It may seem harsh that Gregg Berhalter’s job as head coach of the U.S. national team is on the line because one of his players decided to hit an opponent in the head.
On the other hand, in the US’s last major test match before the country co-hosts the 2026 World Cup, a coach expected to reach at least the quarter-finals is eyeing an elimination in the Copa América group stages unless he beats one of the favorites, Uruguay, in Kansas City on Monday.
Nice guy, Berhalter. Popular with players, respectful to the media, hardworking, thoughtful, sincere and caring. But the core issue since the round of 16 elimination against the Netherlands at the Qatar 2022 World Cup has been brutal in its clarity and simplicity: is the man who admirably revitalized the program and led a talented group of youngsters into adulthood after the World Cup failure of 2018 also the right man to take the US to the next level? Will he do better in 2026, the biggest opportunity to grow the sport in the US since 1994?
Much of the discussion at the Copa focused on the growing need for Berhalter’s team to conjure up a signature win. He took charge of his first game in January 2019, a 3-0 win over Panama, and Thursday’s demoralizing 2-1 defeat to the same opponents in Atlanta was his 73rd game. But under his leadership, the most talented squad in the country’s history, with a bona fide world star in Milan’s Christian Pulisic, supported by a cast of other players at top European clubs, has yet to claim victory over a non-Concacaf. country in the top 25 of the FIFA rankings.
A likely quarter-final against either Brazil or Colombia had been expected to provide the chance for a show-stopping, confidence-boosting occasion. However, with Uruguay top of Group C with six points from two games, the US and Panama locked on three points, and Panama still having to play Bolivia – a dismal team from a country currently in the throes of a failed coup, which seems a perfectly reasonable excuse to be distracted by something even more important than football – Monday could be Berhalter’s last chance.
The match at Arrowhead Stadium against Uruguay, who are 14th in the FIFA rankings (three places below the US, but don’t let that fool you), would be a good time to change the narrative. But it’s hard to be optimistic that the coach or the players, who have been sloppy in three of their four games this month (the honourable exception being a stunning 1-1 Copa draw with Brazil), have what it takes to beat Uruguay, led by the great Marcelo Bielsa, to beat Panama 3-1 on Sunday and 5-0 past Bolivia on Thursday.
Looking ahead to the potentially defining night of his managerial career, Berhalter offered porridge to reporters. “We know we have to go out there and get a result, and we’re going to do that,” he said. “We believe in this group. It’s a strong team. I think if we stay focused and execute on a game plan, we’ll be fine.” That didn’t happen on a Thursday evening tarnished by online racist abuse from several American players.
As frequent Concacaf foes, it’s not as if Panama’s relentless mix of direct passes and ill-advised fouls – Adalberto Carrasquilla was sent off late for a wild hack on Pulisic – came as a surprise. But to paraphrase Mike Tysoneveryone has a plan until Tim Weah punches someone in the face.
The red card for the Roderick Miller off-ball incident was reminiscent of Sergiño Dest’s brutal exclusion against Trinidad & Tobago in the Concacaf Nations League last November, both for its sheer idiocy and the way the US pulled away against a lesser opponent .
Early and shocking as it was, Thursday’s 18th-minute red card for Weah, a 24-year-old Juventus winger with a tendency to drift in and out of games, should not have been enough to precipitate a tactical and territorial collapse that saw Panama score in each half and finish with an extraordinary 74% of the ball, especially as the U.S., in front of a home crowd of 59,145 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, took the lead shortly after the send-off.
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Berhalter replaced the dynamic and confident Folarin Balogun, who had scored a magnificent opening goal, with Ricardo Pepi, unfortunate in the too-comfortable 2-0 win over Bolivia on Sunday. Pepi wasted the USA’s best chance of the second half, heading tamely past the keeper. At half-time, Berhalter introduced defender Cameron Carter-Vickers, so troublesome in the 5-1 friendly defeat to Colombia earlier this month, and the Celtic man was again an agent of chaos, attempting to make a rash tackle that had previously been awarded as a penalty; the decision was rightly overturned by VAR.
While there was some logic in sacrificing playmaker Gio Reyna for a defender, especially after the worrying loss of goalkeeper Matt Turner at half-time after he was injured following a nasty foul, Reyna’s creativity and composure on the ball in the second half could serve as an outlet for pressure and be a smarter strategy than adding a third centre-back and bunkering in search of a draw.
“Tim was pushed, he was checked and he responded. He apologized to the group and I think he understands what a difficult position he has put the group in,” Berhalter told reporters. “He is an ultimate team player. He stood up and immediately took responsibility and we will move on.” In his public generosity, this was typical Berhalter: finding a way to praise a player who deserves the blame. Seeing an individual blunder as an opportunity to emphasize collective responsibility.
Weah apologized, saying he is “sad and angry with himself” and “determined to learn from this experience.” That’s the U.S. under Berhalter: always on an educational journey. But unless the coach somehow finds a way to educate Bielsa on Monday, his own international journey may be over.