Gregg Berhalter is back as the U.S. men’s national team head coach, and people are handling the news with calm, measured thoughts.
And why wouldn’t they? It’s been a completely normal process in which Berhalter’s contract ran out just as he became embroiled in a scandal sparked by his closest friends and a domestic violence incident in 1992. That was quickly followed by U.S. Soccer seeing its sporting director Earnie Stewart and USMNT general manager Brian McBride both depart, two interim coaches, and a new sporting director arriving amid all of that.
So obviously, it has not been normal at all. U.S. Soccer’s path back to Berhalter saw even his strongest backers take pause as the search dragged on through the winter and spring months. The USMNT player pool largely endorsed a return…except for some notable exceptions.
The rhetoric is heated up in the strangest way, just hours after the USMNT went out and clobbered Mexico in a way it arguably never has before. Here’s just a sample of the red-hot (or ice cold) reactions flying around online: