After loss to Uruguay and exit from Copa América, how does the U.S. prepare for the 2026 World Cup?

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Nick Bromberg react to the US' 1-0 loss to Uruguay and failure to get out of Group C at Copa América. What does this mean for Gregg Berhalter's future and how will it affect preparations for the 2026 World Cup?

Video transcript

Team us A's run in Copa America comes to an end by way of a one nil loss to Uruguay.

Now, the question is, how did we get here and what comes next?

He's Nick Broberg.

I'm Jason Fitz with Yahoo Sports.

Nick.

Let's start with this game.

What went wrong for team USA simply put this another example of the United States men's national team not being creative enough in the final third.

They played hard, they started the game very, very well, but they did not produce the chances they need and the clear cut chances they needed to score a goal because they absolutely needed a goal to get a win before that offside call because of the way Panama and Bolivia turned out, everybody was screaming about officiating and there is an important conversation to have about the fact that frankly the officiating was horrid in this game.

But that is not the biggest reason that USA is in advance.

Absolutely.

The officiating was terrible, but that's a loser excuse at this point because the game is still 00.

If you believe that offside call was incorrect and the goal shouldn't have brought back 00 was not good enough at the time.

It was Panama and Bolivia were tied but Panama quickly took a 21 lead, then a 31 lead, the United States needed to win the game at that point.

And what did they need to do to win the game?

Score a goal?

They could not do that.

Let's be honest, this team did not meet the expectation.

This is a fail.

They didn't get out of a group that we thought they would get out.

Most people thought they would get out of.

So now what for the program overall?

That's the massive question.

And, and us soccer faces a huge decision here.

Do you keep Greg Balter for the 2026 World Cup or do you make a change?

There's not that much time, not that much opportunity to get high level games here.

This is the first time the United States has gone out in a major tournament on home soil in the group stage.

Think about that for a second.

This is a massive, massive failure.

But if Greg Balter is fired, who do you trust us soccer to bring in?

That is a better coach.

This is gonna be largely the same group of players going forward in 2026.

If the United States soccer makes the change, they have to find an upgrade, they have to make the right decision because this is something they cannot get wrong status quo is not good enough if you look at a dream scenario, of course, you know, they, a lot of United States fans saying, well, Jurgen Klopp's available, let's go get him.

Yeah, that's probably not gonna happen.

Gareth Southgate probably gonna be available after the Euros.

That's probably not gonna happen.

And have you seen the soccer that England plays under him?

It's very drab and boring.

That's not what the US needs.

They have attacking talent, they need somebody with a tactical mind to link these guys up because this is a team that absolutely should be making the quarterfinals of World Cup 2026.

This moment for this team is a fail.

A men's team is gonna have to figure out how to bounce back in a big, big way, moving forward for, not just for now, but also for the future of soccer.