Assistant to Gregg Berhalter elevated to interim role while U.S. Soccer conducts investigation and coaching search.
U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Earnie Stewart announced yesterday that Anthony Hudson will serve as head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team for its upcoming January training camp and friendlies in Southern California.
“In the attempt to have consistency moving forward, we made sure that Anthony is going to be the one to lead this group through the January camp,” Stewart said Wednesday. “With this group, we’re very confident and happy that this camp is just as good as any other camp that we’d have.”
Hudson has served as Gregg Berhalter’s assistant since 2021.
According to Stewart, the ongoing investigations into head coach Gregg Berhalter, and U.S. Soccer’s full review of the USMNT program since the close of the 2022 FIFA World Cup merits that Berhalter step aside temporarily while the team kicks off the 2026 cycle this month.
He was appointed head coach of the Colorado Rapids first-team in November 2017. He was terminated by Rapids’ Executive Vice President, Padraig Smith on May 1, 2019, after his team failed to win a game in league play.
Hudson went on to take over the reins of U.S. U-20 program in 2020. In 2021, he was promoted to Berhalter’s coaching staff.
When the 41-year-old Hudson took on the managerial duties of the U-20 team he had already put together an stellar 13-year coaching career. Prior to coaching the MLS Rapids side, he was the manager of Bahrain’s and New Zealand’s senior men’s national teams.
With New Zealand, Hudson became the youngest ever head coach at the FIFA Confederations Cup after leading the All Whites to the 2016 OFC Nations Cup.
In his role as the U-20 gaffer, Hudson oversaw all aspects of the U-20 MNT program and also managed the integration and programming of U-18 and U-19 MNTs in order to maximize the evaluation and movement of players between the age groups for training camps and matches during the World Cup cycle.
Three years ago this January, Hudson called up Colorado Rapids Homegrown Academy product Cole Bassett into his January U-20 evaluation and training camp. Bassett performed very well during his duration with the U-20’s.
A year later, Bassett made the senior team. During a friendly with Bosnia and Herzegova, Hudson, as Berhalter’s assistant, persuaded the head coach to sub-in Bassett for Jordan Morris.
Berhalter concurred with the proposed swap and the young Bassett when in late during the tug-of-war match. Bassett took full advantage of the opportunity and just ten minutes after entering the game he pounced on the ball that had just ricocheted off of the hands of Bosnia’s goalkeeper Bemin Dizdarevic. The charging Bassett promptly slapped the free ball into the back of the net to win the match for the United States
Later, kudos to were delivered to both Bassett and Hudson.
According to the U.S. Soccer website, as a player, Hudson came up through the academy of Premier League club West Ham United and played there as well as at Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen. In 2006, he started as a player-coach with the Wilmington Hammerheads in the former USL Second Division, launching his transition to the touchline. His first head coach position came with the Real Maryland Monarchs, also in the USL Second Division before he spent time as manager for the Tottenham Hotspur reserves and Newport County, a Welsh club in the fifth tier of English soccer.
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According to Stewart, the ongoing investigation and U.S. Soccer’s full review of the USMNT program since the close of the 2022 FIFA World Cup merits that Berhalter step aside temporarily while the team kicks off the 2026 cycle this month.
The USMNT is set to face off with FIFA ranked Serbia and Colombia in three weeks. They will face Serbia on Wednesday, January 25th at Banc of California Stadium in downtown Los Angeles, and Colombia on Saturday, January 28th at Dignity Health Sports Park in nearby Carson.
Berhalter’s contract expired on December 31.
It has been a practice of the organization to review the past cycle of the entire program following a World Cup when held during the summer season, and so, ahead of any year-end contract expiration.
Given the rare November-December tournament time frame of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it significantly reduced the amount of time needed for the Federation to conduct a proper assessment prior to the end of Berhalter’s review and contract extension negotiations, if any.
Concurrent with the on-going four-year program review, Berhalter is also involved in an investigated by the Federation that involves potential inappropriate behavior towards multiple members of the staff by individuals outside of the USMNT organization.
“We take such behavior seriously and have expanded our investigation to include those allegations,” was stated in a U.S. Soccer press release yesterday.
Upon learning of the allegation against U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Gregg Berhalter on December 11, 2022, U.S. Soccer brought in Alston & Bird LLP to conduct an independent investigation into these matters.
This investigation has much to do with the embarrassing fall-out that has resulted from match day coach’s decisions – in this case Berhalter’s reasoning not to use Giovanni Reyna in Qatar to the level that the youngster had expected, as well as his immediate family members.
This week it was also revealed that Berhalter is also under investigation by the Federation for a domestic violence incident that occurred with his now-wife, Rosalind, when they were college freshmen.
— Gregg Berhalter (@GreggBerhalter_) January 3, 2023
“It’s not a fun period,” Stewart said during a awkward conference call with a plethora of media representatives. Stewart was joined U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, and JT Batson, the federation’s CEO and secretary general.