The U.S. men’s national team will be favored to lift a third-straight CONCACAF Nations League title later this month and head coach Gregg Berhalter is confident in his squad to get the job done.
Berhalter will soon finalize his 23-player roster for the upcoming Final Four, which is slated to begin on March 21 against Jamaica. The USMNT are joined by Jamaica, Mexico, and Panama in the Final Four, with the Reggae Boyz opposing the Americans from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
With both the Nations League and Copa America trophies to play for this year, Berhalter has welcomed the expectations to achieve glory in both competitions.
“It’s high expectations, but it’s something that our group embraces,” Berhalter said Tuesday in a press conference hosted by CONCACAF. “We have very good players. We have high expectations for what this program can do, not only in Nations League but in Gold Cups, Copa America’s and eventually in the World Cup. So, we welcome that.
“We have a semifinal that we want to win and then we have a final that we want to win,” he added. “It doesn’t matter who the favorite is. We’re all competing for a trophy. And we all want to advance in the semifinals. We all want to win the final.”
Jamaica has enjoyed a positive rise in Heimir Hallgrímsson’s reign as head coach, reaching the Nations League semifinals. Led by European talents Demarai Gray, Michail Antonio, and Leon Bailey, as well as standout MLS goalkeeper Andre Blake, the Reggae Boyz have drawn the Americans in each of their last two head-to-head matches (FIFA World Cup Qualifying, Gold Cup group stage).
After defeating Canada, Honduras, and Haiti, and tying Mexico in 2023, Jamaica will bring plenty of confidence to its latest showdown with the United States on American soil.
“I think the most important thing is it’s a resilient team,” Berhalter said. “They lost in Jamaica to Canada, and they had to go away to Canada and get the victory. They went down in the game, and they still were able to come back and win. So, it’s a very strong mentality. You can tell the coach has been through major tournaments before; a very experienced coach. … It’s going to be a difficult match, but we’re excited because difficult matches will help us grow.”
if you look at the copa group, funny, no brazil or argentina there. if we win our group and brazil theirs, we don’t cross over with them, we cross over with someone like paraguay or colombia. that’s winnable. it doesn’t look rough until the knockouts and i wouldn’t call wins “upsets” until maybe the semis. if denmark or greece can win euros, and iceland go deep, then we can win a semi or a final.
i fully expect mr. “pad my resume” to chase wholeheartedly this tournament and then lower expectations for the next event despite me explaining how we should make the semis without having to play over our head. a team trying to improve would not be content with that. if you are telling me how our potential opponents are “good” and implicitly we are not, you should be headed to HQ with a pitchfork and not blithely excusing the state of affairs as natural.
in 2009 we beat Peak Spain. in 2009 we had brazil down 2 goals. we have beaten about any team out there “once.” i am sick of reduced expectations. if you want to do big things we need to start winning stuff like this. and not NL which we should do in our sleep without canada around. i mean other, bigger things.
it’s funny how the folks who said bradley had to get fired and a new approach to soccer brought in, because it had plateaued have now landed same spot — though with an uglier knockout result — and are crying “uncle.” ain’t so easy, is it? to me one of the primary hindrances on USMNT is a tendency when we get this level to stagnate on system and lower/limit roster competition. and then we get to the tournament and the system doesn’t work and some guy who was immunized from fighting for his roster spot “because we’re a knockout team” gets burned for the winner. to me the difference between us and the elite (or even the women) is the willingness to make changes even when we’re winning a decent amount, because it could/should be even better. we have the “knockout round” standard. but we don’t hold the team or coach accountable to wanting more.
352, sit back and counter style
pepi
pulisic
reyna
lund musah adams weah
richards miles CCV
turner
bench
cohen gaga EPB moore jedi maloney mckennie dest campbell green balogun ferreira
hard to score on defense, speed wide, nasty top 3 coming right at you instead of from a side
green, dest, and campbell can all go to goal or shoot from 25 out. ferreira is adaptable, combines with his team, and productive. they are all dangerous scorers as opposed to two way jack of all trades mush. attackers to attack, defenders to stop people, quit muddling it. hence most of the meh 8s disappear or the wingbacks with marking issues become attacking subs.
How delusional are we? Brazil, Argentina these top teams have Top League players that don’t even make their roster and we think Duane Holmes or some 18 yr old with 100 professional minutes in Iceland is going to make the difference? Or that if we just give France 75% of the ball we’re going to pull off the upset? We don’t have the talent to win a major tournament! You could cap every male 18-35 in the US (as IV would have you do) or pay Jose Mourinho, Klopp, or Pep a billion dollars and we still aren’t. Are we good enough to if we have a good day beat England or Germany when they’re having an average day? 100%. But to do that 3 or 4 matches in a row in the knockout stages of an international tournament is not happening. We are not good enough. But this one time we beat Spain and we were up on Brazil at half. Then we got destroyed in the 2nd half. We’d also lost 3-1 to Italy and 3-0 to Brazil in that tournament. Well we’ve beaten Brazil before! 1-18 all time. These aren’t excuses it’s reality.
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Pulisic is arguably our best player wouldn’t see the field for Brazil or Argentina and people are like if Gregg doesn’t get us past Brazil he should be gone! Vinicuis Jr, Rodrygo, Raphina, Martinelli, Richarlison, Gabriel Jesus, let’s be real Puli, Reyna, Weah couldn’t even make the roster.
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Gregg shouldn’t have been rehired, since he was the tactics need reevaluated, but no matter we are not winning Copa America or the 2026 WC. We aren’t good enough. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to watch every match or spend way too much time “debating” the team.
should the US have beat spain in 2009? or brazil in copa in the 90s? exactly. i am bored with this watered down crud. your answer — any given sunday — yes we can. maybe not with this guy at the helm and this selection and system to do it — BUT THEN THAT’S MY POINT. my point is if you want those upsets, it’s something other than this system, and it’s some fresh faces. IMO particularly in the back.
you could not have played competitive soccer at much of any level. if you are “in the neighborhood” — and the US is good enough — you should be able to upset some teams and occasionally win things you wouldn’t normally. exceptional play. or a good system. keller stands on his head. the system works. the defense holds. you grind out the goals you need.
now, if we naively go end to end with brazil like we tried with holland, same selection, same system, yeah, we will lose most days. but i think we have some good creative players and an above average keeper where if we figured out a system that worked, and a defense that holds, we could win the odd game we on paper “shouldn’t.”
which is how anyone above U16 has to win tournament sometimes. you either get help other side of the bracket or you execute a game plan with the right people out there.
irony of your quitter attitude is germany didn’t get out of group in qatar, and brazil lost to cameroon and then went out one round later than we did in the knockouts. this is not the world’s elite. these are above average teams and that’s all. if you are scared of elite there are much worse.
personally i find the present day attitude horrifying because it’s folks pretending like berhalter and his style are going to make this better than it ever was, when it’s actually worse, and when they seem more scared of — and less competitive against — the world elite than ever before. why on earth should i have y’all running things? we were more effective and less scared with the supposed” dinosaurs.” they at least grasped that things like system and personnel should come down to results and not an aesthetic they wish they had.
JR, team could get lucky and win the tournament. Inferior teams can win single elimination tournaments. Of course, they have to get out of the group first to have a chance to win and then be incredibly lucky.
the problem is we seem to fixate on winning NL twice and ignore sorting out what happens in WCQ and the world cup itself.
to underline one answer, the US in these NL final four games has often played an attractive take people on aggressive attacking style which results in lots of chances and end to end soccer. they then as soon as that is done go to some other event or qualifying and start playing passive possession soccer, baby pep stuff. results fizzle and this turns into midtable stuff. 3rd in WCQ, out in the round of 16 ugly in qatar.
NL is meaningless if it does not connect to the rest of what we do. NL is not predictive of the rest of what we do. NL should be put more in service of trying to win the world cup. or even copa. you show up usual suspects chasing a NL trophy you aren’t winning copa. period. you have decided i want the regional illusion more than building to bigger things.
you must be fun at parties.
Who is focused on strictly winning NL’s? That’s what’s in your head, and the NL is the next slate of games, so what do you expect Greg or anyone else to say? And in terms of the WC, it’s 2 years away, so the only wat we sort out that is actually getting there and playing and seeing what the results are. Talking about sorting out the WC before it arrives is only talk, and most people in the fanbase would probably say the same thing, which is it’s lip service until we show it on the field! Stop trying to create narratives that aren’t necessary!
it’s not a “narrative.” it’s a “fact.” we won NL, finished 3rd in WCQ, won NL, went out round of 16 world cup. it doesn’t mean what you folks think it means. even if we win again. because we don’t play the same way we play at NL when we play the more serious events/qualifying. because the NL personnel get exposed at bigger events.
i will repeat myself. we need to play more like NL at other events. go to goal as opposed to play keepaway. and we need to learn the personnel lessons we get taught when we lose.
my concern is you will see a lot of the same guys in march and june over and over, we will do ok but not excellent, and no lessons will be learned. copa is useless if we don’t learn lessons from how it goes. go ask klinsmann if you’re confused. he didn’t learn the lesson that team wasn’t up to scratch and he ended up out of a job.
In 2021 NL we tried to set the team for qualifying but Richards and Adams were hurt. Then they got better, but Reyna and Pulisic got hurt and Richards got better but then got hurt again. Brooks got even slower. Pepi began actually playing in professional matches and Wright suddenly figured how to score after dreadful years in Germany and the Netherlands. By the time qualifying was over our two preferred CBs were out, Reyna, Pulisic, Adams, Weah, and McKennie had missed portions of the season with injury. Bottom line is you can’t plan two years out because you can’t plan a month out.
what on earth are you talking about? half the point is the fall 2021 qualifying backline had little to do with the summer 2021 NL list (ream brooks miazga). you mention richards. you forget richards didn’t play that summer?
and you’re ignoring my stylistic point. the US goes end to end and has fun at NL — typically. the US then has a “keepaway by the flag” stick up its _________ when it plays with money on the table.
and your argument is bull. you can “plan” some for succession/contingency. it’s called “don’t play the same people over and over.” yeah, if you lean heavy on adams turner pulisic all the time we’re messed without them. so, maybe don’t.
Not a new problem.
This has been a frequently discussed topic in all of our soccermedia outlets for about 20-30 years or more.
The USMNT spends most of its competitive practice and game time prepping for and dealing with their CONCACAF partners.
The various USMNT managers have had difficulty transitioning the team to then face stronger more talented teams in other competitions like the World Cup. And the Nation’s League, which limits the flexibility of the USMNT ‘s schedule exacerbates the problem.
It is easy to turn on the style when you KNOW that the other less fit team is going to start to run out of gas in the second half at some point.
Copa America helps greatly with this by putting the USMNT on a two year cycle like most of the big boys (WC/Euro/WC/Euro) or Copa instead of Euro.
The USMNT has the normal four year WC cycle. The Gold Cup cannot compare to the Euros or Copa America in terms of quality of the teams.
This seems to help those 2 year cycle teams stay “fresh”.
It would be helpful if Copa America became a more normal event for the USMNT.
i see someone actually gets it! to me they should be using NL to test under fire some guys who could add to the copa team. it is arrogant if we literally call the same people up in march and june. we are not running the table on everyone. the folks excited about copa and talking up usual suspects are usually also already lowering expectations how well it can go. which strikes me as an ugly contradiction. we should be shooting for nothing less than first and trying some new ideas to get there.
to me we have bought into system snake oil. at minimum this system isn’t getting it done. a key problem with the US is precisely right now when we get competitive for regional dominance we take our foot off the gas and get status-quo passive about messing with style and personnel.
put differently — you keep the same team and style went out round of 16 — that’s about what will happen over and over. maybe make it one more round with the right draw.
if you can’t beat germany or the like then this project isn’t close to over where we can sit on our laurels. we trying to win region or we trying to win the world, folks?
arrogant as heck they are. either that or the opposite, like they have already conceded the copa.
“we trying to win region or we trying to win the world, folks?”
You have to make a choice.
And right now the USMNT is a CONCACAF team. We are a cream of the crop CONCACAF team and that’s great but we have been there done that for a very long time. It is not progress and it is not good enough.
Things will get better for everyone in CONCACAF over time but right now Nations League commits the USMNT to even more games against sub par opposition. This gives the team a false sense of its abilities.
Now that we are getting more players whose clubs play in tougher competitions like the Champions League things are better but it is not good enough. This has to be a team thing.
Post Qatar, this team remains an untested mystery . As I wrote before Qatar they could do well in Copa or they could be humiliated. Neither outcome would surprise me.
Gregg continues to lead a charmed life in that he does just enough to squeak by and always has something or someone else to blame for his failures And you an see that in the excuses cited by his many defenders.
The USMNT manager is supposed to overcome those obstacles not use them as a excuse to skate by.
my deal is if you have won a tournament twice in a row already maybe act like you have and use the opportunity more aggressively.
that and priorities. to me the goal is win the world cup, or at least make a record showing. you make that bigger goal harder if you get to most of the windows we will have this year — march and june — and turn highly conservative on personnel and system despite middling results, win some, lose some. it is “a way” of approaching regional tournaments. it is safe. i am sure they hope it repeats results and pads their resume.
but if the net effect is you convince yourself of a system and lineup that don’t work up a level or two at copa or the world cup, so what? i can see already roughly the lineup we will try and it’s not been that successful outside of a regional setting, or even on the road in the region. ok, do something else. spend NL at least and maybe the copa too, trying something.
to me i think we have too short term an attitude and the thing is in other cycles you can justify it a little by the “seeding” concern. i still think seeding aside your best chance is show up with your best unit playing your best soccer. but we don’t even have to worry about FIFA rank this time. we’re host. so spend the time sorting out a winner. surely they get this isn’t a winner yet, or do we take NL so seriously we’re confused by that?
Demarai Gray now plays for Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq.
Gray is 27. He probably has a pretty clear idea of where his ceiling is at this point.
I assume this is a big payday for him?
Capology says 5 million a year which isn’t crazy money but they probably provide him with house and car(s) as well. That’s about triple what he was supposedly making last year. Larry had stated he was a European player so I was just pointing out he moved to Saudi. I wouldn’t think that’s too far off what an MLS team would have paid him.
JR,
I don’t know this Gary person but beyond straight salary moves like this are often sold as an opportunity to expand your personal revenue stream once playing days are over.