As Gregg Berhalter reached the airport on Wednesday, a day after a 10-hour interview in an undisclosed location with U.S. Soccer leadership, he got a call from sporting director Matt Crocker.
“You’re the guy,” Crocker told him.
The decision sealed a months-long process and worldwide search in which Crocker evaluated more than 10 candidates for the U.S. men’s national team coaching job and eventually narrowed the process down to a few finalists. Ultimately he landed on Berhalter, who had led the U.S. through its previous World Cup cycle, but had also navigated off-field issues since the team returned from Qatar, most notably an independent investigation into a physical abuse incident 30 years prior involving he and his now-wife, Rosalind Berhalter, when the two were freshmen at the University of North Carolina.
In March, the independent investigation cleared Berhalter to work for the federation again, but there was no guarantee he would get that opportunity. After the long interview on Tuesday and a follow-up with Crocker and Cindy Parlow Cone on Wednesday morning, Berhalter headed to the airport to go home.
Then Crocker called.
“It was a great feeling,” Berhalter said Friday in the press conference announcing his return as manager. “You can imagine what the last…
