Fans treat USMNT like a club side – and it could cost Berhalter his job

Gregg Berhalter’s job, most US men’s national team fans and observers would agree, is on the line. US Soccer hasn’t wavered in its public backing of the 50-year-old, but a poor showing at the 2024 Copa América would surely prompt a rethink. With the World Cup on home soil in two years, there is a bigger picture to consider.

For some, not even a strong showing at Copa would be enough to justify Berhalter’s continued employment. There are plenty who have never seen him as the right man for the job. The ‘Berhalter Out’ movement has existed in some form in some corner of the internet for years. Recently, the rhetoric has become louder and more mainstream, but partisanship when it comes to Berhalter has long been an unavoidable part of following the national team.

The again, which national team fanbase is truly happy with their manager? Gareth Southgate is England’s most successful manager since 1966, but finds himself a constant target for criticism. Didier Deschamps led France to glory at the 2018 World Cup and two other tournament finals yet has still been attacked for his selection and tactics.

Related: Can the USMNT prove they are among the world’s best at Copa América?

International managers aren’t meant to be liked by fans. They’re not even meant to be good, in a conventional sense. In an age where head coaches are lionised for being philosophers first and soccer coaches second, national team managers are an anomaly. They simply don’t have the time on the training pitch to implement the intricate systems that define the club game. The criteria is different.

Berhalter, of course, was a club manager until taking over the USMNT in 2018 and that has been part of the problem. Appointed in December 2018, he initially spoke about his plan to carry over much of what worked for him at Columbus Crew. “We want to use the ball to disorganise the opponent and create goalscoring opportunities,” he said, also highlighting his “game model” that would see the USMNT become a modern, dynamic outfit.

Over time, that model has changed. The USMNT under Berhalter have become more pragmatic. They don’t control matches with possession in the way Berhalter originally envisaged. Some may argue this is because the US lacks the talent to play this way. Others may point out even national teams with such talent don’t dominate in the way some of the best club teams do – see England and France, for example.

There is a disconnect between what can be realistically expected of Berhalter as USMNT head coach and what a large section of the fanbase demands of him that can be attributed to the unique landscape of US soccer. In most other countries, supporters rank club over country. In the US, though, it is largely the inverse.

It might be a generational thing. MLS has, after all, only been around for 28 years. Soccer culture has grown quickly across the US, but it will take generations to develop the sort of deep-rooted club associations that are common elsewhere in the world. The USMNT, however, has been the focal point for American soccer fandom for decades.

While the American soccer ecosystem at club level has continually shifted, the national team has been a constant. They are for all intents and purposes a club team for many supporters. In other countries, discussion about the national team is parked between international windows. The discourse around the USMNT – and the USWNT – on the other hand, never stops.

This is to the US’s credit – the community around the USMNT is among the most vibrant in international soccer. The knock-on impact, however, is that expectations are frequently warped. The USMNT might be a club team to some supporters, but that doesn’t mean Berhalter can coach them like a club side.

The reality is that national team managers are largely in place as figureheads, not coaches. It is their job to ensure a happy camp and the US’s players appear to be behind Berhalter. Christian Pulisic, for one, publicly backed Berhalter amid US Soccer’s rehiring process after the 2022 World Cup.

None of this is to say Berhalter shouldn’t be scrutinised. The US’s current generation of players is among the best the country has ever produced and the 2026 World Cup on home soil is too valuable for US Soccer to simply cross its fingers and hope for the best. If there’s a chance another path would lead to greater success, they have a duty to explore it.

Related: From Endrick to Adams: 10 players ready to shine at Copa América

At this time, though, there is no obvious alternative. If not Berhalter, then who? Jesse Marsch interviewed for the job after the 2022 World Cup, but was ultimately passed over and recently hired by Canada. Jim Curtin was another name linked to the job last year, but the Philadelphia Union head coach has no experience outside Major League Soccer. Tata Martino ticked a number of boxes, but joined Lionel Messi at Inter Miami instead.

One report last year linked José Mourinho with the USMNT job. Mourinho, however, was earning $8m a year at Roma and has just joined Fenerbahce on a contract believed to be worth $11.5m a year. Berhalter’s USMNT contract, by contrast, saw him paid roughly $2.3m in 2022. Mourinho may have expressed a desire to work in the US in the future, but he was never a realistic candidate.

Canada came up with a creative solution to hire Marsch as their new head coach, rounding up support from the country’s MLS team owners to fund the contract of the national team coach. Could US Soccer persuade Arthur Blank, who has already pledged $50m to build a new national training facility in Atlanta, to put up the money to hire someone like Jürgen Klopp or Joachim Löw?

This summer’s Copa América is shaping up to be a watershed. If this is meant to be a dry run for the 2026 World Cup, the consequences for failure should be just as severe as they would be in two years’ time. Berhalter had to interview for his own job after the 2022 World Cup and the next month is another examination.