Gregg Berhalter has been fired as head coach of the U.S. men's national team, effective immediately, the U.S. Soccer Federation confirmed Wednesday.
The announcement comes in the wake of the team's poor performance at the 2024 Copa América, in which the hosts failed to advance past the group stage following defeats to Uruguay and Panama.
It was the first time that the United States national team was eliminated from the group stage of a World Cup, Copa America or Gold Cup in their country.
The hope was that the Americans would use the tournament as a springboard to greater success at the 2026 World Cup, which the U.S. is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. Instead, the performances at the Copa America revealed how little progress the U.S. team has made since the 2022 World Cup.
The decision to remove Berhalter was made by U.S. Soccer Chief Sporting Officer Matt Crocker after a 10-day review process that included consultations with President Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO JT Batson, Vice President of Sporting Affairs Oguchi Onyewu and members of the Board of Directors.
Sources told ESPN that the review process also included Michael Karon, who the USSF website says is a member of its Professional League Task Force, polling board members over the past few days to see where they stood regarding Berhalter's performance and whether he should stay.
“I want to thank Gregg for his hard work and dedication to the U.S. Soccer Federation and our Men's National Team,” Cone said in a statement. “We are now focused on working with our Sporting Director Matt Crocker and leveraging his experience at the highest levels of the sport to ensure we find the right person to lead the U.S. National Soccer Team into a new era of success on the field.”
“The result of the Copa America is extremely disappointing and I take full responsibility for our performance,” Berhalter said in his own statement. “Our focus and process was always centered on the 2026 World Cup and I remain confident that this group will be one of the big stories in 2026.”
Crocker will lead the search for Berhalter's replacement and has begun the process.
“The U.S. Soccer Federation is committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure our success on the field, and we are dedicated to fostering a culture that leads to winning,” Crocker said in a statement. “Our immediate goal is to find a head coach who can maximize our potential as we continue to prepare for the 2026 World Cup, and we have already begun our search process.”
The Copa America failure took on even more significance for the Americans given that, as hosts, there will be no World Cup qualifying matches to help them prepare for the tournament. The Cup was the Americans' last chance to play competitive matches against teams outside the Concacaf region.
The only other tournament the national team will participate in between now and 2026 is the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup. In the next international window in September, the United States will face Canada and New Zealand.
“We have to win. And we didn't get it done from our perspective,” Crocker said on a conference call with reporters. “But when I look at the work and effort that Gregg and other staff members have put into the program over the last five years, I wanted to make sure that I really took my time and was decisive with making decisions that I felt at the time were the right ones and not have anyone else force me to do it.”
“I think five years is a long time and a lot of building blocks have been put in place. It was a very, very young group to start with and progress has been made, but now it's time to translate that progress into wins. There has been progress in the group but that progress hasn't translated into enough wins at that tournament, which is quite critical.”
Expectations for the USMNT have risen since their respectable showing at the 2022 World Cup, where they reached the round of 16 with the tournament's youngest team weighted by minutes played.
Berhalter was rehired as the team's coach in June 2023 on a contract that will keep him through the 2026 World Cup after a six-month investigation sparked by a disagreement with the family of American player Giovanni Reyna. But since then, the Americans have struggled to show improvement.
In March, they barely edged past Jamaica in the semifinals of the Concacaf Nations League, when an own goal in second-half stoppage time allowed them to escape with an overtime win. The Americans also fell to Trinidad and Tobago in the second leg of the quarterfinals of that competition, though they advanced on aggregate.
These results, taken together, led to increasing calls for Berhalter to be replaced. On the night of the U.S. team's elimination, Crocker, who was not present for the game against Uruguay due to a long-planned family commitment, announced that a review process would be initiated to evaluate the performance of Berhalter and the team.
Ultimately, Crocker decided to relieve Berhalter.
International big names such as Jürgen Klopp, Thierry Henry, Marcelo Bielsa and Mauricio Pochettino are among those speculated to replace Berhalter, along with MLS coaches Steve Cherundolo and Wilfried Nancy.
Berhalter earned $2,291,136 in 2022, including $900,000 in bonuses for the Americans' qualification for the World Cup and reaching the second round.
However, Crocker said salary would not be a major obstacle and the goal is to have Berhalter's successor in place when USMNT friendlies begin in September.
“I know it's a really competitive market in terms of salary, and we have to be competitive to get the level of coach that I think can take the program forward in terms of achieving the results we need on the field,” Crocker added.
“But I'm also very conscious that we have to continue to fight for higher standards and equality. But I don't think that's going to be a barrier in terms of our investment; our national team is a priority. It's something we're willing to invest in and something we will invest in.”
“I just want to get the best coach possible,” he continued, “and whether it's from the United States or anywhere else, he has to fit the profile, which is a serial winning coach, someone who can continue to develop this potential group of players.”
A top men's coach could push the USSF to increase the salary of newly hired women's national team coach Emma Hayes after she agreed in 2022 to equalize the pay of men's and women's national team players.
Berhalter, a former U.S. international player, was originally hired in December 2018 after spending the previous five seasons coaching the Columbus Crew. But he was brought in while his brother, Jay, was the USSF's chief business officer, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
Following the United States' failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Berhalter set out to rebuild the team with a new generation of players and a new style based largely on possession. The results were uneven, but ultimately positive.
The United States lost the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup final to Mexico. The Americans then fell during the group stage to Canada in the 2020 Concacaf Nations League, but thanks to an evolution toward a more pragmatic style, they eventually bounced back to claim that title, as well as the two subsequent CNL crowns.
World Cup qualification had similar difficulties. The United States eventually managed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, although it was not until the final day of qualifying that the team achieved this, as they finished third in the Concacaf standings on goal difference.
However, Berhalter and his team have failed to deliver on the promise of the 2022 World Cup and he now finds himself out of a job.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
