Berhalter Hired

On This Day in 2018, Berhalter Appointed to Lead USMNT After Historic Failure

On December 2, U.S. Soccer officially announced the hiring of Gregg Berhalter as head coach of the Men's National Team, ending a painful 14-month search that had become a symbol of the federation's dysfunction. The appointment came more than a year after Bruce Arena's resignation following the team's catastrophic failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup — a loss in Trinidad and Tobago that represented the program's darkest moment in three decades. What should have been a straightforward hiring process had instead devolved into a protracted saga, delayed by a contentious presidential election, the 2026 World Cup bid, and the creation of an entirely new organizational structure that left the program adrift while rivals moved swiftly to rebuild.

Berhalter's path to the national team job had been forged not in Europe's elite leagues but through a methodical career that blended international playing experience with tactical education across multiple continents. The former defender had represented the United States at two World Cups, earning 44 caps during a 17-year playing career that took him through the Netherlands, England, Germany, and MLS, where he won both the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup with the LA Galaxy in 2011. After becoming the first American to manage in Europe with an 18-month stint at Sweden's Hammarby IF—where he was ultimately dismissed for fielding teams deemed too defensive—Berhalter had rebuilt his reputation over five seasons with the Columbus Crew. Despite operating with one of the league's smallest payrolls, he guided the team to four playoff appearances and an MLS Cup final, developing a reputation for possession-based, attacking football that maximized limited resources through superior organization and preparation.

The journey to Berhalter's appointment had been anything but direct. After Arena stepped down in October 2017, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati announced he wouldn't seek reelection, leaving the coaching search for his successor. The federation then created a new general manager position specifically to oversee such decisions—a structural change that added months to the timeline. Carlos Cordeiro won the presidency in February 2018 but immediately focused on securing the 2026 World Cup bid rather than hiring personnel, further delaying progress. Earnie Stewart, Berhalter's former national team teammate, wasn't hired as general manager until June and didn't officially start work until August 1. By the time Stewart began his search—consulting with former national team captains who had earned 100 caps, developing detailed candidate profiles, and evaluating 33 potential coaches—Spain, Egypt, and Tunisia had all hired new managers within six weeks of their World Cup eliminations.

Yet for all the procedural delays, Stewart's search moved decisively once it began. After narrowing his list to 11 candidates and conducting just two formal interviews, with Berhalter and former FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja, Stewart settled on the man he had known for decades. Berhalter traveled to Chicago for meetings with Stewart and U.S. Soccer's technical staff, then delivered a four-hour presentation in Miami to Cordeiro and chief executive Dan Flynn outlining his tactical philosophy and vision for the program. The process raised questions about potential conflicts of interest — Berhalter's brother Jay served as U.S. Soccer's chief commercial officer, though Stewart insisted Jay had no involvement in the coaching search. Critics also questioned whether Stewart's personal connection to Berhalter had narrowed the candidate pool too severely, noting that respected coaches like Tata Martino, Peter Vermes, and Julen Lopetegui were never formally interviewed.

The appointment represented a generational shift in American soccer's tactical identity. Where previous coaches had often relied on counterattacking football, physical superiority and a never-give-up mentality, Berhalter championed a philosophy built around possession, pressing and systematic attacking play. His Columbus teams had been renowned for building attacks methodically from the goalkeeper, playing through opponent pressure rather than going direct, and creating scoring opportunities through coordinated movement rather than individual brilliance. Cordeiro framed this approach as distinctly American—aggressive, proactive, and uncompromising—while Stewart emphasized Berhalter's commitment to continuous learning and player development. The hope was that this style would unlock the potential of an emerging generation led by Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, all 20 or younger, who possessed the technical quality to execute a more sophisticated tactical system.

When Berhalter was introduced at a press conference in New York, he acknowledged the weight of stepping into a program still reeling from failure. He had initially doubted his readiness for the position—in October 2017, just after the Trinidad loss, he'd said he had "a lot of coaching to do" before being prepared for the national team job. But the months between that statement and Stewart's phone call in late August had crystallized his thinking. He spoke about creating a team with a clear identity, one where circulation and line-breaking would become defining characteristics. He emphasized his unique understanding of both MLS-based and European-based players, having experienced both environments during his playing career. Most importantly, he framed the opportunity not as a burden but as a chance to build something special with players searching for direction after more than a year under caretaker Dave Sarachan.

Berhalter's mandate extended beyond tactical adjustments. With the 2022 World Cup qualifying cycle set to begin in less than two years, he faced the challenge of integrating veterans into a roster that Sarachan had deliberately made youth-oriented, giving 23 players their international debuts during his interim tenure. He would need to establish a captain, decide whether to deploy Pulisic centrally or wide, and build the kind of winning culture that had been conspicuously absent during the final stages of the previous cycle. 

His first training camp would come in January with mostly MLS-based players, followed by friendlies against Panama and Costa Rica that would offer only a glimpse of what the full-strength team might become. The real test would arrive with the Gold Cup in June and, ultimately, with the high-stakes qualifying matches where American soccer would discover whether 14 months of waiting had been justified—or whether the program had simply traded one set of problems for another while the rest of the world moved on without them.