The USMNT is in a “difficult spot” in Copa América facing group stage elimination tonight, marking a “failure that would increase calls by fans for a coaching change two years before the World Cup,” according to Steven Goff of the WASHINGTON POST. Coach Gregg Berhalter said, “Our knockout game actually came five days earlier. If we don’t put a good performance, [if] we don’t win the game, our Copa América is done. There’s not much else to say.” Failure to advance would “strike a considerable blow” to the U.S. program, which is “seeking to make strides as the 2026 World Cup approaches and grow public support for the team and the sport.” Berhalter and the team have “faced -- and conquered -- plenty of adversity over the past 19 months.” At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the team needed to defeat Iran in the group finale to reach the knockout stage and were successful. Uruguay, though, is the “best team the Americans will face in a do-or-die situation” since they lost to the Netherlands in the 2022 World Cup’s round of 16. Goff notes Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa will “not be on the sideline” in tonight’s game. Tournament organizers suspended him one game and fined the Uruguayan federation $15,000 because the team was “late returning to the field” after halftime of the Bolivia match (WASHINGTON POST, 7/1).
HIGH STAKES: In Philadelphia, Jonathan Tannenwald wrote there is “a lot of noise” and “real pressure” on a team “hyped as the most talented American men’s squad ever, and on the man in charge of it.” Tonight’s match marks the “biggest game since the 2022 World Cup and possibly the biggest before 2026.” Tannenwald: “Shouldn’t it be that way? The sport and the team are the most popular they’ve ever been, proved by Fox’s TV audiences for the two group games so far.” Berhalter said, “We know what representing our country brings, and we know that the public demands that we win games, and we take that responsibility very seriously.” Now the USMNT “have to deliver, plain and simple” -- even as they “know a win alone might not be enough to advance from the group stage, thanks to last Thursday’s ugly loss to Panama.” MF Christian Pulisic said, “We’re all extremely motivated, and want to put on a really strong performance, especially on home soil here in the U.S.” He added, “We want to show everyone that we’re here to compete with the best. And we want to continue in the tournament, because that’s just our competitive nature” (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRIER, 6/30).
HEAVY IS THE CROWN: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Beaton & Robinson wrote after the “shocking turn of events, attention immediately turned to the future of one person: Berhalter.” Even before this recent stretch, Berhalter’s tenure “wasn’t on solid ground.” While he “resuscitated” the team following the “embarrassment of being stuck at home” in 2018, it is “not quite good enough to secure” ground. The result is that coming into the Copa, Berhalter was “hardly assured of holding on to the job through the World Cup two years from now.” Exiting before the knockout rounds, despite being the highest ranked country in the group, could be the “doomsday scenario.” The “saving grace” for the U.S. ahead of its third game is that Uruguay, which has won its first two matches by a combined score of 8-0, “doesn’t necessarily need a victory and could rest some of its starters.” But everyone around the U.S. camp “knows that it never should have come to this.” The Copa was “supposed to be a launchpad, an opportunity for the team to test itself against world-class opposition.” Instead, this month has “turned into an exercise in avoiding embarrassment” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/30).
