Last Thursday, the New York Times published an article by Andrew Keh about the current situation in U.S. Soccer and we believe the short-term future looks very complicated for the Federation based in Chicago, Illinois. As is mentioned, in what might be the most important cycle in soccer history, two top decision-making executives have left the U.S. men’s team and the head coach that is leading the process, Gregg Berhalter seems like is out of the role.
Before the 2022 Qatar World Cup Brian McBride U.S. Men’s National Team General Manager Brian McBride informed that he was going to leave the charge effective Jan. 31st, but it was not expected that the U.S. Soccer Federation Sporting Director position was going to suffer a change, Earnie Stewart decided to leave the federation to join the Eredivisie Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. This does not have an immediate effect, since Stewart will remain with U.S. Soccer until Feb. 15th to ensure a smooth transition as U.S. Soccer continues its search for its next Sporting Director, its boss the General Manager, and potentially the reportee the Men’s team head coach, Gregg Berhalter is under investigation around an incident in the past that could take him out.
Bad news for Cindy Parlow Cone, the president of U.S. Soccer, the 8 years plan could fall apart because nobody leading the process will stay in the role, the efforts made by the federation to develop the men’s national team will go through turbulence, and major changes facing the most important cycle in US soccer history, the 2026 cycle leading up to the FIFA World Cup in North America. The Federation made a huge investment in youth teams and the local league to develop players and export talent in order to prepare them to be ready for the competition in three and a half years. Most of the US players that had action in Qatar 2022 were young, high-potential players that will peak in 3 years, this World Cup was a step forward, part of a long-term process, that started in 2014 after they were eliminated in the qualifier stage of the WC in Russia 2018. The federation has a master plan, visualizing a historic performance in 2026 and winning the FIFA World Cup for the very first time with the Men’s National Team. McBride, Stewart, and Berhalter were key pillars and the architects of this project.
The next three and a half years are extremely important for the US national team, time is a main factor and actions need to be taken as soon as possible to restructure the Men’s team board. Different from other cycles, this process has 6 months less because Qatar 2022 was organized in the Winter, they extended the cycle after Russia, which naturally shortens the next cycle to three and a half. So much work needs to be done, and so much talent is on the field, but now the first step is to find a new GM as soon as possible so they can hire a Sporting Director, to work together, evaluating candidates with an ambitious but achievable plan, to be hired as the Head Coach that will lead the team to their historic participation.