When Jürgen Klinsmann assumed leadership of the team in 2011, he set a precedent by promising supporters that the US would no longer be a side that could only play well against the best players in the world on occasion. Rather, they would be more proactive, sophisticated, and enjoyable. Talent that would be good enough to play overseas would be consistently available thanks to a new youth system. After demonstrating their worth in elite European leagues, these players would grow accustomed to the pressure that accompanies great expectations.
“We are still in the process of putting it together,” Klinsmann said to FIFA.com in 2015, after his contract was renewed and his responsibilities were expanded to include technical director for the men’s program as a whole. He acknowledged that it might take years to completely achieve the vision.
Even more straightforward was his successor, Gregg Berhalter. “Changing the way the world views American soccer” was his stated objective when he started his first camp. The United States fielded the second-youngest team at the 2022 World Cup as a result of his overseeing one of the most youth-heavy roster turnovers we’ve ever seen in a national team. As World Cup qualification continued, Berhalter moved from a possession-first style to a more direct approach, embodying and preaching a level of tactical flexibility never before seen. The men’s team would have a variety of strategies for every opponent, he assured.
“The idea is that this is a style focused on breaking lines, playing through the opponent, and creating goal-scoring opportunities,” said Berhalter in his opening news conference. While acknowledging that it would require time to implement at a high level, he made sure to underline that its foundation was sound.
Klinsmann’s tenure ended years ago, and Berhalter has long since had his “some time.” In political terms, what can be referred to as a “candidate of change” has frequently led American leadership over the past 13 years. U.S. Soccer subtly supported the idea that major adjustments were required at the top of the men’s program by continuously selecting revolutionaries.
This summer, we witnessed the results of their efforts: the senior team’s disappointing Copa América group stage departure and the Under-23 team’s uneven performance at the Olympics, which concluded with a crushing 4-0 quarterfinal loss to Morocco.
There was nothing wrong with either campaign. We now know that Tyler Adams was dealing with a back ailment, and the United States did miss injured fullback Sergiño Dest at the Copa América. But it would be naive to attribute subpar achievements to these alone.
Though there were a few strange exclusions from the Olympic team (David Luna, for example), no player’s performance determined the tournament’s winner. The United States, as in previous tournaments, crushed inferior opponents before suffering crushing losses to teams of equivalent or greater caliber.
Since this was the final major international competition before the World Cup, which the United States will co-host with Mexico and Canada in 2026, the high hopes of improvement and transformation should have started to materialize by the summer of 2024. Berhalter named a starting XI consisting of players from the top five leagues in Europe, demonstrating the effectiveness of the youth system. These athletes were all in or very close to their prime. Ahead of the domestic World Cup, this was supposed to be a positive development for the sport.
Rather, in another tournament, the U.S. struggled. Their Olympic journey has come to an end and they are left without a head coach. Thus, instead of starting with solutions, this new era starts with a list of questions: Has soccer in America truly changed? Can this group achieve the goals set forth by earlier generations? In pursuing that objective, what has been gained? And maybe even more crucially, what’s lost?
It’s not that the pre-revolutionary group couldn’t do remarkable feats. They did so more often than any other group. The USMNT’s most viral moment may have come from Landon Donovan’s tournament-saving goal against Algeria during Klinsmann’s predecessor Bob Bradley’s 2009 Confederations Cup final leadover over Spain. Bradley also saw the team come within one goal of a quarterfinal spot in the World Cup the following year. The best-ever World Cup result in 2002, a fourth-place showing at the 2000 Olympics (under Clive Charles), and the long-awaited climb to CONCACAF parity with Mexico were all highlights of Bruce Arena’s first term before Bradley.
In those years, the United States was defined by a hardworking group of players who were helped along by a few exceptional players like Donovan, Tab Ramos, and Claudio Reyna, who raised the bar, and by a strong sense of team spirit. During his two stints, Arena frequently stated that he “believed in the ability of the American player,” a belief that was evident in many of the team’s shortcomings. Sometimes the U.S. performed poorly on the international stage (see: 2006 World Cup), and the play wasn’t always attractive. However, the team’s identity and desired method of operation were always clear.
Within that framework, it’s noteworthy that in both of this year’s tournaments, nations renowned for continuously surpassing expectations while preserving their national character defeated the United States. The Copa América rules were governed by Panama’s well-known direct and rugged style. Morocco played in the same style that won them over to the country at the 2022 World Cup—strong defense, quick counterattacks, and a propensity for the big moments—and sent several of its top players to the Olympics.
About Berhalter’s tenure with the squad, Matt Crocker, sporting director of U.S. Soccer, said, “Five years is a significant period, and substantial progress has been made.” To see the squad flourish under the finest coach possible is his main objective, he made clear.
You could be forgiven for believing that the two significant defeats the United States endured this summer were uncannily identical to those it experienced in previous years. The group appears to have lost sight of what it required to initially travel that journey as they have been so preoccupied with creating a new route to worldwide acclaim.
