Because everyone in the USSF sucks at their jobs.Why haven’t they hired a coach yet?
I saw this report today. The journalist doesn't really ring a bell with me so I don't know about the historical quality of his sources. But if true, it's maddening.
WHAT ARE WE DOING. It's been over 13 months since Couva and it's beyond unacceptable for this still to be up in the air.According to sources with knowledge of the situation, U.S. Soccer hasn't made it clear that he is the No. 1 choice and there hasn't been much interaction between the two parties involved. Now, that's not to say that he isn't the favorite, but U.S. Soccer is certainly taking its time with what is arguably the most important coaching hire this federation has had in quite some time, especially considering the young talent in the bright future on paper.
It's one thing to debate whether or not Berhalter should be hired. But if the USSF really wants him, then at least freaking hire him so we can move on. But that isn't even settled? FFS. I can't really fathom how such dysfunction is possible.
Easily both. England is better than the US and it's not close, but at the same time we know what a spirited, greater-than-the-sum of its parts US team looks like even when they lose. Or at least, we have a hazy memory of what that was like. This game wasn't that.The thing I'm curious about is whether the disjointedness is mostly due to not having a coach with any sort of tactical plan, or if the US despite our soccer optimists still just doesn't have the horses to possess the ball in the face of a superior pressing opponent.
I'm reasonably optimistic about our young players, but we have a long way to go. The generation of players born in the late 80s are old and largely gone. The generation of players born in the early 90s is terrible. The generation of players born on the late 90s and 2000 is pretty solid, but it's just one slice of the overall player pool. The US isn't good enough to build a quality NT purely around a range of 4-5 birth years.
Regardless of our true talent better, we will look better when there is an actual tactical scheme that everybody has bought into. A big reason why it's been so long that the US has looked like less than the sum of its parts is that Klinsmann/Arena/Sarachan all were basically Harry Redknapp with less personality — throw a formation together, roll the ball out, and tell everyone to try hard.
I think the US was once the soccer equivalent of that really solid mid-major program that everyone had respect for. It isn't now, and it won't be until the late 90s generation grows into their primes and IF the early 2000s generation turns out to be decent as well.
The good news is that we're not going to lose many relevant players from the pool over the next eight years.