Last week, in response to word that the US Soccer Federation was interested in re-signing men’s head coach Gregg Berhalter following a run to the World Cup round of 16, the general world soccer media, and a lot of the sport’s more casual American fans, shrugged their respective shoulders and said, “Yeah, that makes sense.”
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Under Berhalter the US met their general goals in this World Cup cycle — despite an extreme youth movement, they both qualified for the competition and went unbeaten in group play to advance to the knockout rounds, where they lost to the Netherlands. They showed well against England, they’ve crafted a four-match unbeaten streak against Mexico, and when these things happen, you re-sign your coach. It’s the way things tend to work.
For hard-cores on Twitter and elsewhere, however, the response was apoplectic. “#BerhalterOut” began trending immediately, and even the most tepid acknowledgments of Berhalter’s accomplishments — or the idea that he isn’t the worst manager in the history of the sport — drew endless ire and a reliable list of anti-Berhalter talking points. Even for this social media veteran, one who has written about Berhalter’s flaws and mistakes plenty of times in recent years, the dichotomy was disorienting.
