It might appear extreme that Gregg Berhalter’s task as USMNT head coach remains in intense jeopardy since among his gamers chose to smack a challenger in the head. Once again, in the United States’s last huge competition test before it co-hosts the 2026 World Cup, a coach anticipated to reach at least the quarter-finals is gazing at a group-stage exit in the Copa América, disallowing what appears an unlikely victory versus one of the favorites, Uruguay, in Kansas City on Monday. Good guy, Berhalter. Popular with gamers, considerate to the media, hard-working, thoughtful, genuine and caring. The core problem given that the round of 16 exit to the Netherlands at Qatar 2022 World Cup is callous in its clearness and simpleness: is the guy who very well resuscitated the program and supported a talented group of children towards maturity after the failure to reach the 2018 World Cup likewise the ideal male to take the United States to the next level? Will he do much better in 2026, the greatest single chance to grow the sport in the United States because 1994? Much of the chat going into the Copa was of the growing requirement for Berhalter’s group to conjure a signature win. He organized his very first component in January 2019, a 3-0 win over Panama, and Thursday’s demoralizing 2-1 loss to the very same challengers in Atlanta was his 73rd video game. Under his management the most skilled lineup in the country’s history, with a bona fide worldwide star in Christian Pulisic of Milan, supported by a cast of other gamers at top-flight European clubs, is yet to declare a win over a non-Concacaf country in the leading 25 of Fifa’s rankings. A most likely quarter-final versus Brazil or Colombia was prepared for to be the chance for a show-stopping, confidence-starting, celebration. With Uruguay top of Group C with 6 points from 2 components, the United States and Panama connected on 3, and Panama still to play Bolivia– a miserable attire from a nation presently challenging a stopped working coup effort, which appears like a really affordable reason to be sidetracked by something even more crucial than soccer– Monday might be Berhalter’s last possibility. The match at Arrowhead Stadium versus Uruguay, who are 14th in the Fifa rankings (3 locations listed below the United States, however do not let that fool you), would be a relevant minute to alter the story. It’s tough to feel positive that either the coach or the gamers, who’ve been careless in 3 of their 4 video games this month (the respectable exception an excellent 1-1 Copa tune-up with Brazil), have what it takes to get rid of Uruguay, who are handled by the fantastic Marcelo Bielsa and beat Panama 3-1 last Sunday and relieved previous Bolivia 5-0 on Thursday. Expecting possibly the specifying night of his supervisory profession, Berhalter used pablum to press reporters. “We understand we need to go out there and get an outcome, and we’ll go to do that,” he stated. “We think in this group. It’s a strong group. I believe if we remain focused and carry out a gameplan we’ll be okay.” That didn’t take place on Thursday on a night stained by online racist abuse of numerous United States gamers. As regular Concacaf opponents it is not as if Panama’s ruthless mix of direct death and indelicate fouling– Adalberto Carrasquilla was sent late on for a wild hack at Pulisic– came as a surprise. To paraphrase Mike Tyson, everybody has a strategy till Tim Weah punches someone in the face. Tim Weah leaves the field after his red card versus Panama. Photo: Mike Stewart/AP The red card for the off-the-ball occurrence with Roderick Miller remembered Sergiño Dest’s petulant termination versus Trinidad & Tobago in the Concacaf Nations League last November, both for its large indisciplined idiocy and the method it catalyzed a United States retreat versus inferior opposition. Early and stunning as it was, Thursday’s 18th-minute red card for Weah, a 24-year-old Juventus winger with a propensity to wander in and out of video games, need to not have actually sufficed to speed up a tactical and territorial collapse that saw Panama rating in each half and wind up with an amazing 74% of the belongings, specifically because the United States, roared on by a home crowd of 59,145 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, took the lead soon after the sending-off. avoid previous newsletter promo after newsletter promo Berhalter changed the vibrant and fearless Folarin Balogun, who scored a splendid opening objective, with Ricardo Pepi, unlucky in last Sunday’s too-comfortable 2-0 win over Bolivia. Pepi squandered the United States’s finest opportunity of the 2nd half, heading tamely at the goalkeeper. At half-time Berhalter presented the protector Cameron Carter-Vickers, so troublesome in the 5-1 friendly loss to Colombia previously this month, and the Celtic gamer was a representative of turmoil once again, trying a rash take on that was offered as a charge before the choice was appropriately reversed by VAR. While there was a particular reasoning to compromising the playmaker Gio Reyna for a protector, specifically after the disturbing loss of goalkeeper Matt Turner at half-time after he was hurt by a bad difficulty, Reyna’s imagination and composure on the ball may have functioned as a pressure release valve in the 2nd half and been a smarter method than including a 3rd center-back and bunkering looking for a draw. “Tim got bumped, he got inspected, and he responded. He said sorry to the group and I believe he comprehends what a challenging position he put the group in,” Berhalter informed press reporters. “He’s a supreme group gamer. He stood and he took responsibility for it immediately and we’ll carry on.” In its public kindness, this was traditional Berhalter: discovering a method to applaud a gamer who is worthy of blame. Seeing a private oversight as a chance to tension cumulative obligation. Weah provided an apology, stating he is “unfortunate and upset at myself” and “dedicated to gaining from this experience”. That’s the United States under Berhalter: constantly on an instructional journey. Unless the coach can in some way discover a method to school Bielsa on Monday, his own global trip might be at an end.
Tim Weah sees red as Berhalter’s USMNT drift on journey to no place
