Chicago Fire and former United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) head coach Gregg Berhalter has defended his tenure as the national team manager, describing it as “one of the most successful periods the U.S. national team has ever had”.
Berhalter was fired as the national team coach following the team’s disappointing performance at the Copa America last year, becoming the first host nation to be eliminated from the group stage since the competition began in 1975.
The Americans kicked off the tournament positively by beating Bolivia 2-0 but followed it up with a flat 2-1 loss against Panama and Uruguay. Berhalter says that outside of this blip, his time with the USMNT was strong.
He answered questions reminiscing about his time with the national team during a press conference on Thursday, saying: “I think the time, if you look at the six years with the national team, was one of the most successful periods that the U.S. national team has ever had so for me, it was a job well done with one failure point — Copa America — and that happens.
That happens to any manager across the world, but overall, we took a very young group and we created an identity, and we were successful with that group, won multiple titles in our region, performed well at the World Cup, qualified for the World Cup, so there were a lot of boxes that were checked.”
Behalter had two stints with the national team, winning the inaugural CONCACAF Nations League competition by defeating Mexico 3-2 in 2021, and then followed it up with another Nations League title in March 2024 after defeating Mexico again 2-0. The squad also won a CONCACAF Gold Cup against Mexico 1-0 in 2021. However, a despondent performance in Copa America was enough for the U.S. Soccer Federation to part ways with the coach.
MLS team Chicago Fire hired Berhalter shortly after as their head coach and director of football. While he says he was “hurt” by the decision to fire him, he said he could understand it based on their poor performance at Copa America:
“It’s a really difficult moment when you get fired as a coach… For me it was really about being with my family in those moments and giving myself the time and the freedom and the space to feel sad and feel bad. We didn’t perform well in Copa América and when you don’t perform well at a high level there’s consequences, and I take full responsibility for that. But it still hurts.”
In September 2024, the U.S. hired former Premier League and Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino to take over the national team reins, with hopes of a positive 2026 World Cup performance. The tournament is being hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
