Berhalter coached the USMNT from 2019 to 2024
The Chicago Fire’s Gregg Berhalter defended his tenure as the U.S. men’s national team head coach, describing it as a “job well done” before he was fired last July following the team’s group stage exit at the Copa America.
“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,” Berhalter said at a press conference on Thursday. “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.”
Berhalter was in charge of the national team from Jan. 2019 to July of last year, minus a nine-month stint in 2023 when he was out of contract and left behind a mixed legacy as the head coach. He was hired to reboot the national team after they failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, first by swapping veteran players for rising talents in a major squad overhaul. Christian Pulisic’s role with the national team grew, while others like Tyler Adams became main fixtures on the USMNT.
Under Berhalter’s leadership, the USMNT won the Concacaf Nations League and the Gold Cup in 2021 before qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and reaching the round of 16. He was out of contract for the first nine months of 2023, though his second spell was complicated. He won the Nations League in 2024 but there were concerns that the USMNT stagnated under his leadership, which went on to define their disastrous Copa America campaign last July. Despite being placed in a favorable group, the U.S. lost two of their three games and exited in the group stage.
Berhalter was subsequently fired, and ex-Premier League manager Mauricio Pochettino was hired in September to oversee a statement-making performance at the 2026 World Cup on home soil. Berhalter vaguely discussed the USMNT’s current tasks before offering one final reflection on his national team tenure.
“Now the question is what’s next for the team,” Berhalter added. “Can the team get to the next level? And that’s winning, substantially, at the World Cup, but overall, it was a great period.”
The current Chicago Fire head coach collected a variety of results during his years with the national team, consistently ensuring the USMNT were one of the best teams in North America. His away record in continental competition was not much to write home about with just one away win in Concacaf, and his team only had one win against a top 20 opponent that was not Mexico.
Here’s a look back at Berhalter’s best and worst moments as the USMNT head coach.
Berhalter’s top USMNT moments
2021 Concacaf Nations League, Gold Cup wins
There was no question that ushering in a younger generation of players was the right call, but the team’s 2021 trophy haul was validation that Berhalter and company were on the right track. Their 3-2 win over Mexico in the Nations League final was Berhalter’s only statement win, one in which young stars Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Gio Reyna scored and goalkeeper Ethan Horvath came off the bench to save a penalty in extra time. It was a showcase of both skill and grit that the USMNT should arguably still use as a model, and winning the Gold Cup the following month with a different squad signaled strength in the overall player pool.
2022 World Cup qualification
This was the minimum requirement for Berhalter when he got the job, but he deserves credit for successfully rebooting the program with young players that make up a transformational version of the USMNT. Berhalter’s team was one of the youngest at the World Cup and they held their own during the group stage, playing to a 0-0 draw with England and notched Berhalter’s only win against a top 20 opponent not named Mexico with a 1-0 win over Iran. They were outmatched in their round of 16 loss to the Netherlands, but the tournament provided a strong foundation for the team to grow.
Berhalter’s lows with the USMNT
Copa America disaster
Berhalter built a solid repatriation after his first stint in charge with the USMNT, but the team hit a real skid just months into his second spell. They opened their Copa America preparation with a 5-1 loss against Colombia, his worst defeat as the USMNT coach, and though they corrected course with a 1-1 draw against Brazil and a 2-0 win over Bolivia in their tournament opener, things soured quickly. Berhalter’s side lost 2-1 to Panama after losing Tim Weah in the first half through a reckless red card and then sealed their early Copa America exit with a 1-0 loss to Uruguay. Veteran defender Tim Ream said after the Uruguay loss that the intensity in training had dropped over time, a signal that Berhalter was no longer the right fit to take the team forward.
Family feud with the Reynas
Berhalter surprisingly found himself at the center of a controversy shortly after the 2022 World Cup, when his longstanding friendship with Claudio Reyna fractured over the lack of playing time Gio, Claudio’s son, received in Qatar. Reyna, Berhalter’s childhood friend and former USMNT teammate, and his wife Danielle, an ex-USWNT player, then told U.S. Soccer about an incident in which Berhalter kicked his now-wife Rosalind after a dispute when they were in college. U.S. Soccer later cleared Berhaler of wrongdoing, with the coach publicly sharing the corrective actions he took soon after the incident, which he admitted to. He and Gio Reyna maintained a professional relationship for the remainder of Berhalter’s stint with the national team.
