Secrecy and nepotism cast doubt on Berhalter’s hire as USMNT coach

The process by which USSF hired Gregg Berhalter as the next USMNT coach was shrouded in secrecy and undermines confidence in the new coach.

When the final whistle was blown at the end of the U.S. men’s national team’s unimaginable 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago on that fateful October day in Couva over a year ago, USMNT supporters knew head coach Bruce Arena would have to step down and be replaced following the USMNT’s failure to make the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

As USMNT fans and U.S. Soccer officials regrouped from this devastating setback, USMNT fans seemed mostly content with long-time Arena assistant Dave Sarachan taking over as interim coach until a more permanent solution could be found. But what USMNT fans didn’t expect was for Sarachan to remain in the interim role for over a year.

On Sunday, the U.S. Soccer Federation ended speculation and officially named former Columbus Crew head coach and former USMNT player Gregg Berhalter as their new manager in a deal that will keep Berhalter in charge of the USMNT through the 2022 World Cup.

While Berhalter’s success as the USMNT head coach will only be measured by whether he can win the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup and successfully guide the USMNT through CONCACAF qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, the process by which the USSF ultimately selected Berhalter was shrouded in secrecy, raises questions of nepotism and doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the man now entrusted with leading what many consider to be the best crop of young talent in U.S. history.

First, why were the candidates for the USMNT coach kept so secret? Where was the transparency in the process?

There are reports that the coaching search started with 33 candidates, from which a list of 11 potential finalists was generated. USMNT general manager Earnie Stewart apparently only interviewed two candidates from this list: Berhalter, who ultimately got the job, and Oscar Pareja, the former FC Dallas coach.

There were reports that former Mexico manager Juan Carlos Osorio, former Spain and Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui and current Atlanta United and soon-to-be Mexico coach Tata Martino were potentially interested in the job. And what about Americans Jesse Marsch, Tab Ramos, Greg Vanney and Peter Vermes? All of them had arguably as good or better coaching credentials than Berhalter. None of them even got an interview.

Why was the process so closely guarded? Keeping the process secret and failing to keep the public informed about the search process only leads to speculation that the USSF’s “thorough process” was nothing more than a sideshow. It now seems Berhalter was inevitably going to be the next USMNT coach regardless of who was in the mix.

Which leads conveniently into the second point regarding nepotism. Gregg’s brother, Jay, is the USSF’s current chief commercial and strategy officer. Prior to Jay’s April 1 appointment to that position, he still had a role on the technical side of the USSF and was an important person in the hiring of Stewart, who ultimately was tasked with leading the hiring process for the new USMNT coach.

If Gregg was so highly thought of, why was he not appointed to the position at the end of 2017? Was it because the USSF did not want it to look like Gregg’s appointment was tainted with nepotism? Did Jay and the USSF feel it was necessary to delay the appointment until Jay was in a non-technical role and the new position of general manager was filled?

Regardless of whether there was actual nepotism going on, there clearly was an appearance that Gregg got a leg up in the process because his brother Jay was in a high-level role with the USSF. If Gregg was clearly the frontrunner for the position last fall, Jay should have recused himself completely from all hiring processes at the USSF and Gregg should have been installed as the USMNT coach and given calendar year 2018 to install his style and system with the current crop of USMNT players.

It’s the delay in Berhalter’s appointment as USMNT coach which may have the most damaging and lasting impact for the development of the current crop of U.S. talent. Since the 2-1 loss to Trinidad & Tobago last year, the USMNT have played friendlies against Portugal, Bosnia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ireland, France, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, England and Italy under Sarachan.

These were 12 matches that could have been used to determine which players fit into Berhalter’s system. Instead, Berhalter will take over for the USMNT’s January camp, which historically consists of almost exclusively MLS-based players.

With limited international breaks this spring, Berhalter will only have the March international break and a week before the Gold Cup kicks off in June to get a sense of where the USMNT’s European-based players fit into his system before the most important competitive tournament in our region. USMNT supporters can only hope he’s not being set up for failure by the USSF’s bungling of the hiring process given the lack of training time he’ll have with his potential first choice players.

The USMNT also lost an entire year of recruiting during Sarachan’s time in charge. With the coaching position in flux for over a year and with no system or style implemented during that time, what type of damage was done to the recruiting pipeline? Could the USSF even try to convince dual-nationals to put on the U.S. jersey during such a time of uncertainty?

Martino, for example, wasn’t considered for the position because English was not his first language. Was the USSF only looking at American-born candidates for the position? What were the actual characteristics that were sought for the next men’s national team coach? These remain unknowns.

Berhalter has never even won a trophy as a coach. Did results even come into play in the decision-making process? All of these points were never addressed by the USSF or Stewart in the public domain. There continue to be more questions than answers.

While USMNT supporters hope that Berhalter’s tenure as USMNT coach will ultimately be a success, the lengthy, drawn out and questionable process that led him to the highly-coveted position continues to raise serious questions about U.S. Soccer’s long-term commitment to making the U.S. one of the best soccer nations on the planet.