This must be the final whistle for Gregg Berhalter
It is currently 8:12am on the east coast and Gregg Berhalter seemingly still has a job that should not be his. The United States have been knocked out of the group stage of Copa America hosted on US soil. The United States were knocked out of a group with #84 Bolivia and #43 Panama as their first two matches. And yet Gregg Berhalter is still the United States Men’s National Team head coach.
Let’s make no mistake before the US Soccer Federation tries to casually sweep this under the rug or tries to reinvigorate our patriotic vigor with scenes from the Olympics: Gregg Berhalter should be fired. A search for a new coach needs to be taken with the seriousness and weight of a World Cup quickly speeding towards the horizon.
Yes the players are culpable. Yes Tim Weah is culpable. Yes the referees are culpable. And yes Gregg Berhalter should lose his job for this performance. All things can be true at once.
It does hurt to write this. I really did my best to give this coach the benefit. What I felt towards him the person or what I felt towards the hiring process both times he was appointed is separated from Berhalter the coach. As I’ve said previously, I’m an eternal optimist, and that has obviously clouded my judgement on Greggy B, but right now the world is so fucking shit and Berhalter took a bad night to get knocked out.
It feels like I am terrorized and gaslit by the things I hold most dear. And that Gregg Berhalter’s USMNT performance especially in his second tenure is going to be upheld by the court’s opinion on “official actions”. Why does Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent on presidential immunity fit so perfectly with Gregg Berhalter’s relationship with USSF?
"Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?" she wrote. "Immune."
"Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."
"Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done," Justice Sotomayor wrote. "In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law."
I feel I must provide my own dissent for Gregg Berhalter:
Hired after getting out-coached against Netherlands and causing damage to a lifelong relationship with one of our most promising players? Immune
Poor showings against Uzbekistan where it was 1-0 after 90 minutes at home and again against Oman? Immune
Squeak out slim results against T&T and then need a last minute own goal to tie Jamaica in Nations League at home? Immune.
Slapped 5-1 vs Colombia in preparation for Copa America? Immune
Get knocked out of a Copa America group stage with Bolivia, Panama, and Uruguay at home scoring two goals that entire time? Immune, immune, immune.
That’s not even hyperbole at this point. This man can not continue as our head coach and this entire tournament has shown you why that is.
His teams can play beautiful soccer. Soccer that is free flowing, possession-heavy, and stat-dominant. Except… All of those things happen without many goals being scored or even many dangerous chances being created.
Against Bolivia, the team played extremely well. Passing patterns that created openings in the defence and led to a result that was good not great, 2-0. It’s the three points that matters. Beat Panama and let’s get to the real test in Uruguay. We all know how that went.
Saying after the game that “we knew how this referee was and we played right into his hands”. Well, sir, that is the job of a manager to ensure his team understands what factors they’re going to face in the match. For Timothy Weah to raise a hand to a player’s head, and for Gregg Berhalter to share that comment after the match was a nail being placed on the coffin wood ready to be struck. If you can’t do simple things like ensure your team keeps a cool head against a red-happy ref, that is on you as the coach.
The nail was then hammered through and the coffin shut when the US created one big chance, and a total xg of .49 against Uruguay to get knocked out of the group stage at home in the biggest tournament in the biggest moment. We didn’t change the way the world sees American soccer.
Everyone is still laughing at us.
And the clown show continued through the night. In the 65th minute with 25 minutes to go in the match tied 0-0 Uruguay was preparing to take a free kick. Gregg Berhalter was seen shouting to his players that Bolivia had tied Panama 1-1. If the results held the US would advance from the group on goal difference. A few seconds later Uruguay scored on that same free kick and that was all she wrote.
It is not a winner’s mentality to watch the results of Bolivia vs Panama to see if we can tie Uruguay. It is a loser’s mentality. Even if we had advanced, that was the exact moment where I was done with this team until Gregg Berhalter is no longer the coach.
The referee deserves a secondary clown award as well. In only his 7th international match he faced the daunting task of being an objective and fair party to enforce the rules of soccer. That seemed to be too much for him and his team.
I’m not going to go through every moment, but the most egregious were three distinctly horrible events that leaves an empty pit in my stomach.
The first was the foul from Chris Richards which resulted in whistle and a yellow ca- wait no! A quick resta- wait no! An advantage being played for Uruguay while the yellow was still being shown! There’s not much else to say on that one… It was unequivocally the single worst enforcement of a call I’ve ever seen.
![r/MLS - [Meme] You know it’s a big game when they bring out the simultaneous advantage yellow card](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!3-Ja!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd156d029-e4fb-4a85-ac96-81b186e52ccb_1153x1608.jpeg "r/MLS - [Meme] You know it’s a big game when they bring out the simultaneous advantage yellow card")
The second was the goal from Uruguay. Not quite entirely on the referee but on his team that watched this and thought to themselves “yeah that’s onside.” Extra points for erasing the initial video showing a red mark on the offside player and redrawing the line to give Uruguay a goal.
The third happened after the final whistle, when USA captain Christian Pulisic went to shake the hands of the referee. The referee refused. This above all else is unacceptable. Bad call or enforcement of the rules? ok. Bad offside judgement from your VAR team? ok. Not shaking the hand of a player after the match is over? Absolutely shameful.
The final whistle blows, Christian Pulisic’s hand remains lonely, and here we are two years from hosting the World Cup, where the fans are being held hostage by a rapacious federation and inept manager.
Pulisic said after the match “there wasn’t enough quality and this team lacked an identity”. Staying with Gregg Berhalter will not change any of that.
If you’ve been reading for the last few weeks you’ll know I was pushing to have 25 paid subscribers by the end of July… well we hit that goal almost a full month early. It’s incredible what you’ve been able to do as a community and I am so honored that you would support me in that way.
Thanks to all of you who have subscribed free or paid, and please consider doing so if you haven’t already.
With fear for our team,
Jake
Bad form from Christian but I’d like to think he came to his senses and then decided he needed to do the sportsman thing and shake hands, leave it in the field. The ref is also humans and showed his immaturity in his refusal. That’s also bad form, and from someone who is supposed to be above the fray.
Oh man I missed the fact that the referee didn’t shake his hand. Wow. That’s unbelievable. I agree with everything you said. Of course the internet has been ablaze with fire Greg takes essentially all tournament long, but like you I wanted to wait until the group stage was complete. My goodness seeing him but the two fingers up for 1-1 was such a capitulation that it defies belief. He needs to go. Right now.