It’s been confirmed that a version of the Copa America will return to the US in 2024. The team is going to feature 10 Conmebol teams and 6 Concacaf teams. Of course, the USA, Canada and Mexico who will host the World Cup in 2026 will be part of the tournament. This is great news for the USMNT because it provides the team with the competitive environment that they will most likely lack from now until 2026. Due to the fact that the team will automatically qualify for its home World Cup.
With all of this in mind it’s becoming increasingly urgent for the USMNT to resolve the ongoing off the field issues between head coach Gregg Berhalter and Gio Reyna. At this point a quick solution may even be more important than a fair one! Even though there are 3 and a half years to go from now until the next World Cup this 2024 tournament is really going to be the measuring stick that allows the USMNT to get a sense for what their chances might be in 2026. While also giving the team a perfect blueprint of what they may need to improve upon for the next 2 years. Hence, the hurry to deal with the off the field issues.
The Last Copa America In The US Was Embarrassing
The performance of the USMNT in the last Copa America that they hosted was essentially masked by the fact that they made it to the third place game. Also, Mexico was completely destroyed by Chile 7-0. So the USMNT’s 4-0 loss to Argentina didn’t look so bad. In reality that game looked like this tune up match in the preseason where a top flight club plays a club in the lower leagues. The USMNT essentially lost all of their games against relevant opponents, Argentina and Colombia. Looking back it should’ve caused some concerns within US soccer. About a year later this same team would fail to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.
Virtually no player from that 2016 team will be present in 2024. This is supposed to be a golden generation for the USMNT. It’s in 2024 when they get to face their first major test with most of this young core moving into their primes. The last thing that you want is to see a team that’s miles away from the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia. Judging from the last truly competitive outing that the team had, (its loss to the Netherlands in the World Cup) this should be a real concern.
Can The Team Afford To Dismiss Both Reyna & Berhalter?
The easiest way to clean up the mess that has been made due to the Berhalter-Reyna situation is to go ahead and dismiss them both. There’s been a lot of debate over who is more valuable to the team. We’ve never been fans of Gregg Berhalter on this site, and truly believe that plenty of coaches can provide his level of input to the team. In the same breath though, it does seem that Reyna is more at fault for the off the field mess. Maybe it’s not Gio’s fault directly, but US Soccer would do well to file a restraining order from Claudio and his wife.
Whatever route the team decides to take it’s vital that they don’t drag the situation into 2024. That may seem like far off, but with the way that these things tend to play out it’s very likely that this will be the case. If there is no come together moment between Berhalter and the Reyna’s it may just be best to remove both parties from the equation and move forward. Even if that wouldn’t necessarily be the “fair” thing to do.
