U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker has stepped down from his role for a new opportunity in Saudi Arabia.
Crocker, 50, has left his current role and will take up a similar role with the Saudi Arabia Football Federation, U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday. Assistant sporting director Oguchi Onyewu, head of women’s development Tracey Kevins and USSF’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dan Helfrich will assume Crocker’s duties in the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The news comes after Saudi Arabia technical director Nasser Larguet has been linked with an exit from his role. Larguet has served in his role since 2002 and has helped Saudi Arabia begin planning for hosting the 2034 World Cup.
“Over the past several years, U.S. Soccer has grown significantly across every part of our sporting organization, and we thank Matt for the role he played in that progress,” said JT Batson, U.S. Soccer CEO and Secretary General. “Matt helped guide important steps across our sporting organization, and we’re grateful for his contributions. We’re confident in our strategy, leadership team, coaches, and technical staff. We will continue building the right structure for the future, and we’re well positioned to make the decisions needed in the short, medium, and long term.”
Crocker joined U.S. Soccer from then-English Premier League side Southampton after serving as the club’s technical director on two separate occasions. The Welsh-born Crocker also served in a same role within the English FA from 2013-20 before returning to Saints for the next three years.
Crocker was influential in several key decisions involving the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams during his time with the federation.
He rehired former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter after his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup. Berhalter was later fired after the 2024 Copa America, where the USMNT were eliminated in the group stage.
Crocker helped U.S. Soccer hire Mauricio Pochettino as USMNT head coach, a role that the Argentine has served in since September 2024. Pochettino has registered a 13-2-9 record in 24 matches across all competitions.
In addition, Crocker and U.S. Soccer’s front office hired Emma Hayes as USWNT head coach in November 2023. Hayes officially began in her role in May 2024 and led the USWNT to a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games that summer.
She has won 31 of her 36 matches in charge of the USWNT across all competitions.
“It has been a privilege to be part of U.S. Soccer during such an important period for the sport in this country,” said Crocker. “I’m grateful for the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with across the Federation, from our coaches and players to our technical and administrative staff. I’m proud of what’s been built together and confident the team in place will continue to move the game forward and drive success on and off the field.”
The USMNT will begin World Cup play on June 12 while the USWNT will begin their World Cup Qualifying schedule later this Fall at the CONCACAF W Championship.
the timing is noted Mr. Crocker…thank you
For me, I want someone dedicated to the cause vs. a mercenary who can flip whenever (have you all seen A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? lol), whether they are American of Welsh or British or Argentinian or whatever
Successes:
-Emma Hayes hiring and Olympic Gold
-Youth National Teams and identification- every international window now we have full camps for U17, U18, U19, U20, and U21 during college offseason both men and women have brought in college players for playing identification. It’s hard to say how much tournament success that will lead to because our best (and many countries best) are often not released for competitions like U20 WC or Olympics.
TBD: Poch
this is spin. the men are struggling. the women were top 4 already and should have been finalists even at their down ebb if they fixed the defense. androvski was inexplicable.
that leaves your age group thing. i looked it up. one college kid U20 camp. one college kid U19. no college kids were on the U20 world cup team. the vast majority of age group kids i see are from very safe selections from pro signed, II teams, or academy kids here or europe.
i think the back end of U20 is equivalent to top end college but the selection doesn’t reflect that. we continue to operate on the assumption MLS academy development is working awesome. reality says my MLS team’s academy can barely produce a first team player. it’s a few functioning academies. we used to have U20s as college all star teams. it’s swung over to pro kids. it probably needs to land more in the middle — based on how many kids with some college are in the pool later on. crocker didn’t really accomplish that.
you’re kind of trying to tell me it’s an open shop when it’s more closed than my day. the age groups will be academy kids, early signed pros home and abroad. the U20s called for tournaments will all be signed. it’s most definitely operating on the assumption some kid sitting in MLS is better than some kid scoring 15 goals in NCAA. even when stats tell us some percentage of that will prove the reverse. x% senior MNT will have gone through college and not made U20.
You want instant world dominance, we should be as good France because IV says so. Crocker made progress with youth teams, and player identification that’s a success.
-During previous regimes unless it was a Concacaf Tournament or WC these teams didn’t get together very often and if they did it was U17s, U20s, and U23s. 60-65 players total. Last window U21, U20, U19, u18, and U17s all met around 100 players. And not just let’s meet in Florida and scrimmage Jacksonville St, they’re traveling to Argentina, France, Spain, Mexico. Previously if you weren’t 20 in a U20 WC year you didn’t go to anything because there was no U19s or U18s. The US will always miss some kids in the cracks because the country is so large.
-most of the top players in college are foreign or came thru academies. When they didn’t get offered MLS Next Pro contracts they go to college. Go look at the Herman trophy nominees and top scorers. Top 10 goal scorers in NCAA last fall only 2 were American both came thru USL academies.
—————-
Answer me this why does no major manager play your style of soccer? Even Simeone abandoned your 4-4-2 defend deep in your end and counter. Japan abandoned their trapping at midfield style. Why? Because over the course of a tournament with 5 knockout rounds no one can absorb that pressure. France with the most talented roster in the world couldn’t win playing that way. So as soon as Crocker hired anyone besides your AAU coach you deemed it a failure.
———————
You must require Trump-like mental gymnastics to be a proponent of competition for spots but still cry about why we don’t have the old IMG where 20 players got to be the national team from age 17 to 20.
“ should have been finalists even at their down ebb if they fixed the defense. androvski was inexplicable.” They gave up 1g in New Zealand in four matches, yes Andonovski couldn’t get that defense right. They finished in the Rnd of 16 nowhere near the final. That after finishing 3rd at Tokyo Olympics. So sorry hiring Emma and winning the Olympics less than a year after crashing out in the WC is a success.
Some credit where due: he brought in Hayes who immediately turned the uswnt back into the best in the world. He landed Poch who is the biggest name the usmnt have ever had. Yes the jury is out on results for the men but that is on poch not crocker
Good riddance! Dude was corny and dead weight that needed to let go. He didn’t care about USA American soccer, especiallythe mens side. He is a money grabbing grifting 🤡 like Poch!
i don’t see how all these layers of bureaucracy are doing any good as process. we hire some mediocre sporting director from a team since demoted to the championship. we have to wait for him to get hired before we hire some mediocre GM sometimes with limited experience. we have to wait for him to get hired before we then hire some coach a top MLS team wouldn’t take.
this leadership group then as a matter of substance pimps some new, abstract idea of soccer that doesn’t fit the player pool as the “american way.” at the senior level they look like they haven’t played together before. the tactics are generally an anvil dragging us back instead of a catapult into higher competitiveness. we go in circles on selection because the tactics don’t work so we’re struggling with “is it the formation or is it this player.”
go back to basics. have the USSF president wave a check in front of an excellent coach with winning tactics that fit the pool. that is not this keepaway crap. more athletic, more physical, more transition and chance oriented, more fundamentally sound, less technical, less possession oriented. we do not have lionel messi and co. to pass teams to death.
and then this needs to get more pragmatic. what formations and approaches work. what players play well.
reduce bureaucracy. shorten hiring times. get the coach to the team faster. get more time with the team. hire better. hire proven winners. let them coach. make the players compete for roles. reduce entitlement. reward performance.
fundamentally this was just crap. you hire him. his team went so bad it’s demoted. he hires someone like mcbride, who is long gone and added little. mcbride spends most of a year waffling then brings back berhalter. berhalter then crashes and burns in tournaments. meanwhile that process consumes whole quarters of the cycle.
this is no way to run a railroad, and i think it’s a fair argument this hasn’t moved an inch since this time last cycle. so what is the point.
-McBride put in his resignation before Qatar and left in January 2023. Crocker didn’t begin working until April of 2023.
-McBride joined US Soccer as GM in 2020 and left in Jan 2023, he was not involved in the hiring of Berhalter either time.
——————-
If only these basic facts could be easily searchable on the Internet.
IV,
“this is no way to run a railroad”
The USSF is not a railroad. I disliked Crocker because I thought he grossly fucked up Gregg’s re-hiring and may have fatally hamstrung Gregg’s successor by waiting until Copa America was over to hand that shit sandwich to Pochettino. I think Pochettino underestimated how fucked up the team was but Poch’s hiring is a success regardless of how the WC turns out:
1) He has given MLS and recent MLS players more of a legit chance to prove their worth. Lalas will let you know how that turns out.
2) He has raised the profile and the bar of the previously lightly regarded USMNT manager’s job. Along with guys like Tuchel and Nagelsmann he has shown that maybe a national team job is not just for mercs, retirees, or ex-players looking for an entry level job with a profile. The fact that rumors about Pep maybe taking over as Poch’s successor are taken seriously in some quarters tells you that.
3) The team and it’s country club mentality needed to be taken down a peg or two and Pochettino did that. Whether anyone else could have done that is unknown and irrelevant. For better or worse, once that roster is turned in, this will be Pochettino’s team now. At this point, in term so of the manager, what matters more is the identity of his successor.
“the women were top 4 already and should have been finalists even at their down ebb if they fixed the defense. androvski was inexplicable”
Bullshit. IV, you should run for elective office, you’ll fit right in.
Vlatko Andonovski (often misspelled as Androvski) was hired as the manager of the USWNT on October 28, 2019, by then-U.S. Soccer President, noted blatant misogynist Carlos Cordeiro. The hiring process was led by USWNT General Manager Kate Markgraf, who conducted a search to identify a successor for Jill Ellis.
When Vlatko Andonovski resigned in August 2023 ( Crocker was hired April 2023), the USWNT was ranked No. 3 in the FIFA World Rankings. This drop to third place was a historic low for the program.
Historic
• This marked the first time the USWNT had ever fallen out of the top two spots since FIFA established the ranking system in 2003.
• The team surrendered the No. 1 spot for the first time since June 2017, ending a six-year reign at the top.
• The decline was a direct result of their Round of 16 exit at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, their earliest-ever elimination from the tournament.
• New Leaders: Sweden, who eliminated the U.S., took over the No. 1 spot, while tournament champions Spain rose to No. 2.
So if you are telling me that the USWNT was in a hppy place and okay, I don’t think so.
What has Hayes done?
Under Hayes, the USWNT has staged a major comeback, currently holding the No. 2 spot in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking as of April 2026.Since Hayes’s appointment in May 2024, the team’s ranking has seen significant volatility, reaching both historic lows and a dominant return to the top
• Back to No. 1 (August 2024): After falling to an all-time low of No. 5 in June 2024, Hayes led the team to Olympic Gold in Paris. This undefeated run catapulted them back to the No. 1 spot in August 2024.
• The team maintained its top ranking through December 2024, capping off a “turnaround” year under Hayes.
• Battling for the Summit (2025–2026): Throughout 2025, the U.S. and Spain frequently traded the top two spots. While Spain currently holds No. 1, the U.S. remains the highest-ranked team in CONCACAF.
If you think there is a better manager than Hayes going forward, who would that be?
Good Move for him and US Soccer.
Is Bruce going to be coming back to bail USSF out?