By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports activities Soccer Author
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is a bit more than 100 days away, which implies Gregg Berhalter’s tenure as coach of the U.S. Males’s Nationwide Group might be all the way down to its ultimate few months.
The four-year contract Berhalter signed in late 2018 expires after this winter’s match, and any potential extension clearly will hinge on how the Individuals carry out in Doha.
When requested final week by former USMNT ahead Hérculez Gómez if he needs to stay in cost past this 12 months, Berhalter was noncommittal.
“That is one thing that I am going to sit down with my household, and we’ll discuss, and we’ll consider,” he informed Gomez, now the co-host of the ESPN present Fútbol Americas. “However one factor I might say is it is an ideal alternative to be teaching the United States within the World Cup in 2026 at dwelling.”
USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter breaks down Wales, England and Iran
We’re only some months out from squads heading to Qatar. U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter dives into the group stage with Alexi Lalas and David Mosse. Will the Individuals make it to the knockout spherical?
A deep run this 12 months would increase Berhalter’s probabilities of staying, however U.S. Soccer might additionally determine that 4 years on the helm is sufficient, even when the Individuals impress in Qatar. Few nationwide workforce coaches stick round for a second World Cup cycle — and for good motive: Issues usually do not go properly for those who do.
Take England, a gaggle stage opponent for the U.S. at Qatar 2022, together with Iran and Wales. Gareth Southgate led the Three Lions to the semifinals of the earlier World Cup and a runner-up end ultimately summer time’s European Championship. It was England’s most profitable stretch in additional than half a century.
However a dismal efficiency within the UEFA Nations League in June all of a sudden has English followers involved that Southgate’s message has grown stale. The USMNT went via the same expertise a technology in the past with Bruce Enviornment, who was rewarded for taking the U.S. to the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals. 4 years later, the Individuals did not win a recreation.
Provided that historical past, leaving on a excessive word might be a beautiful possibility for Berhalter — particularly if a profitable World Cup opens the door for him to return to Europe. A suggestion to work in, say, the Bundesliga could be too tempting to withstand, practically a decade after a stint with Swedish membership Hammarby in his first head-coaching job ended with Berhalter’s dismissal.
The chances that the U.S. could have a brand new man in cost by subsequent summer time are due to this fact even, in any case. Listed here are 5 potential candidates (listed alphabetically) prone to be on USSF sporting director Earnie Stewart’s shortlist if Berhalter would not return.
Steve Cherundolo, 43, LAFC
Even earlier than he retired as some of the underrated gamers in USMNT historical past, the three-time World Cup veteran was being tipped as a future U.S. coach. Since then, Cherundolo has moved up the ranks methodically. He was an assistant with two completely different Bundesliga golf equipment and Germany’s under-15 nationwide squad earlier than touchdown his first head gig with the Las Vegas Lights of the second-tier USL Championship in 2021.
Cherundolo spent only a 12 months in Vegas; he was employed by LAFC after former U.S. boss Bob Bradley left for Toronto final winter. LAFC has led the Supporters Protect race for the reason that opening weekend, and so they’re additionally FOX Wager’s choose to win MLS Cup in November. Ought to the league’s highest-profile membership declare each titles, Cherundolo’s inventory might rise considerably.
Jim Curtin, 43, Philadelphia Union
Not solely has the second-longest tenured coach in MLS (after former USMNT captain Peter Vermes in Kansas Metropolis) constantly helped comparatively frugal Philadelphia punch properly above their weight, however he has additionally confirmed adept at fielding and creating children. USMNT and Leeds United ahead Brenden Aaronson is the first instance however not the one one: U.S. defender Mark McKenzie additionally thrived beneath Curtin’s management earlier than graduating to Belgian membership Genk final 12 months.
What Curtin lacks in worldwide pedigree — he has by no means performed for or coached any nationwide workforce or in Europe — he makes up for along with his potential to attach with and get probably the most out of his gamers. He is the largest motive the Union are among the many favorites to hoist MLS Cup this season. The 2020 MLS Coach of the Yr already gained a Supporters Protect with Philly, a feat that could be much more spectacular.
One different factor in Curtin’s favor? He labored beneath Stewart from 2015 to ’18 when Stewart was Philadelphia’s sporting director.
Jesse Marsch, 48, Leeds United
After successful trophies in MLS and Austria and holding Leeds in England’s Premier League lower than three months after taking on relegation-threatened United, Marsch is probably the most certified of the bunch.
However would he be accessible? With this 12 months’s World Cup falling in the course of the European season, U.S. Soccer might need to attend till June to call a brand new full-time coach, even with CONCACAF Nations League matches scheduled earlier than that.
And except Leeds struggles mightily in Marsch’s first full season and he is let go throughout it or proper after, he’d have two years left on his contract. It is troublesome to see Marsch, who served as a USMNT assistant beneath Bradley at South Africa 2010, merely strolling away from the planet’s greatest and most seen home circuit — even for the once-in-a-lifetime probability to guide his nation at a World Cup on dwelling soil.
Pellegrino Matarazzo, 44, Stuttgart
Maybe the least identified of those names amongst U.S. supporters, Matarazzo grew to become the primary U.S.-born American (he grew up in New Jersey and performed soccer at Columbia College) to teach within the Bundesliga when he gained promotion with Stuttgart final 12 months. In Might, he helped the membership keep in Germany’s prime flight.
Matarazzo climbed the teaching ranges abroad, together with a season as present Bayern Munich supervisor Julian Nagelsmann’s understudy with Hoffenheim. He has saved ties to the American recreation, too; Matarazzo counts fellow Jersey native Berhalter as a good friend, whereas his youthful brother, Antonio, works in advertising for MLS.
Josh Wolff, 45, Austin FC
Wolff paid a decade of dues as an assistant — first as a player-coach with D.C. United, then beneath Berhalter with the Columbus Crew and later the USMNT — earlier than turning into Austin’s predominant man previous to their 2021 enlargement season.
This 12 months, the Verde sit fourth general within the league behind solely Cherundolo’s LAFC, Curtin’s Philly and defending league champ New York Metropolis FC. The meticulous Wolff is a probable MLS Coach of the Yr candidate. A two-time World Cup participant with the U.S., the previous striker might be nonetheless a little bit too inexperienced for the highest job. That notion might change shortly if Austin rips via the playoffs and wins MLS Cup in November.
One of many main soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has coated United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities in 2021, he was a workers author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities. Observe him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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