U.S. males’s nationwide crew head coach Gregg Berhalter believes he’s nonetheless the appropriate individual to steer the squad after their shock group stage exit from the Copa America, which was sealed with a 1-0 loss to Uruguay on Monday. It marked the second lack of the group stage for the USMNT, who completed in third place with three factors. Uruguay topped Group C with an ideal 9 factors out of 9, whereas Panama completed in second with six factors, three of which got here of their 2-1 win over the U.S. final Thursday.

The U.S.’ failure to reside as much as expectations means there’s renewed strain for U.S. Soccer to half methods with Berhalter and led to a point-blank query about whether or not he’s nonetheless the appropriate match for the job. The top coach supplied a easy response to the query in his post-match press convention: “Sure.”

Berhalter admitted that the crew underperformed significantly on the Copa America however chalked their early exit down to some moments slightly than an general situation with the crew’s gameplan. He singled out the Panama recreation as the place issues all began to show within the mistaken route for the USMNT. The crew went all the way down to 10 when Timothy Weah picked up a crimson card within the 18th minute and the defeat meant that the U.S. wanted to at the least match Panama’s outcome on Monday and had to take action towards the group’s prime crew in Uruguay.

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“Clearly, the loss towards Panama actually damage and I feel once you discuss being, eightieth minute, in place to get a draw and get one thing out of the sport, we did not get it,” he famous, time-stamping a degree shortly earlier than Panama scored the game-winner. “While you have a look at that second particularly, there’s some points there. I feel in that recreation specifically, a low block defending, wanted to enhance in that second.”

Berhalter, now in his fifth 12 months as the pinnacle coach, additionally steered the crew wanted to learn to handle massive tournaments higher. Many had circled the Group C finale towards Uruguay because the hardest match on the U.S.’ calendar, however it was clear that the hosts couldn’t reside as much as their potential even in statistical mismatches towards Panama and Bolivia.

“We will do a assessment of the entire event and see the place we fell quick,” Berhalter mentioned. “The margins are so small and there is little or no separating any of those groups and you must deal with each recreation as the identical. While you see the hassle tonight that we put in, it is unimaginable. The fellows did an ideal job. They labored extraordinarily exhausting, put in an ideal effort towards a extremely good crew however that must be the usual each time we step onto the sector. That must be the identical effort so we’ll have a look at every thing. I feel we’re not going to depart any stone unturned.”

Although this model of the USMNT continues to be pretty younger — simply three gamers on the roster are 30 and older — there may be little purpose to indicate they lack massive event expertise. A majority of the Copa America roster competed on the 2022 World Cup, a event wherein they launched themselves as a crew on the rise. A 12 months and a half faraway from Qatar, although, many will argue they haven’t progressed a lot since.

Berhalter, naturally, will not be in that camp.

“Defensively, we’re an excellent crew,” he mentioned. “Most video games, we have now larger anticipated objectives than the opponent. We create probabilities, we transfer the ball properly. To me, the entire thing is, you wish to maintain shifting the crew ahead and I really feel like we have now. You concentrate on the depth of the squad, the variety of gamers which have performed in video games, so there is definitely enchancment and we have to maintain going. For my part, it isn’t one thing you say, ‘Okay, this program’s doomed.’ It is not the case in any respect. It was a poor efficiency, we did not get the outcomes we anticipated and we have to get higher.”

Berhalter’s declare on anticipated objectives will not be precisely true — they’ve solely outpaced their opponents in half of the 14 video games they’ve performed since he returned to the job final September. The one Copa America match they added to that listing was their 2-0 win over Bolivia, however even then they had been wasteful and didn’t put some robust goalscoring probabilities behind the online.

The center-of-the-road efficiency displays poorly on the 2026 World Cup co-hosts, who hoped to make use of the Copa America as a measuring stick for his or her progress with the event on residence soil quickly approaching. As a substitute of sharpening their abilities towards the world’s prime groups, although, they as a substitute didn’t show their price towards a variety of opponents. There may be extra progress to make than that they had initially anticipated, bringing this system to a crossroads for the primary time in a very long time.

U.S. Soccer’s assertion teased as a lot, with the federation saying post-match that “our event efficiency fell in need of our expectations. We should do higher. We shall be conducting a complete assessment of our efficiency in Copa America and the way greatest to enhance the crew and outcomes as we glance in the direction of the 2026 World Cup.”

Although Berhalter made his case, he is simply as practical as anybody else that the choice doesn’t relaxation in his fingers.

“That is lower than me,” he admitted.