to be the standard every time we step onto the pitch. It has to be the same effort. So we’ll look at everything. We’re not going to leave any stone unturned.”

It will be interesting to see if Berhalter will be kept on to “keep an eye on things.”