Gregg Berhalter will face immense tactical and cultural challenges as US manager, in addition to critiques of the hiring process.
Kartik Krishnaiyer
US Soccer’s anti-climatic appointment of Gregg Berhalter as US Men’s National Team (USMNT) Head Coach was met with predictable, understandable skepticism. Some of it is misplaced, though some is certainly justified given the length of the process to select Berhalter and the lack of transparency involved. Whatever view you hold about the appointment, no question exists Berhlater will be under fire from much of the USMNT supporters base.
The former Columbus Crew and Hammarby Manager was selected after a 14-month search reportedly yielded four finalists. We know former FC Dallas Head Coach Oscar Parreja was one of the other finalists, but the identity of the other two are unknown. It appears USMNT playing legend and current U-20 coach Tab Ramos, passed over for the job once already when Dave Sarachan was elevated to the (semi-permanent) interim position 14 months ago, was not seriously considered.
My own reporting indicates two other names that weren’t seriously considered for the job were Sporting Kansas City Manager and former USMNT Captain Peter Vermes as well as current Red Bull Leipzig Assistant Coach Jesse Marsch. Both Vermes and Marsch had higher winning percentages as MLS coaches than Berhalter and managed on a similarly styled budget. This is an important point since Berhalter is being touted as someone who managed the types of small budgets that some of the sexier names linked with the job never had to deal with.
On social media, much has been made of the role possibly played by US Soccer’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jay Berhlater, the brother of the new new US Head Coach. From my own conversations over the past three years or so, I’ve discovered Jay Berhalter has played a larger role in many internal decisions and dictation of direction than most realize on the outside. What impact Jay Berhlater had on the hiring of his brother is unknown, though many have speculated that it was a decisive factor. A US Soccer insider who wanted to remain unnamed told me yesterday “(Jay)Berhlater is the most powerful person in the game in this country not named Don Garber. Dan Flynn’s power has waned recently and (Jay)Berhalter has stepped into that vacuum. I don’t like his brother getting the job when Tab Ramos wasn’t even given a fair shot.”
However the federation arrived at Berhalter, he inherits a program with a dispirited fan base and a depleted player pool. Stakeholders in US Soccer have to wish Berhlater all the success possible- for he arrives at this one of the most critical junctures in the history of the men’s professional game in this nation.
The USMNT has been the primary driver of sustained domestic soccer interest in this country over the last two decades. For every successful, record-breaking MLS or USL startup, the national team remains the vehicle to reach a larger and more ingrained long-term soccer-loving audience. It is also the primary mechanism to gain sustained media interest in the sport. While the club game in many parts of the world is what drives marco soccer interest, in the United States, the men’s professional game has fit little more than a niche historically, although the rise of sustainable, club-dominant soccer cultures in Detroit, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, among other places, is encouraging.
With this in mind it will incumbent on Berhalter at a very early stage to connect with the fans and mainstream sporting press in this county. He needs to restore a belief and confidence in the country at large that this program that has fallen on hard time the last five years is now in good hands and ready for a reboot.
The player pool Berhalter inherits is full of potential, but depleted of much proven talent beyond Dortmund star Christian Pulisic.
On the tactical side, Berhalter is going to be asked to get results quickly with a player pool which is arguably the weakest the US has had since the early 1990’s. The USMNT’s best-ever tactical manager, Bob Bradley, understood the limitations of his pool and set up his team accordingly. But Bradley benefited from having intelligent players in the middle of the park. Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan all read the game at an exceptionally high level for American players. Throw in the injured Jermaine Jones and not close to one-hundred percent Stuart Holden, and you could have had a dominant midfield set up for Bradley at the 2010 World Cup. The limited capabilities outside the midfield led Bradley to play a smart game, with a “bucket” formation allowing space for box-to-box midfielders and giving both Donovan and Dempsey a target striker to play off of, and in many cases a quick speedy Charlie Davies-type to work with on the break. This style– a patient, swashbuckling counterattack– made the US a difficult team to play against under Bradley.
A return to this type of setup under Berhalter would be welcome, though no doubt scrutinized by the legions of USMNT supporters who now suddenly feel the Americans with limited technical skill and tactical nous should be playing like Sarri’s Napoli or Pep’s Barcelona. Even with a handful of promising youth players, the current USMNT pool is largely incapable of playing the type of quick passing game that relies on quick decisions and an ability to read the game favored by many coaches, perhaps even Berhalter himself.
The setup currently only has two players currently who can consistently pick a pass in the final third – the oft-injured Christian Pulisic and Julian Green, a second division player in Germany who doesn’t excel at any specific position naturally. The player pool has only two active players that play in the middle of park and have a real sense of positioning coupled with the ability to keep the ball moving at a decent tempo- the oft-criticized Michael Bradley who for me at 31 remains the US’ best overall player besides Pulisic, and Will Trapp, whom Berhalter managed at Columbus. Trapp has repeatedly shown he is not up to the speed of the international game and Bradley is, as noted, 31 and coming off perhaps the most disappointing club season of his career.
The rest of the pool is filled with some awesome potential – the likes of Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Tim Weah and Reggie Cannon among others. Berhalter’s main task will be not only tactical but cultural: can he implore a very young team to play with the spirit that the USMNT sides he featured on played with? It was, after all, Berhlater who almost scored the late equalizer against Germany in the World Cup 2002 Quarterfinals. Those USMNT sides even when undermanned would run through walls for the cause. In Couva, that spirit was largely gone: with Bruce Arena standing arms akimbo in shock and only Michael Bradley, Pulisic and bench-ridden Ale Bedoya urging the side forward.
With such a limited player pool in terms of quality, and a fan base that’s jaded after the last several years, Berhlater’s tasks are to restore confidence in the program on the outside while instilling a pride and sense of purpose on the inside. It’s no small task, and we have no idea if Berhalter is the right man or the wrong one for the job. Whether or not fans supported Berhlater’s appointment it’s important for the future of the sport in this country that he does as well as possible.
The author of multiple books about the beautiful game, including a book about Manchester City Football Club, Kartik Krishnaiyer is the host of The Yanks Are Coming podcast. He is a longtime American soccer journalist and board member of the North American Soccer Reporters. Follow him on Twitter @kkfla737.