You just know that everything is going to plan when an unscheduled press conference gets organized at the last minute.
I’m being sarcastic, to be clear.
Regardless, that’s what the USSF did this morning. After giving reporters about two hours to get organized, USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone announced that USMNT sporting director Earnie Stewart and general manager Brian McBride would both be moving on. Stewart is going to PSV to serve as its Technical Director. Nice little gig, that.
McBride, meanwhile, has “decided to move on.” That strikes me as a jump before pushed kind of decision.
Of course the biggest question of all was left mostly unanswered. Or unspoken, anyway.
USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter remains in limbo, with Parlow Cone saying that he “remains a candidate” for the job that he had and apparently still wants. However, it would officially remain vacant through to the end of the summer, with interim coach Anthony Hudson likely remaining in the role through to the end of the Gold Cup.
Basically, buckle in USMNT fans. It looks like you are about to go through another marathon coaching search. If you aren’t aware, it took more than a year to hire Berhalter, after Bruce Arena stepped down. It’s hard to imagine it not being close to that long again, because they will likely have to hire people to replace Stewart and McBride first.
Personally, as a Canadian National Team observer, I’m hoping they go with Danielle Egan Reyna for any of the roles…
That’s a joke, clearly, but the underlying point remains — none of what transpired today seems like its going to make the USMNT stronger in 2023, does it? With the USMNT is this mess, and Mexico having a bit of a ‘mare itself, stable, little Canada might just be the favourites for Gold Cup right now.
Another reason it might be smart money to go with us Canucks in July is that the 2023 Gold Cup is clearly not the main focus of either the US or Mexico, whereas it would be a significant accomplishment for Canada. In fact, it’s unclear whether the US or Mexico are even aware there is a Gold Cup this summer.
Another joke, that, but the focus for both will be to be ready for 2026. To be fair, you have to view today’s decisions by the USSF with that in mind.
So, does hanging Berhalter out to dry by making a non-decision-but-come-on-Gregg-read-the-room move make it more likely that they will get the right person in place for 2026?
No. No, it doesn’t. I’m not sure who looks at the soap opera going on in US Soccer right now — and the way they are treating Berhalter — and goes “Yeah, sign me up for some of that!”
The USSF isn’t even running the search on their own here. They’ve hired the spectacularly named Sportsology Group to consult during the hiring process.
This is some serious “can’t make this stuff up” stuff. If you were writing a satire of American soccer management, you would make up a company called the Sportsology Group. It’s like the USSF is going out of its way to make this hiring process more complicated than it needs to be.
It’s also been my observation that companies named the Sportsology Group usually either recommend mind-numbingly safe choices, or painfully obvious ones. They rarely, if ever, fall on “inspired.”
As I wrote earlier this month, it’s not like moving on from Berhalter is an obvious mistake. Really, the best way to describe his work so far is mediocre.
As well, the argument that Parlow Cone made — a clean slate is the best approach for this cycle — is sound. Hell, I’ve made it for Canada and John Herdman.
That’s not what they are doing though. They would have fired/mutually agreed to part ways him in December, if that was the case. What they are doing now is just making them look bad to potential coaches and wasting a year of an already shorter than normal cycle.
The better approach would have been to instead use the Gold Cup as last-chance-to-save-your-job tournament for Berhalter. It’s unlikely that there will be significant international manager movement until next summer because of the short time between Qatar and the summer tournaments.
Those six months would have provided everyone the chance to reflect on the World Cup and make decisions that are based on logic, rather than the emotion of the World Cup end and fall-out from Reyna-Gate.
Basically, it would have represented the actions of an organization that had a plan.
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