US soccer is in a bad place right now, less than two years out from its showpiece World Cup | OneFootball

Disastrous summer for the USMNT and US Olympics MNT leaves US soccer with work to do before the World Cup

This should’ve been the second phase. After the successful acquisition of Lionel Messi last summer, Major League Soccer signalled its intent to accelerate the development of soccer in the USA, improving the standard of a league that would provide a springboard for the US Men’s National Team to develop ahead of the 2026 World Cup that it will be hosting, alongside Canada and Mexico.

And yet, here we are in a summer in which both the USMNT and the US Olympic squad have exited major international tournaments with a whimper. The USMNT, hosting the 2024 Copa America, crashed out at the group stage following terminal defeats to Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay and old enemies Panama, who qualified for the 2018 World Cup at the expense of a beleaguered US team back in October 2017.

Whilst it was expected that Uruguay would be too much for the current iteration of Gregg Berhalter’s side, the Panama defeat, after Folarin Balogun had given the US an early lead, showed the vulnerabilities that still exist in a squad with extensive European experience. Whilst the likes of Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Weston McKennie ply their trade in the upper echelons of European football, coach Berhalter was has thus far been unable to mould what is on paper a talented group of players into a team that competes in the latter stages of major international competitions.

So what does the US have to do to continue to grow ahead of what will be their first World Cup on home soil for 32 years? Little can be read into the performance of the US Men’s Olympic team, an extremely young squad that struggled against teams with more experience, finally being put out of its misery by a Morocco side that has made the semi-finals. As for the MNT, Berhalter was swiftly relieved of his duties following the Copa America disappointment, with an extensive managerial search for his replacement already underway.

Pellegrino Matarazzo, the New Jersey native and coach of Bundesliga outfit Hoffenheim, is a natural candidate given his profile as the only American coach in Europe’s top five leagues, but the former Stuttgart man has re-affirmed his commitment to the German club’s project, leaving US Soccer to ponder other options.

Whether it’s a leading MLS coach such as Pat Noonan of FC Cincinnati or Jim Curtin of the Philadelphia Union , or indeed a coach of international renown who ends up getting the job, the mission is clear: Harness the considerable talents of a group that has so far underachieved to ensure that the world knows what Team USA can do in two years time.

Get Football | Jack McArdle