'The USMNT will be feared' - New U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker on coaching search, Jesse Marsch, Gregg Berhalter and more

While many of the reported candidates for the sporting director job come from the American soccer ecosystem, U.S. Soccer ultimately went with a relative outsider in Crocker, who joined after two stints with Southampton and one in charge of England's player development.

Cindy Parlow-Cone, U.S. Soccer's president, revealed that the hiring process came down to three candidates. U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson went on to further detail the hiring process, which included domestic and international candidates from the very start.

"We were incredibly focused at the beginning of ensuring we had the widest possible pool of candidates of men and women from all sorts of different backgrounds, nationalities and soccer backgrounds to make sure that we were approaching this in a in a way that led us to the best possible outcome," Batson said. "All through the process, we were very intentional about that in each step. As Cindy mentioned, we had a diverse pool the entire time and that's something that I'm excited about and excited about what that means for the future of soccer in this country.

"I think the interest level from candidates all around the world was exciting and the knowledge base about American soccer from candidates outside the United States was was impressive and was a sign of how far soccer has come on the global stage American soccer in three. The diverse talent pool that we saw at home gives us a real excitement around what the future looks like."

One massive chunk of Crocker's job will be guiding the U.S. men's national team on their road to the 2026 World Cup, which is now just three years away.

The opportunity to lead a team to a World Cup on home soil was what many saw as one of the selling points of the job, with the USMNT program something of a blank canvas structurally centered around a talented group of young players.

Crocker, whose background is primarily in youth development, was drawn to the idea of helping take that team to the next level, both through guiding the current generation via a new head coaching hire and by helping build on the youth development infrastructure in the U.S.

"Straight away you can now see a dynamic, forward-thinking team but also a team that has got the ability technically to deal with with those pressure moments," he said of the USMNT. "Hopefully now leading into 2026, the team has had some great experiences and psychologically will be better prepared going into 2026.

"We are going to be a nation that is going to be feared and a nation that wants to move forward into a home tournament that we can really attack and, obviously, the fans, the community have got a great part of play by being our 12th player behind the scenes. To have the opportunity to do that on home soil is really, really exciting."

Crocker's first big challenge will be hiring the next USMNT head coach, a process which he called an "honor" several times in his press conference.

It is one of the responsibilities he will be tasked with before officially starting in the role in August and, perhaps, the most important decision he'll make throughout his tenure.

When asked what he was looking for in a head coach, Crocker repeatedly fell back to one word: leader. He said that he wasn't necessarily looking for a coach hailed as a tactical genius, given the time restrictions of the international game, but he was looking for someone to truly lead the program as a figurehead in all aspects of the game.

"We want to get a head coach and the right head coach to lead the program in place as soon as possible," Crocker said, "but what we don't want to do is to rush in and make the wrong appointments. There's a couple of key factors that I believe are going to be really important going forward. So first of all, the behaviors of the coach in terms of, I guess what I see from the current team is an aggressive, forward-thinking and a fearless team that went to the World Cup and and did some great stuff. I'm really, really keen to make sure that we find a coach that can replicate and continue to drive forward some of those behaviors in terms of creating that aggressive, forward-thinking team.

"Secondly, the style of play is going to be really important. Clearly there's there's been some great foundations put in place by Gregg [Berhalter] and by Anthony [Hudson] around the style of play and we want to continue to evolve that style of play, so to bring a coach in that can deliver that is also going to be fundamental to the process.

"The third and for me, the most important thing is around leadership. We need the right leader. We need the right head coach to come in and give the players ownership and responsibility to build a really, really strong culture or to continue to develop that really, really strong culture. Coaching internationally, it's very, very different to work in every day, on the field, with a club team, and some of the unique skillsets around being able to contribute to other things supporting players when they're in their clubs, building those strong club relationships, MLS relationships etc. Making sure things like collaboration and cooperation around player releases are going to be a fundamental part of the role going forward as well."

Crocker went on to add that he would be looking at the above factors first and foremost, not necessarily whether the coach is American or has experience in the American soccer system.

"They are the most important factors irrespective of where somebody is born," he said.

Jesse Marsch has been one candidate linked with the job, with many seeing him as the favorite. Having recently been dismissed by Leeds, the American coach is currently unemployed, having turned down job offers from Leicester and Southampton in recent weeks.

Crocker, coincidentally, was part of the Southampton braintrust that interviewed Marsch, meaning there is some familiarity there between the coach and his potential new boss.

Gregg Berhalter, who led the USMNT through the 2022 World Cup cycle, is also among the possible candidates, with U.S. Soccer refusing to rule out the possibility of bringing the coach back for another cycle. While it appears unlikely, given the controversies post-World Cup, he does remain an option, with Crocker praising the work he did in building a positive culture.

Crocker, however, was unwilling to comment on specific candidates as he looks to cast a wide net for his coaching search.

"My biggest focus right now is not thinking about any individuals," he said. "It's about thinking about the behaviors that we need, the style of play that we want to promote going forward, the type of leader that we want to bring in, and then obviously, that legacy piece that we that we want to instill and have the opportunity to grow into 2026.

"It would be unprofessional of me right now to talk about individual names. Gregg has done a fantastic job and I intend to follow up with a number of candidates, both internally within the organization and externally, to begin to understand more and to assess my learning. I'll be doing that as quickly as I possibly can."

Crocker will also be stepping in to aid the USWNT ahead of the World Cup, although he is eager to avoid overstepping into a program that already has a defined, successful way of doing things.

Crocker will work alongside USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf and head coach Vlatko Andonovski leading up to the World Cup, even if he won't change much as the program prepares for the summer. After that, though, Crocker will get a chance to perhaps reassess some aspects of player development as he looks to keep the USWNT on its perch atop the women's game.

The U.S. women's national team is searching for its third consecutive Women's World Cup title, but it has serious challengers. There are more professional leagues across Europe and the world now, players are fitter and stronger because they get to train every day in a professional environment and they're more tactically aware.

"That chasing pack is right on our heels and it's really, really important that I work with Kate and Vlatko and all of the staff to make sure that we continue to identify what our competitive advantages are and we continue to focus on those things to keep us ahead of that chasing pack," Crocker said.

He added: "It would be wrong and silly of me to come in and think that I've got all the answers. I haven't. I've already got in place some great staff and also a women's program that, as I mentioned has been world's No. 1, and what I want to make sure that I do is to continue to challenge and support that program.

"For me to do that, I need to, first of all, get in, spend some time with the staff, spend some time with the team, spend some time in and around the environment, listen and learn and then, hopefully, when there's the right opportunities, add those little bits of value that hopefully I've gained from my experiences of 25 years in professional soccer."

While Crocker is something of an outsider compared to many of the other rumored candidates, he does have some experience in American soccer.

"My history with the U.S. goes back a long way," he said.

Crocker, who will move to Chicago as part of his new role, revealed that his first coaching experiences came in the U.S., with the new sporting director beginning his career by coaching in Little Rock, Arkansas, and with the Lewisburg Legends U12 boys and girls teams in Kansas City.

Since then, he's followed American soccer closely, despite holding prominent roles in England. It was during Crocker's tenure that England's U17s won the 2017 World Cup, defeating the U.S. in the quarter-final round on their way to the trophy. That U.S. team featured the likes of Sergino Dest, Tim Weah and Josh Sargent, all of whom played big parts at the 2022 World Cup with the senior team.

"The U.S. has has always been a passion of mine," he said, "and I've always followed the soccer. To see the developments in MLS to see, obviously, the new teams coming in as franchises, the development of stadia, the MLS NEXT programs, the academy developments, I've seen that from a distance.

"I've also been close enough firsthand when I worked at the English FA to play both the boys and the girls side with the U.S. national teams and to see the development. In particular, that 2000 age group that we played in the World Cup, the U-17 level, had some outstanding talent and obviously many of those players have now gone on to to make that jump through into the seniors.

"I've watched it from afar. Clearly, I've got a lot to learn both in the men's and the women's game, but to have the opportunity already to hit the ground running, I've already met Kate and I'm expecting to do the same very soon with Vlatko, I had some time with Stuart [Sharp] from the extended national teams, so yeah, I'm really excited, but I'm under no illusions of what I need to learn. I need to learn quickly but the joy is there's some great people already in US Soccer with those experiences that I can tap into from day one."