By Sanjay Sujanthakumar
After a brutal 2-0 loss to Canada in Toronto Tuesday night – the first loss to Canada in 34 years, and one symbolic of two national team programs trending in the opposite direction – here are a postmortem three thoughts on the big picture for the USMNT.
1) IDENTITY & PLAYER SELECTION
What compelled me to start covering the USMNT was to try to add a different angle to existing analysis. It would also be remiss for any analysis of Tuesday night, including this one, to not discuss the team’s identity, or lack thereof.
When Jurgen Klinsmann was fired, there was a notion born out of unadulterated American arrogance and ignorance, as well as resentment of the German manager, that he was completely responsible for cratering the USMNT’s sacred identity. Somehow, the argument goes, the organization, spirit and grit – supposed to be the DNA of an American side – which decayed under his watch– would be revived en route to Russia. But it’s been two years since the Catastrophe in Couva, and the USMNT look as confused as ever. And compared to the 2002 World Cup quarterfinalist version – which included defender Gregg Berhalter – the Americans are virtually unrecognizable.
Berhalter has boxed this team into a system that doesn’t suit the players. He’s calling up personnel based on a misguided double-standard of first team minutes (no matter where your club is) being the prerequisite for a senior team camp. Ironically, this approach closes the door to the prospects technically and tactically capable of executing his envisioned and unprecedented “play out of the back, at all costs, disorganize the opponent with the ball” style.
Meanwhile, Berhalter has mystifyingly persisted with veterans like Daniel Lovitz, Cristian Roldan, Gyasi Zardes and Wil Trapp, who clearly have no international future. He’s overthought how the US will attack, painfully committed to patient, positional play which blunts the strengths of a young core uniquely suited to creating danger on the counter. And with the exception of the Chile friendly in March, when he made a conservative adjustment, defensive shape appears to be an afterthought with the US unable to effectively press or just be hard to play against.
On Tuesday night, the American midfield balance was off from the beginning, and apparently Canada is now good enough to expose that. Michael Bradley is still being asked to do too much for his country, now as the shield in front of the backline at 32. Cristian Roldan doesn’t have a role with this team and lacks the ability to keep up at the international level, and Weston McKennie belongs deeper- both with and without the ball- where Roldan (or Bradley) was. Together, there was a predictable lack of mobility, ball-winning, and control of the game. So while Josh Sargent and Christian Pulisic struggled, to expect much different in that situation isn’t logical.
The federation has been criticized for wasting all of the friendlies in 2018 by waiting to hire Berhalter, but if this was how he planned to approach games against France, Brazil, Colombia, England, and Italy in terms of tactics and personnel, that could’ve been an ugly, uninspiring stretch of games.
It has now been 11 years since Michael Orozco took this red card against Nigeria, sealing the US fate at the 2008 Olympics. The US haven’t played Olympic soccer since.
2) THE OLYMPICS
The debate about how Berhalter and U23 coach Jason Kreis should share Olympic eligible players has been brewing for a while. I wrote in July, “Qualifying for the Olympics is certainly a priority, but with World Cup qualifying beginning sooner than expected, even if there are simultaneous U23 and senior team camps ahead of Olympic qualifying – that tournament could be as late as next year – Berhalter can’t wait to call up the cream of the youth national team crop who can improve the USMNT immediately… the US will do the obvious if need be, and privilege World Cup qualification over Olympic qualification.”
Indeed, qualifying is in Guadalajara, Mexico in March, and the idea was that the US could flirt with leaving as much quality as possible with Kreis instead of the senior team, at least until the senior team was absolutely obliterated by the horrific performance at BMO Field.
Now the US have, at least on paper, a difficult choice.
Either Berhalter A) calls up Chris Richards, Chris Gloster, Richie Ledezma, and Uly Llanez/Giovanni Reyna (if he’s done with the U17 World Cup) next month or B) doubles down on the U23s and treats their next ten months as legitimate preparation for World Cup qualifying, with the January camp and June international window including only the necessary dosage of overage players instead of an entire, diluted roster. The problem here is there’s no guarantee a U23 player gets released by their club, and that’s especially true for those based in Europe if they do break into their first teams.
When Richie and Reyna debut for PSV and Dortmund, respectively, as in the case of Sergino Dest, that’s not suddenly the baptism of being good enough for the USMNT.
In an interview with Extra Time Radio after he was hired, Berhalter said, “I’ve thought about guys from the Under 20s, maybe bringing them into the national team, giv(ing) them that experience of what it’s like to be with the men… if they’ve performed at a level for the United States, that’s how they earned it. And that could be. That could very well be the case.”
Chris Richards was recognized by FIFA as one of “Ten rising stars the world should follow” after a fantastic U20 World Cup last summer. He’s “earned it.”
In the words of Harvey Dent, “The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” The gap in the player pool isn’t yawning. It’s not a choice between a guy who has Champions League experience before he’s legally able to drink in the States (Pulisic, McKennie, Dest, soon to be Tyler Adams) and a guy who played multiple years of college soccer. And the system can’t be the reason we’re slow to integrate even the promising youngsters who are regulars with their first team like Paxton Pomykal, precisely the type of ball-winner the US missed sorely Tuesday night.
3) THE HOT SEAT
Gregg Berhalter is a good coach and I think he’ll come to his senses in terms of both how he selects his squad and/or how he expects it to play.
Nevertheless, his naivety over the last ten months has the USMNT in shambles, and he should be coaching for his job next month.
The US didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup because it lost to Mexico and Costa Rica at home and took only 3 out of 15 possible points on the road in the Hex.
In the 2014 cycle, it took 4 out of the first 9 possible on the road and ended up with 7 out of 15 points on the road overall, while beating both Costa Rica and Mexico at home. In the 2010 cycle, it also took 7 out of 15 points on the road overall, while beating Mexico and drawing Costa Rica at home. In the 2006 cycle, the US took 6 out of its first 9 points on the road and (again) 7 out of 15 points on the road overall while beating both Mexico and Costa Rica at home. The US of course finished first in the Hex in those three cycles prior to 2018.
The formula is clear, and beating Mexico and/or Costa Rica at home is hardly expected right now. But perhaps more concerning is what we watched Tuesday night, which was Gregg Berhalter’s first game beyond our borders. This wasn’t in the scorching heat of San Pedro Sula, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, nor was it at altitude and swallowed by smog like Estadio Azteca, nor was the pitch flooded the day before. The conditions: a classic, hostile Concacaf environment, the officiating… these weren’t available excuses for Berhalterball crashing and burning. This was an MLS stadium on a fall night. Concacaf-lite.
If the US fails to (convincingly) beat Canada in Orlando and win this Nations League group, that merits pulling the plug. The obvious choice to replace Berhalter would be Tab Ramos because of his knowledge of the youth national team pool, with almost the entire MNT core soon set to be derived from his last three U20 World Cup sides. At the very least, Ramos deserved the interim job when Bruce Arena resigned and Ramos told Paul Tenorio of The Athletic in January that contrary to the rumors, “Not only did I not turn it down, I asked for the interim job. I think they had other plans.”
Firing Berhalter, if it sadly comes to that, would be about getting results next fall after just a few camps. That means hiring someone who has navigated the Hex before and built an American team with an identity: Bob Bradley. Bradley is the best coach in MLS and probably the best American manager ever. If/when the pool progresses to a point where a sexier style of play is possible – I do think it’ll get there this cycle – his “football ideas” that America now appreciates could come to life in a second stint leading his country.
I’m not expecting Berhalter to get sacked and the federation to turn to Bradley. Yet if the USMNT doesn’t emphatically bounce back in the rematch with Canada next month the way it has in the semifinal round of qualifying the last two cycles in must-win situations, this team won’t seem remotely ready for six games of the Hex next fall. And if that’s the case, there could be a new coach for the new, pivotal year.
Sanjay Sujanthakumar is a coach and journalist based in California. He is writing specially for The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @the_Real_Kumar.