US Soccer's Coaching Challenge: Seeking Berhalter's Successor
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00:00I want to start with the U.S. soccer situation.
00:06I'm under the impression that Klopp turned him down already.
00:10He's not interested in coaching the U.S. team.
00:12We were just talking about it and it was from Gabe's perspective that he didn't want that
00:17on his resume because even he doesn't think he can fix that team.
00:23He doesn't want it to hurt his legacy.
00:25Do you believe that and what are they going to look for now after they've made this move?
00:32Who could they possibly get to make them look better in the World Cup than they've looked
00:39in the Copa?
00:40The Copa was really kind of embarrassing.
00:43Well I think Klopp made it clear that he needed a break.
00:48He'd spent a lot of years at a high end club and he needed time off to just be a person.
00:57And I get that.
00:59And I think what the U.S. thought was that they have nothing to lose by taking that shot
01:04and that they could perhaps convince him that the grind of being a manager at an elite Champions
01:11League level club is much different than being the head coach of a men's national team.
01:16Now every four years or every two years you're going to have an intense amount of scrutiny.
01:22But that's really it.
01:24It's not like you have to be on the job 24-7, 365 days a year.
01:30Maybe you get a week off a vacation or whatever if you're managing Manchester City or Manchester
01:35United or in his case Liverpool.
01:38But it's really a grind.
01:41But ultimately I think that's what dissuaded him is he just had enough.
01:45I imagine he may come back at some point to manage and maybe the U.S. missed their window.
01:51But this was the only window that they would have had a shot.
01:54They needed to take this chance on Klopp.
01:57They didn't move Berhalter because they were trying to get Klopp.
02:00They were trying to get Klopp because they had moved Berhalter and had every intention of that
02:06after the failure of the Copa America tournament.
02:09Well, the guy that runs USA Soccer is the guy that brought him back.
02:16And now he's left with the keys to the car of having to choose again.
02:23And I mean, what's your opinion of what he did the first time?
02:26It was failure, wasn't it?
02:28And now he's in charge of making it again?
02:31It was a mistake.
02:32But he also hired the best women's club coach in the world, Emma Hayes, to coach the women's
02:39national team. So people kind of want to forget that because they think that the men are the
02:43only program that matters.
02:45Certain people, I should say, he also hired Emma and she's expected to do wonderful things
02:52with the U.S. I thought that at the time it was the right choice.
02:56But in examining what developed afterward, you saw how the players took advantage of the
03:02situation. And maybe it should have been anticipated they would take advantage of the
03:07situation because they're all still kids and they acted like kids.
03:11They're all basically 25 years old and they were handed an inordinate amount of power
03:15because they were the ones who were basically the reason that Berhalter was brought
03:21back. They wanted him.
03:22They thought the culture of the team worked well with him and they wanted to continue
03:26under him. And then instead of saying, OK, we got your back, coach, they said, hey, coach,
03:31we got your job back.
03:32So now you're now you can do whatever.
03:35And you had Serginio Des getting himself thrown out of a game for a minor over
03:40disappointment at a minor call down in Trinidad.
03:43It didn't hurt the team ultimately, other than making the other 10 players work that much
03:48harder for 70 minutes or 60 minutes.
03:51But they were able to advance in the nation's league.
03:55But in the Copa America, you saw some physical activity on the part of Panama, which was
04:01absolutely anticipated.
04:03Berhalter told all the players that it's how Panama would play them.
04:06And the first chance that Timothy Way had got, he was found with having shoved an
04:13opposing player in the back and thrown out of the game.
04:16And that's that's how they repaid Greg Berhalter.
04:19That's how they rewarded Greg Berhalter.
04:21So you couldn't keep him if the players weren't going to respect him.
04:25You need to bring somebody in who doesn't know any of those players anything and who says,
04:30look, I'm in charge.
04:31You're great at your club or you're a player at one of the big clubs.
04:34Terrific. Can't wait to see you in camp.
04:36Maybe you'll get a job.