OT: US Soccer's investigation of Gregg Berhalter complete...
U.S. Soccer says Gregg Berhalter eligible to coach men's team after investigation.
The tl;dr is the USMNT coach from the last World Cup cycle had an expiring contract at the end of the year. It was not renewed. US Soccer said at the time Berhalter is still eligible to coach but other candidates would be considered.
Shortly after the contract expired, the mom of one of US' stars, who didn't play much in Qatar, came forward to US Soccer about a domestic disturbance from 30 years ago involving Berhalter.
US Soccer in turn conducted an investigation into the complaint.
US Soccer has found no conduct worthy of permanently banning Berhalter and he is eligible to seek the currently vacant head coaching spot for the USMNT.
[editorial] The one bright spot from this is US Soccer will be drafting a policy regarding coach/player/parent interaction moving forward to keep the helicopter parents in their lane.
Discussion for the board.
Would you like to see Berhalter back?
If so, why?
If not, who should be the USMNT head coach? There's already been a couple of candidates come out and state they're not interested.
idk who is a viable alternative but almost everything I've seen of US Soccer for awhile now leads me to believe they need a good ole fashioned house cleaning in the upper ranks
That's kinda occurred.
The sporting director and USMNT general manager have left in the last couple of months.
I have nothing against GGG in particular but I think he needs to be included for the house cleaning to be considered complete.
Gregg Henson needs to go? I mean, you won't get many arguments, but I'm not sure how that helps US Soccer.
Thierry Henry has suggested he wants the job - but he's probably too inexperienced. Mourinho's comments got plenty of people excited, but I suspect it's just him giving the press a soundbite.
March 14th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
Parent complaints = lack of playing time 99.5% of the time
“Shortly after the contract expired, the mom of one of US' stars, who didn't play much in Qatar, came forward to US Soccer about a domestic disturbance from 30 years ago involving Berhalter.”
Sounds like something Scott Frost’s mom would do.
except he said "stars"
Summary: Reynas are crazy and Berhalter is still a mediocre coach
It is difficult to balance preventing helicopter and snowplow parents with the need for transparency and parental rights. What would such policies look like?
with the need for transparency and parental rights.
I coached ODP level (I have a US Soccer C license) back in the day... before I took a consulting job in 2018 that had me on the road 40 weeks out of the year...
... and I can say in my experience and in the league's experience there's never been an instance where parental rights (health and safety) were not first and foremost.
The helicoptering is 99.9% of the time is about bullshit politics. As I got into it with one of the parents one time after they were cussing me out:
Me: did you go to college?
Parent: yes.
Me: did you pay your own tuition? (drawing this comparison between registration fees)
Parent: yes.
Me: did that buy you the professor or your grade?
Parent: no, I had to earn it.
Me: same goes for me.
What would such policies look like?
I imagine a lot like the game policies currently in play today:
"Silent sideline" -- that rule prohibits any spectator from cheering, yelling, taking shit to the other kids, coaching their kids, etc. If you want to watch the game you have to it without directing any conversation towards the field.
"Hockey style sideline" -- Parents are on one side of the field. Kids are on the other side of the field just like the benches in hockey.
^ of course, that has its own problems when parents co-mingle and f-bombs and/or fists start flying.
I actually think it is pretty simple. Players on the USMNT are adult, professional soccer players and their parents have no right to be involved in any aspect of their child's career unless their child gives them express permission to be involved.
Well duh, but the OP mentioned policies made by US Soccer, which is a lot more than just the USMNT. That's why I was curious what people more familiar with the organization thought. I have experience attempting to draft such policies as a middle school AD, but it is very difficult to actually do it.
Jim Curtin, Philadelphia Union Head Coach. It seems to me his teams consistently outplay their talent.
Ahh, but is his brother a USSF executive??
March 13th, 2023 at 11:46 PM ^
He would be an absolutely excellent choice, but I think he's probably more likely to be the next coach's assistant (if that next coach is Jesse Marsch or another American).
March 14th, 2023 at 12:55 PM ^
You shut your mouth, he’s ours!!
If you can’t find someone tactically better (and significantly better than Gregggg), keep Berhalter for continuity.
Also, whoever is the coach, tell Gio Reyna to tell his parents if they ever butt in again, he won’t play. That’s the most ridiculous thing.
I was thinking that someone should tell the Renyas to go fuck themselves.
Yeah that too. No idea what role Gio had in this mess, hopefully none. But yeah, the parents can do what you said. Once you reach a certain level, players play based on performance, not parents bitching like it’s 6 year old rec league.
You've touched the heart of the thing. If their son were a teenager and not getting played, you might expect such behavior. Their son was screwing around and the coaches made a joint decision. Even if they made a bad decision, pitching a hissy like that at this level. . . crazy.
Reyna parents definitely crossed a line.
But word is Berthalter is a control/power coach who demands loyalty. So what really happened with benching Gio, one of your top 2 or 3 talents, vs starting someone like Ferreira. What joint decision? Berthalter benched a top 3 player in the WC and started a player some say was only on the roster due to loyalty.
The Reynas crossed that line again and again, the report says. Reyna's benching had nothing to do with loyalty. Apparently, the whole team was down with the benching. Again--even if it was the wrong decision, parents stepping in during a WC? Absurd. And if what Berhalter did was so wrong, if there hadn't been good reason to bench Reyna, he wouldn't still be vying for the job.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:49 PM ^
Honestly, it's hard to tell if the decision to play him less was tactical or not. Reyna was certainly not going to play at the striker position, which is where Ferreira plays. Suggesting that there was a choice between Reyna and Ferreira at any time is simply incorrect. Reyna is a winger, and the US has a strong roster of wingers, guys that can do what Berhalter wanted. Reyna is a talented winger, but the other guys there are talented too, and Reyna has been struggling with injury all season long.
So it's possible that he was, legitimately, not the best option for Berhalter based on what Berhalter wanted.
It's also possible that he simply could not separate the personal entirely and that a 50/50 call came down to bias, even if it was unconscious bias.
Well, I think he was a teenager...but at no competitive level would you ever expect behavior like that.
EDIT: He turned 20 the week before the tournament.
Asking USSF to find a better tactician than Berhalter is like asking Michigan to find a better schematic coach than Hoke.
Berhalter's skill as a manager isn't as a tactician, to be fair to him.
March 13th, 2023 at 11:47 PM ^
The British press would disagree with you.
March 14th, 2023 at 10:43 AM ^
I couldn't ask for a more glowing endorsement of my opinions
Dump Greg. He has leadership and tactics issues that have nothing to do with the Renyas. He did an average job with the talent and constantly turns to players that bow to his will and are in his inner-circle.
This is a hard one for me. Everyone has their quirks but the bar is so low from Bob's shit tactics and Michael not being able to complete a pass through the middle third that it makes it look like Gregg did a respectable job.
I agree he did a respectable job getting there. But you’ll probably agree he was clearly out coached and the WC was above his level.
Yeah.
The biggest problem with the USMNT IMHO though is still the pipeline. We have the world's best goalies, and then a shit midfield. We get the midfield problem solved, but don't have finishers. And then every other cycle, the back line ebs and flows from shit to serviceable.
Like in Qatar, who was the #9? That's not Gregg's fault. It's the administration's and the youth coaches' but I digress.
I ask that rhetorically of course but the US just doesn't, and hasn't for a while, have players that put the ball in the back of the net at an elite level.
Whomever the next coach is, I'll suspect we'll still see some of the current problems.
March 13th, 2023 at 10:53 PM ^
I mean, sort of the administration's, but have you seen how hard it is to get a really solid #9? There are only a couple of really dynamite ones out there. Brazil was rolling with Richarlison, who is serviceable but can't even get first-team minutes in the EPL. *Brazil*. Germany can't find a #9 either, and the countries that do have a guy usually just have one.
Granted, the US doesn't need a top-line striker. It'd be great to have a replace-ment level one in a top 4 league, and the US isn't even close to that right now.
March 14th, 2023 at 12:00 AM ^
but have you seen how hard it is to get a really solid #9?
Yes. They do not grow on trees. I was hoping in a multi-cultural country of 300 MM plus people we could find one but I digress.
It'd be great to have a replace-ment level one in a top 4 league, and the US isn't even close to that right now.
Thank you. That's my point I suppose. You said it better than me. Thanks!
March 14th, 2023 at 12:30 AM ^
I'd like more to get up there too. A lot of people gripe about US Soccer's process, but I haven't seen a lot in the way of persuasive arguments for exactly what they're doing wrong. A lot of the things that they throw at the wall turn out to be things that are already well in progress in the US.
My latter point: Well, I'm arguing a bit with you, and discussing the challenge of producing #9s... but I wouldn't be very honest if I pretended that it isn't a big hole. Like, England can ask, "man, who do we have if we don't have Harry Kane?" and it's a big question. There's a big hole there. But the actual answer is probably someone like Ivan Toney (assuming he's not suspended for gambling) and Toney is a good EPL striker. It's not that the #9 position is struggling a bit for the US, it's that the guys available for it are significantly less impressive relative to the quality of every other position on the field.
March 14th, 2023 at 12:32 AM ^
Brazil was rolling with Richarlison, who is serviceable but can't even get first-team minutes in the EPL. *Brazil*. Germany can't find a #9 either, and the countries that do have a guy usually just have one.
Forgive my ignorance, but is there a disconnect between what qualifies you to start in the EPL and what qualifies you to start for your national team? Or is it just that there are only a small number of solid #9s in the world (starters for the 20 EPL teams and maybe a couple other top European teams--e.g. the Barca/Real Madrid/Bayern/PSG types), and they all happen to come from countries that aren't Brazil or Germany?
There can be a bit of a difference in roles, and certain players can excel in one and look much more average in others.
(warning: wall of text here, but don't mistake this for expertise, other guys know more than I do)
In this case, there is a twofold issue: 1. Brazil is stacked at some positions but does not have a dynamic striker, and Richarlison was the best available of a middling lot; 2. He's not playing much for Tottenham and has just had a somewhat public dispute in the media with his coach about this... but he's also playing on an EPL club that *does* have a world-elite striker, Harry Kane. But he's a starter level at Everton and not at a top-20 European club.
There really is a small number of exceptional #9s. The level of "good/very good" is higher, but the current situation appears (to me, anyway) to be that it's a lot easier to find an elite winger than an elite striker.
And it's telling that of the four teams you listed, two basically don't have a true #9 option but are *loaded* with wingers. Bayern can pick two of Musiala, Gnabry, Coman, Sane, and Mane at the winger spots, but while they rotate a couple of those and one or two others through the spot, they don't have a true #9.
PSG is basically the same; a lot of people will argue with some reason that PSG has both MBappe and Messi (and of course Neymar before he got hurt again), but Messi at this stage isn't well suited to playing up front, and Mbappe actually prefers (strongly, he has complained about this) to play as a winger with a target man to work off of. It's not coincidence that Mbappe has had two electric World Cups with the good-but-not-great Olivier Giroud available to play at the 9. PSG has three of the best guys in the world to play two spots, and they're playing one of them at the 9 where he is still excellent but not able to do everything that he is best at.
(Barca and Real have two of the four best in the world, though they're both pretty old. The future is probably Haaland and Osimhen; they are certainly the present).
Meanwhile, in the EPL, Chelsea and Liverpool have both struggled to find the right guy at the 9 for a couple of years (Gakpo might be the guy going forward at Liverpool, but a bit late to make a meaningful difference this year). Manchester United has played most of the season with human-shaped patchwork of duct tape at the position. Arsenal is in first place and has 9 goals from the two guys they've played in the position all year.
Someone is going to pay 140+ million for Victor Osimhen this summer because there are about three guys that are actual game-changers on the entire continent.
Great #9s are generational
The USMNT’s dream 9 would be Folarin Balogun
Don't think he's an option? I admit I'm a bit vague on his details. Quick search suggests that he is "open to playing for Nigeria." To which I say, why play behind Osimhen there when you can play every game for the US? But what do I know.
Yes a “dream” option
He also has the highest win percentage of any USMNT coach ever
March 13th, 2023 at 11:51 PM ^
THIS.
With the exception of the very first Gold Cup he coached in 2019, he succeeded in every tournament we entered. And for some reason our fanbase seems to think our talent is top 5 in the world talent. It's absolutely not. It's getting there and hopefully will be, but we currently have "round of 16, quarterfinals if things go your way" talent. Germany has top 5 talent and they didn't even make it out of their group. There's absolutely no guarantee that any coach would or wouldn't get the US out of the group stage. Those games are very tough with very little room for error, and Gregg navigated that, successfully.
If Pulisic puts away that goal in the 3rd minute vs. NED, maybe we even win that game too...
The Reynas seem like real dickbags
I don't claim to know enough about soccer to have much of an opinion on Berhalter. My understanding is it wouldn't be unusual to move on from him given typical tenure lengths relative to his success.
I can say that this investigation would impact my opinion by 0%.
It's a new world cup cycle, get a new coach. Not sure who, though.
Alexi Lalas
Only if he grows back the fro.
disgruntled parent, spills beans of domestic dispute 30 years ago.....
thanks for posting
Yes, bring him back.
The team was very young and I want to see what he can do with his system and four years of seasoning.