Sources: USSF to decide Berhalter fate next week
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Jeff Carlisle, U.S. soccer correspondent
The U.S. Soccer Federation will make a decision on the future of United States men’s national team manager Gregg Berhalter by the middle of the next week, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Fox Sports was the first to report the news.
The USMNT was eliminated from the group stage of the 2024 Copa América on Monday following a 1-0 defeat to Uruguay. This followed a 2-0 win over Bolívia and a backbreaking 2-1 loss to Panama.
Following the U.S. men’s failure to advance out of the group stage, U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker said that the USSF would be conducting “a comprehensive review of our performance in Copa América and how best to improve the team and results as we look towards the 2026 World Cup.”
The timeline is similar to that which the USSF used following the U.S. women’s national team’s exit from the 2023 Women’s World Cup almost a year ago. On that occasion, then-USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski resigned his post 11 days after the U.S. women were eliminated by Sweden in the round of 16.
The group that will ultimately determine Berhalter’s fate includes USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO JT Batson, VP of sporting Oguchi Onyewu and Crocker.
One source with knowledge of the USSF Board of Directors thinking told ESPN that support for Berhalter among the Board’s membership is eroding, and that sentiment about Berhalter “is more negative than ever before.”
Berhalter, 50, was first hired back in December of 2018 and led the USMNT to a successful qualification to the 2022 World Cup, after the team failed to qualify for the 2018 edition. The USMNT reached the knockout stages of the World Cup, falling to the Netherlands in the round of 16.
His contract was allowed to expire following the disclosure of a decades old domestic violence incident involving his now wife. The incident was disclosed to the USSF by the parents of current U.S. international Gio Reyna.
A subsequent investigation by a law firm hired by the USSF largely backed Berhalter’s version of events, and with the support of several senior players, he was subsequently rehired to his old post in June 2023.
Since then, the performances of the USMNT have been uneven. In addition to the showing at the Copa América, the U.S. struggled to beat Jamaica in the Concacaf Nations League in March, and also suffered a heavy 5-1 friendly defeat against Colombia.
