The U.S. men’s national soccer team continues to struggle against international competition and no one seems to know what to do about it. The years come and go. The names change. But positive results are rare.
This year, again, was supposed to be different. The national team entered this summer’s Copa America with high hopes, but after crashing out in the group stage, the early exit raises even more questions about the direction of the program with less than two years to go until the 2026 World Cup, a World Cup being held here in the States.
All I can say is that it is a good thing we are hosting because that means we automatically qualify to compete for the Cup. The automatic qualification means we do not have to qualify, a feat that would be unlikely the way the program is going now.
In other words, changes need to be made. Many have pointed fingers towards head coach Gregg Berhalter, who first took the job in 2019. He took arguably the team’s best-ever talent pool to the 2022 World Cup and bowed out quickly. Berhalter and company have made little to no progress since that point.
Berhalter’s time in charge might be up now that the national team was eliminated in embarrassing fashion at the Copa American. How can the U.S. lost to Panama and Uruguay.
At this point, I am not sure one simple coaching change will lead the USMNT straight back to being competitive against quality competition. We keep hearing the USA player pool is as talented as it’s ever been. When will the results start being successful?
This team needs an offensive star. They are good at possessing the ball. They just can’t score goals.
Christian Pulisic is the best player we have. But he only has five goals over the last 15 matches for his country. That total leads the team.
Lack of offense is why the USMNT has not beaten a top 20 opponent, despite several chances to do so since Berhalter’s return to the sidelines. The most recent attempts to beat a top team came against Germany, Colombia and Brazil and Monday’s matchup against Uruguay. The U.S. have also squandered some games against more favorable opposition during that stretch, including last week’s loss to Panama as well as a loss at Trinidad and Tobago in November.
Berhalter’s team responded poorly to adversity in a handful of those matches. This tells me that his message has become stale. Time to change it up, again.
Photo: Gregg Berhalter
