{"id":814680,"date":"2026-07-20T18:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814680\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:25:09","slug":"u-s-soccer-sets-eyes-on-long-term-plan-for-federation-after-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/814680\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Soccer sets eyes on long-term plan for federation after World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The focus for U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson and his colleagues now that the World Cup has concluded \u201cpivots to what they can do to ensure this summer is the start of something momentous rather than a flash in the pan,\u201d according to Pardeep Cattry of CBSSPORTS.com. The USSF \u201claid out the bare bones of a long-term plan on Thursday,\u201d hoping to \u201cfill in the gaps somewhere along the way.\u201d Batson and COO Dan Helfrich have \u201cplenty on their plate,\u201d but perhaps most pressing is filling several roles, with the \u201cmost high-profile\u201d vacancies being sporting director and USMNT head coach. Batson said that the parties of USSF and USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino remain in \u201cactive discussions\u201d\u202fbut do not have a timeline set for the decision, though the \u201cpicture on sporting director is murkier.\u201d Cattry noted\u202fMatt Crocker departed the role in April<\/a>,\u202fand the job is \u201calmost by committee in the interim, though Helfrich technically has the final say.\u201d Batson previously said that the sporting director \u201cmay not have a traditional look in the future,\u201d while Helfrich suggested that the next set of people who join U.S. Soccer\u2019s sporting operation \u201cshould offer a wide variety of viewpoints.\u201d The federation \u201chopes to use\u201d the under-23 tournament at the 2028 L.A. Olympics \u201cas a key peg not only to grow the fanbase, but to accomplish its goals with the senior team\u201d (CBSSPORTS.com, 7\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n

TAKE SOME NOTES: In San Diego, Mark Zeigler noted Spain had a \u201croster worth a combined\u201d $1.4B, but it is \u201chow those players were developed and how they\u2019re deployed that defines La Roja.\u201d Maybe U.S. Soccer, in \u201cits eternal quest to become relevant in the men\u2019s World Cup, should be taking notes.\u201d Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has been with the federation since 2013, first as the under-19 national coach, then the U21s, then the U23 Olympic team. He won U19 and U21 European titles and finished second at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with the senior team \u201cfilled with his former youth players<\/a>.\u201d Zeigler noted Spanish kids \u201cstart young — often by age 5 or 6 — and focus on technical skills and relatively advanced tactical concepts over the physical attributes U.S. coaches covet in the obsession with winning and winning now.\u201d Zeigler: \u201cThe result is soccer players, not athletes who play soccer\u201d (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7\/18<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The focus for U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson and his colleagues now that the World Cup has concluded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82,32664,13009],"class_list":["post-814680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-ussf","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}