Gregg Berhalter, the 49-year-old, Nike-wearing, bounce-passing New Jerseyan who casts a conspicuous determine on the sideline as head coach of the US males’s nationwide soccer staff, has been on this place earlier than.
Twenty years in the past, Berhalter — a middle again throughout his taking part in days — was in South Korea, beginning his first sport at a World Cup when the US performed Mexico within the Spherical of 16. The following 2-0 victory cemented a quarterfinal berth for the US, its finest ever run at a World Cup since making the semifinal in 1930.
“In all probability considered one of my most memorable video games in my entire profession,” Berhalter instructed ESPN in 2010. “Simply the arrange: Having to play Mexico within the second spherical they usually had been completely on fireplace. They breezed by their group, they got here in first, they usually had been very assured taking part in us, however we felt the identical approach.”
Does that confidence as an underdog sound acquainted? If not, Berhalter exuded related self-assurance Wednesday, talking of his staff’s Spherical of 16 match in opposition to the Netherlands, for which oddsmakers have pegged the People as sizable underdogs.
“From right here, something can occur,” the coach instructed reporters in Doha, Qatar. “It’s an excellent alternative, however it’s not one thing that we’re entering into considering it’s an honor. We should be within the place we’re in and we wish to maintain it that approach.”
As is the case for many nationwide staff coaches, Berhalter has spent a lot of the four-year cycle since he was employed in December 2018 below fixed interrogation. That features every part from the way to his hiring (his brother Jay was the chief business officer of U.S. Soccer when Gregg was employed, resulting in prices of nepotism) to his ways (Berhalter needed to largely quit his choice of taking part in out of the again as an adaptation to the roster) to his lineups (simply kind “Gio Reyna” into Twitter).
Following a taking part in profession that spanned from 1993-2011 with stops within the Netherlands, England, Germany and the U.S., Berhalter shortly stepped into an assistant teaching function for the LA Galaxy. From there, the Bergen County native spent two seasons in Sweden with Hammarby IF earlier than coming again stateside to teach the Columbus Crew, with which he stayed from 2013-18. This job, for which Berhalter was employed after the stunning failure of the U.S. to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, is his largest.
Nonetheless, Berhalter has the US — a nationwide staff marooned at sea when he took over — one win away from repeating its feat of 20 years in the past.
With America co-hosting the following World Cup in 2026, a win over the Netherlands would absolutely make a powerful case for Berhalter to be re-upped because the coach for a second qualifying cycle. If he makes it so far as 2026, he can be the primary man to teach the US in two consecutive World Cups since Bruce Enviornment in 2002 and 2006.
A loyal sneakerhead, Berhalter has earned consideration for his alternative of footwear on the sidelines in addition to for his unorthodox approach of getting the ball again to gamers for a throw-in, through behind-the-back bounce passes. He defined that on a Fox Sports activities podcast by saying it helps gamers throw the ball in additional shortly.
Regardless of all of the questions surrounding the trivialities of his job efficiency, although, there may be the undeniable fact that the lads’s nationwide staff is in a greater place than it has been in a while, a truth that will stand even with a loss on Saturday.
Its core of gamers is younger, they play in Europe’s elite leagues and they're able to construct on this run when the time comes. Berhalter, confronted with criticism, can level to that, in addition to to the inarguable outcomes of this World Cup, the 2021 CONCACAF Nations League and the 2021 Gold Cup (each of which the U.S. gained) and the actual fact it certified for Qatar within the first place.
“Now you've got a coach that is available in and tactically understands the sport higher than nearly each coach that I’ve ever had,” U.S. captain Tyler Adams instructed reporters forward of the World Cup. “And he places a plan rather than actually desirous to develop the gamers, these younger gamers, giving them the chance, having that perception in them. And that was completely different than what U.S. Soccer had performed prior to now.”
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