Getty Image / John Dorton
For years, US Soccer fans have wanted United States Men’s National Team Manager Gregg Berhalter fired from the most important soccer coaching gig in the country. But, he kept finding ways to keep his job, sometimes by the skin of his teeth.
The USMNT crashed out of Copa America 2024 in the group stage last Monday after a humiliating 2-1 defeat to Panama and a less-humiliating 1-0 defeat to Uruguay in a must-win match. At that point, anti-Berhalter sentiment reached an all-time high.
Finally, nine days after their elimination, US Soccer has given us the news that we’ve all been waiting for. Gregg Berhalter has been fired from his duties as USMNT coach.
That’s according to reports from Fox Soccer’s Doug McIntyre.
According to McIntyre, US Soccer declined comment.
This is welcome news to anyone who cares about USA Soccer ahead of the 2026 World Cup that will be hosted here. Yes, Gregg Berhalter did get out of the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, but it’s not like the team looked particularly great doing it. A draw against England was the high point, but the draw against Scotland a narrow win against Iran weren’t super impressive, and they were thoroughly outplayed in the Round of 16 by Netherlands, losing 3-1.
Then, scandal erupted when star player Gio Reyna’s dad, longtime USMNT member and former friends of Berhalter’s, Claudio Reyna and his wife, leaked to the press that Berhalter had kicked his now-wife back in 1991 as revenge for Reyna not getting enough playing time. US Soccer decided to rehire Berhalter anyways despite rumors of much better candidates being interested.
Ultimately outside of his dominance over Mexico, Berhalter had few signature wins in his nearly six-year tenure with the USMNT. The team looked great last year while the job was being held by interim BJ Callaghan, and looked worse as soon as Berhalter was back in charge.
Now, US Soccer is tasked with doing what they should’ve done a long time ago, which is go find the best coach whatever their highest possible budget number is could buy. If that means putting the federation in debt, so be it. It’s a once-in-a-generation lifetime to match up a home World Cup with arguably the best crop of players we’ve ever had, and that’s what’s in front of us in 2026. Gregg Berhalter would’ve surely bungled the 2026 World Cup.
To their credit, they just did this on the women’s side, hiring arguably the best women’s manager in the world in former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes following last summer’s massive disappointment in the Women’s World Cup for the USWNT. While a top-flight men’s coach will come at a higher price tag than Hayes did, the same strategy should apply.
For his USMNT managerial career, he was 44-13-17, with the vast majority of wins coming against overmatched CONCACAF countries.