For a year without a major tournament (put your hand down, Concacaf Gold Cup), 2023 was startlingly significant for the US men’s national team.
Consider the blurry picture 12 months ago: the team had no permanent head coach while Gregg Berhalter was being investigated by US Soccer over an assault allegation, his relationship with the sullen starlet Gio Reyna was broken, and the sporting director Earnie Stewart was poised to exit.
With those issues resolved, 2024 promises to be quieter off the field and much louder on it. The USMNT can look forward to a high-profile competition, the Copa América, which will be an important yardstick two years out from the next World Cup and a referendum on Berhalter’s leadership after he was surprisingly rehired last summer.
So what – other than, quite possibly, an order form for more pairs of recherché sneakers – is in Berhalter’s 2024 inbox as he marks five years since taking charge of his first match?
Youth development and the Olympics
A 25-man all-MLS roster is training in Orlando before a friendly against Slovenia in San Antonio on 20 January. As it’s outside a Fifa window, the January camp is traditionally a chance for US-based greenhorns to make their case. According to the federation, since 1999 30 players who have won their first or second caps in the USMNT’s opening camp of the year have progressed to a World Cup squad, including nine who went to Qatar in 2022.
Fifteen of this squad are in a senior camp for the first time and 13 are young enough to meet the eligibility requirement for France this summer, when the American men will take part in their first Olympics since 2008. The most experienced name on the roster, Miles Robinson, the 26-year-old center back who has just joined Cincinnati, is a candidate to fill one of the three over-23 spots.
With the Olympics in mind, Marko Mitrović, the US under-23 head coach, is on Berhalter’s staff for this camp. It’s logical to expect that any stand-outs in France will be rewarded with an extended look from Berhalter with a view to 2026.
Two exciting 20-year-old Californians, Chivas-bound Cade Cowell and the uncapped Diego Luna of Real Salt Lake, were named in the squad, though they’ll have to be brilliant to break into a first-choice squad already rich with winger-attacking midfielder types – Cowell ultimately was pulled from the squad in order to complete his move to Chivas. Midfielder Timmy Tillman of Los Angeles FC, the older brother of US international Malik Tillman, will hope to make his debut against Slovenia at Toyota Field, the bijou home of the USL’s San Antonio FC.
The busy 22-year-old midfielder Aidan Morris, who has four caps, was an integral part of the Columbus side that triumphed in last year’s MLS Cup, as was uncapped goalkeeper Patrick Schulte. With Inter Miami’s Drake Callender and Cincinnati’s Roman Celentano also on the roster, a goalkeeper is sure to make his debut against Slovenia. (Gaga Slonina, the 19-year-old on loan from Chelsea at Belgian club Eupen, isn’t in this squad.)
Win the Concacaf Nations League
A revved-up assembly of friendlies it may be, but the two-time defending champions will want to complete the hat-trick in Arlington, Texas, in March. The US face Jamaica in the semi-finals with Panama meeting Mexico. As well as a potential showdown with Mexico to quicken the pulse, the games (semi then final or third-place play-off) will be a handy warm-up for the weightier business of the Copa.
The US reached this stage with a 4-2 aggregate win over Trinidad & Tobago last November. A 3-0 first-leg victory in Austin was followed by a 2-1 away loss with a weird red-card worthy detonation from Sergiño Dest. It was a ragged way to conclude 2023, so the defender, and his teammates, will have extra incentive to impress against a Jamaica side with more talent than T&T.
Reach at least the semis in the Copa América
As co-hosts the US aren’t asked to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, making this 16-team tournament in June and July a precious source of highly-competitive fixtures in some of the stadiums that will host games two years later. With that in mind, these could well be the Americans’ most important and instructive matches between now and 2026.
In the group stage the US will face Bolivia (in Arlington again), Panama (Atlanta) and in-form Uruguay (Kansas City). Given home advantage, Berhalter’s team should take their first two games with the Uruguay clash deciding the group winners. A quarter-final would probably pit the US against either a dangerous Colombia team or Brazil (who’ve been tepid lately). The US can’t meet the favourites, Argentina, before the final.
A repeat of the Americans’ achievement in 2016, the previous time they entered and hosted the tournament, would be acceptable: reaching the last four. But a better performance against a top country would be important for a team and a coach who are yet to prove they can go toe-to-toe with the world’s best.
Jürgen Klinsmann’s side were humiliated 4-0 by Argentina in Houston eight years ago and failed to muster a shot. Not even an off-target attempt. That mediocre squad contained a 17-year-old Christian Pulisic but was largely comprised of players from MLS and non-elite European clubs. Berhalter has considerably more talent at his disposal, so an outcome that gives his critics an excuse to carp “worse than Klinsmann!” would not exactly be reputation-enhancing.
Prepare for the unexpected
Most players and positions in Berhalter’s ideal XI are settled, but this year he’ll look to establish a consistent center-back partnership (perplexingly, one prime candidate, Chris Richards, has lately played in midfield for Crystal Palace). He’ll also want to cement the identities of his preferred reserve full backs, with Dest enduring a 2023 of “learning experiences” and left back Antonee Robinson now so important that any absence would be a serious blow given the drop-off in quality between the Fulham man and his understudies.
Remember the rumblings before the 2022 World Cup about goalkeeper Matt Turner’s lack of playing time at Arsenal and how rustiness might stiffen his play? Turner was superb in Qatar. Then he moved to Nottingham Forest, was rewarded with regular Premier League starts, and … well. Gary Neville is not impressed. Turner’s national team berth is more secure but if he struggles in the Copa then seasoning potential heirs from the next generation becomes more urgent.
Meanwhile, Reyna underlined his value with some perky performances last autumn. With Tyler Adams possibly returning from injury next month, one of the most portentous tactical decisions facing Berhalter in the Copa (fitness permitting) will be whether to deploy Reyna as a roaming playmaker against high-calibre opponents or play it safer with a more defensive midfield configuration. Linchpin, or firework?
Reyna’s future at Borussia Dortmund, however, is in doubt, especially with Jadon Sancho returning to the club on loan. Might Reyna land in a new location that allows him to flourish as Pulisic and Weston McKennie have done in Italy? Or stay and stagnate on the sidelines? Berhalter is a diligent planner, but sometimes all a coach can do is cross his fingers and hope for the best.
