U.S. Soccer’s Gregg Berhalter on Rebuilding Trust in the Wake of Controversy

GREGG BERHALTER:

I think it’s sadness. Our entire family is saddened by these events. It’s something we want to move forward from. As we said in the statement, it was something that we didn’t hide from back then, and we weren’t prepared to hide from it now, and that’s why we issued this statement. Actually, the events of that night 31 years ago and the lessons learned from that basically set the foundation for our relationship moving forward. It’s a loving relationship, a devoted relationship, and we have four amazing kids to show for.

I think the worst part of it for me is my heart aches for my wife, because it was her story to tell, if she chose to or not. It just really, really saddens me. But it’s moving forward and that’s the way we have to look at it together as a family. The family’s been amazing and has taken it one day at a time and moving forward.

A big reason for doing this show is because I committed to doing it. We committed to doing this before all this stuff happened and I wasn’t going to back down from it, because I said I would do it.

ADI IGNATIUS:

I really appreciate that you’re doing that. I met Gregg actually at an event, a summit put on by The HOW Institute. It was at an event that you talked, an off-the-record event, where you didn’t throw any of your players under the bus, and we all walked away not even thinking about individual players or anything like that. I think this all got misreported, anyway, and suddenly your life is in a different place. Is there anything else you want to say about any of this? It doesn’t look like you’re giving a lot of interviews, but anything else you want to say just for the record at this point?

GREGG BERHALTER:

No, I appreciate you asking, but it pretty much speaks for itself, the statement speaks for itself. Like I said, we just take it one day at a time. Hopefully, we look forward to the day that we can move forward from this.

ADI IGNATIUS:

I did notice, U.S. Soccer have said they’re doing an investigation, they’ve named a temporary head coach for the U.S. team. Would you like to stay on as coach of the men’s team?

GREGG BERHALTER:

It’s a fantastic group of players, super high potential in this group, and we’re competing in the World Cup in North America in 2026. It would be an amazing challenge for this team. When we started in 2018, we wanted to change the way the world views American soccer. I think when you ask around the world now about our team, the world sees us in a completely different light. But now it’s about being able to take that next step and that next step is doing something that no U.S. team has ever done, and that’s get to the semi-finals and see what happens from there. There’s a lot of great challenges involved, and of course I’d like to continue in my role.

ADI IGNATIUS:

We all watched, and it was thrilling, and that was an incredible match against Iran and then heartbreak against the Netherlands. Are you happy with the U.S. team’s performance in the World Cup?

GREGG BERHALTER:

What I’d say is you very rarely go into an event like that, or anything, where there’s just complete alignment between the entities in your team. What I’m talking about is staff, players, organization — we were completely aligned with what we wanted to achieve, with our vision. That was a beautiful thing to watch, when I think about how focused the guys were, how determined they were, the staff, how hardworking the staff was and dedicated to making sure everything was right. There was meticulous planning that went into this month-long event.

Because of that, I think it was a big success. We didn’t trail in the group stage. We scored first in two of the games. We didn’t give up many chances. The whole thing was, I think, an eyeopener to the rest of the world of what the U.S. can do.

By the way, in those four games that we played, we played the four youngest lineups in the World Cup. Again, when I mention the potential of this group, it’s something that’s exciting for U.S. soccer fans. This was the first step for this group, in terms of what they can do in the future.

ADI IGNATIUS:

You just mentioned there was a lot of talk during the World Cup that this was a relatively young U.S. team. What does that mean as a coach, when you’ve got talent but it’s young and relatively inexperienced talent? What does that mean for you trying to lead this group?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Well, not all the time, but generally, experience plays a huge role, and you need guys that have been through it before, that know what this is about and know how to win these knockout games. Knockout games in the World Cup are very difficult.

On the same side, when you have a young team, you get a group of guys that are fearless. That’s what we were. I think we debuted 18 or 19 players in the World Cup, and these guys, they weren’t scared. That was the thing that struck me the most, is they played in big games before — they hadn’t played in a World Cup, but they played in big games and they were ready to go out there and apply everything that they’ve learned throughout their lives in soccer on the field, and they did a great job.

ADI IGNATIUS:

When you announce your starting lineup, 11 guys, you’ve got, what is it, 14 who are probably relatively unhappy in the locker room. How do you ensure that every player continues to buy into your vision and feels valued even when you’ve made a tough decision like this?

GREGG BERHALTER:

That’s a great point. One of my opening slides in the presentation to the group is on talent versus character. And what I said to the guys is, every one of you is going to be called on to help this team be successful at the World Cup. And there are going to be different ways that you’re called upon, but each and every one of you will be called upon.

And to me, it comes down to recognition, recognizing guys that aren’t playing starring roles and recognizing the little things they do. We had some tremendous examples of guys that didn’t play one minute in the tournament being some of the most impactful guys off the field. And that’s just a wonderful story. And when I talk about this alignment that we had, that the group had, that’s what I mean.

And so for us as coaches, it starts with communication, letting people know their roles. And this formula I like to use is happiness equals expectations over reality. So if you talk to people about what their role is and that’s what their role is, they’re going to be happy. It’s when that proportion or that ratio is out of whack where you get unhappiness.

ADI IGNATIUS:

As a coach, you’re always in the spotlight, and any sports fan thinks they know better than you. And if you lose people will call for your heads. Now you’ve got the added spotlight of this controversy swirling around. If you say you block it out, I’m not going to believe you. As a coach, as a person, how do you keep focus, keep doing what you’re doing when you just got a lot of noise around you and a lot of it is threatening and is angry. How do you do it?

GREGG BERHALTER:

I think it’s leading with values. If you’re comfortable with what you represent every single day and what you’re putting out every single day, the how of what you’re doing, then you can be comfortable.

And it’s not nice to hear negative comments about you. But when I took this job in 2018, December 2018, the first year, it affected me, and it hurt me. And then as you’re in the job, you realize that this is part of that spotlight. When you’re coaching the United States national team, it’s a huge spotlight and there’s a lot of people that love you and a lot of people that don’t love you. And that’s just part of it.

So what I’d say, Adi, and you’ve got to believe me here, is that it’s not nice, but you count on who you are, and you don’t let it get to you as much.

ADI IGNATIUS:

How would you characterize your own leadership style, coaching style, and to what extent has that evolved in the years that you’ve been a senior coach?

GREGG BERHALTER:

That’s a great question. And I think anyone who’s in a leadership position, you’re going to evolve and you keep improving and you’re going to keep trying to get better every day. But I think what I’ve learned from the start to where I am now is it’s about inclusion, it’s about communication, it’s about having clear values. I rely on the group around me. I rely on getting help. I think listening is very important. It’s getting feedback all the time. And I think when you lead like that, people have the feeling that they’re in it also. And that’s the type of environment that I want to create where people are pulling for each other, but they feel like their actions have a direct correlation to the team’s success.

ADI IGNATIUS:

This is a question from Alex in North Carolina who’s acknowledging that as a leader, as a coach, you need to gain the trust of your players. Given what has happened with the Reynas, how do you think about rebuilding the trust that you had when everyone’s sort of getting bombarded by media reports and whatever and trying to understand what’s up? What are your thoughts about preserving and rebuilding trust?

GREGG BERHALTER:

It is a great point. And trust is something that takes a long time to build but can go away really quickly. And what I would say is that you have to be consistent with who you are, and you have to have clear values. And if you are, people can see, they can see that and they can trust that consistency is there. But it certainly is something that we take very seriously, I take very seriously. My bond with the players is very strong and it’s about maintaining that bond. And I think that the players and the staff know who I am and know what I stand for.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Another related question, this is from Malcolm from Massachusetts. I asked how you block out the noise, but what are strategies you use to help your athletes quiet all the noise, the distraction, the media, the naysayers, the pressure? How do you help them at the kind of high level that your guys are playing at?

GREGG BERHALTER:

That’s a great question. I think the starting point is them not looking for validation on social media. And there’s this athlete syndrome where these high-level players, they grow up and they’re always told they’re great soccer players, they’re great soccer players, they’re great soccer players. And that’s what they keep hearing, hearing, hearing.

And what it does is it connects their identity to what they’re doing on the field. So if they don’t play a great game, they can perhaps think that now they’re less of a person because they didn’t play great. And what I try to tell them is, we value you for who you are as a person. And that’s the most important thing. We know you’re trying to play great and sometimes you may not play great.

For us, it’s how do we give them the confidence? How do we prepare them in the most thorough way that they can go out in the field and be confident in their performance? And so not getting validation from social media is number one.

And then preparing them in a way that they gain confidence from the preparation and then not attaching their performance to who they are as people. Because they’re wonderful people and I’m sure you saw examples of that during the World Cup. They just blew me away with their poise and with their consistency throughout the whole tournament.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Yeah, I mean, look, it was moving, I think in particular after the Iran game, seeing your guys hugging some of the Iran players who had just lost.

GREGG BERHALTER:

And that’s real, Adi. That’s who they are. These guys care so much and love each other so much. That’s literally who they are. And that action, when I think about before the game, the press conference and the way Tyler Adams handled the press conference, and then when I think about the lead up to the game, we’re in professional sports and it’s about winning and we desperately wanted to get to that next round, but it wasn’t about making enemies of Iran. It was about just saying, okay, here are two teams that are going to be competing. We want to compete to the best of our ability to win this game. And you saw that afterwards. We weren’t enemies with Iran. We had a lot of sympathy for what they were going through, and we showed that after the game.

ADI IGNATIUS:

As somebody watching on TV, it was really apparent. It was moving. You seem to represent a category of empathetic coaches that probably dominate the landscape of CEOs and coaches these days where there’s sort of more hugging than yelling. People in my generation sometimes fondly remember teachers, coaches, bosses who could be tough, really tough, but who at the end of the day taught us a lot. Is there still a place for that kind of leadership or would that just be rejected by, in your case, the players who look to you for leadership?

GREGG BERHALTER:

I’m not sure. I’m really not. I think there is a generational shift where the players need more communication, more information. There’s a general feeling of wanting to be tied into this common cause, this common goal, which is completely normal. And I think we’re at a great spot. I’d much rather be able to collaborate with the players than just stick to “staff here, players there.”

But it’s interesting. When I was a player, it was a good thing not to talk to the coach. If you weren’t talking to the coach, you were doing something right. And now, it’s completely different, but I like where it’s gone because I believe leaders have the responsibility to communicate. I think they have the responsibility to take feedback. And that’s, to me, the sign of good leadership. You’re able to listen and include people.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Your godfather is Carl Yastrzemski who was one of the great baseball stars in the U.S. in the 1960s and ’70s. I’m wondering if you ever had conversations with him about big-time sports, then versus now.

GREGG BERHALTER:

Yeah, I never talked to Yaz about that. But to me, he’s just a classic example of how hard work and discipline can get you good things. And that was Yaz. When you hear the stories of him growing up, it was hard work and discipline, and that led the way. And as a player, you don’t play for one team for that long if you’re not disciplined and hardworking and talented. So he was a great example to us as kids, of that, of what it took to really reach a high level.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Yeah. Well, I had a poster of Carl Yastrzemski above my bed as a little boy.

GREGG BERHALTER:

Which one was it? Was he batting or was he on first or in the outfit? What was it?

ADI IGNATIUS:

It was the classic batting.

GREGG BERHALTER:

Yeah.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Here’s another question. This is from Sebastian in Boston. How do you balance the internal competition for places in the lineup? Obviously, you have to get your guys competing against one another versus trying to create that positive overall culture that you talked about.

GREGG BERHALTER:

What we do is — and this can be in any walk of life or any business — is we want this competition to raise the level for everybody. We embrace that competition. We talk about it. We’re competing on the field, and we’re brothers off the field, and we want the guys that are competing against each other for a starting position to help them raise each other’s level, because that’s going to help the team be more successful.

Again, it comes back to just valuing people and valuing everyone in your organization for what they do and for their role and recognizing it. So if a guy is working extremely hard and competing with another player, and the other player gets a starting position in that game, we still want to acknowledge that player that competed really hard. And we want to tell him in front of the group, recognize him for what he’s been doing, but also privately say, “Listen, you’ve done a great job. You’ve helped raise the level of this whole team, and be patient. Your time is going to come.”

ADI IGNATIUS:

When you’re making player evaluations, are you mostly doing it just, “I see what I see,” you and your assistant coaches? Or to what extent do you look at analytics?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Analytics play a big role in what we do to support decisions. The “I” test is important, and we have a number of staff members to help out with that. But then there’s also analytics. We can create player profiles in each position, and then we can match that up with what they’re doing at their clubs and say, “Okay, who best fits what we want to do in our playing system? Who best fits that based on the data?” And then it’s about trying it and seeing if they do fit in, and then continue to work with it. But physical data is important, technical data is important, and we mix all of that to help us make informed decisions.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Here’s another question from the audience. This is from Jeff from San Antonio, Texas. And I think it’s both a general question but also specific in the context that you’re living in right now. What’s your advice or strategy for dealing with difficult conversations?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Great question. Don’t shy away from them. And I think that’s key. It’s about looking those difficult conversations in the face and going through with it and having them. Sometimes it’s really painful to have conversations, but you need to do that.

If a player’s not starting a game, the last thing a coach should do is shy away from telling him why and what he can do to get on the field, even though it’s a difficult conversation because you know the player’s going to be upset.

So for us, as a staff, we acknowledge that some conversations may be more difficult, but we do face them, and we do have those conversations because it’s important.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Do you wish you’d handled any of the conversations differently during the World Cup or since then? And I’m alluding to the controversy that you’re dealing with now. Do you have any regrets or wish you’d handled anything differently?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Well, I mean, it’s a good question, and we’re always looking to improve. We’re always reflecting and saying, “Okay, how do we get better? How do we improve?”

I guess when you referenced The HOW Institute and you referenced that talk, and although you said it wasn’t about a player, it was more about the team and their response, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have told that story. It just brought too much unwarranted attention to an overall shining example of team culture and teamwork. And so, that would be something that I would go back and change, for sure.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Even though, again, 200 of us in the room walked away without any feeling that you’d thrown anybody under the bus or anything like that. So I’ll just mention that.

In the business world, we talk all the time about failure being a teacher. Failure in competitive sports is losing, and that’s hard to swallow. But do you have a culture or an approach to having productive losses that teach you something going forward?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Absolutely, absolutely. And this is where the process comes into play. If you don’t have a process in professional sports, and you’re only worried about results or focused on results, I should say, then by that definition you can’t make any progress with a loss. But if you do have a process where it’s about learning, it’s about reflecting, it’s about improving, then you can take just as much from a loss, sometimes more, than you can from a win.

And so, for losses, the one thing I can’t stand is when after the game you’re eating, and everyone’s heads are down after a loss, and they’re not talking to each other. I say: “Guys, listen. The sun’s going to come up tomorrow, right? The sun is going to rise. And for us, it’s about how do we learn from this experience, and how do we use this experience to get better?”

And so, it’s wins and losses, it’s pretty much the same attitude. How do you get better from wins and losses? How do you evaluate what you’re doing and look to improve it?

ADI IGNATIUS:

You have experience both as a player and a coach in Europe and in the United States. Obviously, the games are different, or the settings are different, the cultural differences. And this may get at what the U.S. needs to do to get to that higher level: Any thoughts on relevant differences between the European game and the U.S. game, at this point?

GREGG BERHALTER:

Yeah. We’re getting there. If you think about the progress we’ve made over these last 25 years, I’m not sure there are many countries that have made that steep a progress over the last 25 years. So we’re getting there.

The next step is to become essential, to become an essential part of the American landscape. So soccer becomes essential where every kid that grows up wants to play soccer because he sees this pathway to a great profession. And in Europe you have that more.

When my kids were in Europe, I’ll use my son as an example, he’d walk to school, his buddies would be talking about soccer. During recess, they play soccer. After school, they walk home, they talk about soccer. At night, there’s a soccer game on TV. It’s all inclusive and it’s that essential part of the society that I really think is the difference maker.

But having said that, Major League Soccer, U.S. Soccer, has made a ton of progress over these last 25 years. And if we continue on this pathway, we will see the day when soccer’s essential to the American landscape.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Since we’re talking about the international landscape, I have to ask you your thoughts on Pelé who just passed away in recent days. You must have met him over the years. Any stories or thoughts about the great Pelé?

GREGG BERHALTER:

First of all, it was a sad day for soccer worldwide when Pelé passed. Amazing individual, amazing ambassador of the game. But not only that, a great player. I remember growing up and watching him at the Cosmo games.

We had a relationship. Our club team had a relationship with him, and they bought us over to Brazil. We went to his house in Brazil. And my WhatsApp picture, the profile picture is Pelé and me behind him at a press conference when they’re announcing that trip. So I must have been 12 or 13 years old. I remember specifically watching video, training videos of him and just being in awe and then seeing him on the field. And he was one of the greats, I think, in any sport. So the world will miss him for sure.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Thanks for that. Here’s a question from Joshua, from Lexington. And it’s an interesting question to me. When I talk to business leaders, they have their deputies and their staff often for years and sometimes — certainly in the old days — for an entire career. You have your players for a limited amount of time, sometimes a very short amount of time. How does that affect your leadership? How do you think about the transient nature of these relationships, which most of us don’t face?

GREGG BERHALTER:

It needs a little more work. There needs to be more communication because you don’t have them all the time. So there’s this time in between that you need to bridge. You don’t want communication to go away completely, and you need to keep up that communication. We’re watching the players all the time, so we get to see their games and give them feedback, and just keeping that communication going is important.

And then, to me, it’s just being very clear with the vision and always resetting the vision. So every time they come in camp, it’s like the first meeting is a refresher. Okay, here’s where we are, here’s what we’re focused on, here are the objectives of this camp, let’s go. Here’s our vision of what we want to do as a program, and let’s go.

And then, finally, from a teaching standpoint, just realizing that you have very limited time and it’s almost like you’re focused on the big picture. That’s the most important thing in each camp, is the big picture, and then some of the details you have to let go because you just don’t have the time.

ADI IGNATIUS:

We’re almost out of time, and I appreciate your being willing to talk about anything and everything. The last few days must have been tough for you. Again, it started with something reported that wasn’t meant to be reported, and it was mischaracterized anyway. And then a blackmail threat. I mean, none of us can really imagine what you’re going through right now, but that’s my last question: How are you coping with this specifically? How are you holding up, and how do you get through day by day?

GREGG BERHALTER:

I have a strong family and I have a very supportive family. And what I mentioned in the beginning is, again, to me, it’s about my wife. It’s about feeling for her because, again, it was her story. And I feel tremendously bad that my profession had to bring this to the public life. But having said that, we’re strong and we keep going. And that’s what it’s about for me now. It’s just how to move forward, keep moving forward and take it day by day. But it’s a strong family. We received a lot of support, a lot of great messages from people that have known our family for years and just keep going.

ADI IGNATIUS:

Greg, I want to thank you for doing this. It was really thrilling watching you lead that amazing team in the World Cup. The whole world was watching and was riding the roller coaster with you. I think you made America proud. Thank you for being on the show.

GREGG BERHALTER:

Thank you.