Progress was made at the Gold Cup, but much more needs to happen both short and long term.
Looking back at Sunday night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, it did remind me of what I wrote the day after that loss to Trinidad and Tobago nearly two years ago. For the long term, most of it still stands.
Last night, it’s not an unfair statement to say that Tata Martino out-coached Gregg Berhalter in the second half. Rodolfo Pizzaro went from potentially leaving the match with a hamstring problem to being the Man of the Match. Gregg Berhalter did not make any adjustments and the substitutions were questionable.
While the US Men’s National Team did make some progress in the Gold Cup, there is still much more that is needed. Berhalter needs to figure out who his core will be that will lead the team in both the CONCACAF Nations League and later World Cup Qualifying for 2022. He also needs to decide who his best players in midfield are and who his #1 will be. Otherwise, the calls for his sacking will grow.
Frankly, the only way for the USMNT to win hearts and minds back is to start winning again and start beating Mexico again. The leads into the long-term for US Soccer as a whole.
The obvious opinion is that the Women’s National Team should receive equal (if not more) pay compared to the men. As for the men, the Under-23s NEED to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo. Missing three of the last four Olympics is unacceptable and was a cause in what happened on that night in Trinidad back in October 2017. They do have a good coach in Jason Kreis.
Whatever the gap seems to be between the USA and Mexico on the men’s side, or even between Liga MX and MLS, another gap that needs addressing is what US Soccer is doing for the sport versus what it could do.
It’s currently planning a victory tour for the women with the first match in August–right when eight NWSL teams are playing matches. What US Soccer could do is provide more support for the NWSL than just basically allocate national team players to its nine teams. It can also resurrect the US Women’s Open Cup and even lay the groundwork for lower divisions to help replenish the player pool since the look of the 2023 Women’s World Cup team will likely be quite different from the one that lifted the trophy in Lyon on Sunday.
US Soccer is giving Gregg Berhalter a chance to give the men an identity and a chance at redemption. It could have done more to bring in a coach like Tata Martino or another coach who is an established winner and could lend his expertise to a core of young players and may have even been able to do more with less which ultimately doomed Jurgen Klinsmann’s tenure.
It is placing the US Open Cup games on ESPN+ where people have access to watch the games. It could increase the prize money and at least make the draw more random so a single (earlier) round could feature both Orange County FC vs. LAFC as well as seeing New Mexico United going to FC Tucson. Simply having all lower division (mostly USL Championship) vs. MLS in the Fourth Round simply takes away some of the gloss of the Cup. I can understand the regionalization due to travel expenses, but a team from either the amateur ranks, USL League Two, or the NPSL should not have to play three matches just to have the opportunity to face an MLS side.
As for Major League Soccer, it has been expanding and there is more of a profile thanks to teams like Atlanta, Seattle, and LAFC. It could actually give more attention to the teams that have been here since the mid to late 1990s. There is a team in the city where US Soccer is based and is in the third largest market in the country that is being run like a third-rate organization. Let’s just say it needs more than a “better stadium situation” for that team and a possible rebranding because the club president’s miseducation thinks it’s because people confuse the name with a TV show. (Yes, I had to go there).
MLS could also make the rules regarding player transactions less confusing and more transparent, give its teams competing in the CONCACAF Champions League the resources necessary to better compete with Liga MX teams win the competition.
Finally, if fans don’t want to see a 90-10 split against the US Men for internationals like the one on Sunday, then get off your rear and go to the games to support them. Don’t wait for US Soccer to stage internationals in places like Kansas City or Columbus. (They could also stage them in Portland and Seattle and work with them regarding the turf.)
Like I said back in 1997, I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but as someone who has followed this sport in excess of 35 years, I can at least suggest what needs to happen. What needs to happen now is for all the stakeholders in soccer in this country give the sport a direction that I feel is sorely lacking as well as setting our own identity instead of trying to copy others wholesale such as Germany or Brazil.
We in the US keeping telling ourselves that we are the “Greatest Nation in the World”, but in recent times it feels as if we have taken that title for granted. A huge portion of the population, and the same holds true in portions of the American soccer scene, appear entrenched in their own bubbles, refuse to acknowledge others, and have no plan for when their bubbles burst. What the stakeholders could do is to come together, get on the same page, and give this program and the sport leadership and direction and stick to it.
Taylor Twellman asked, “What are we doing?” I hope to provide at least a framework of what we could be doing not just in the short-term, but in the long-term as well.
