“Soft & Stagnant”- Giving a Reality Check to Teammates, Antonee Robinson Discuss USMNT’s Downfall Under Gregg Berhalter

Antonee Robinson, an important member of the US Men’s National Team, discussed the situation of the team under coach Gregg Berhalter in a more resonant manner. During various interviews and after games, Robinson and several other key players have expressed frustrations about the stagnation within the USMNT squad and their tactical evolution and synergy as the main weaknesses causing their international loss.

Robinson’s statement leads us to the state of the USMNT as they aim to rebuild after a disappointing World Cup performance. “Well, thinking back to teams before us, the U.S. was always gritty, hard-working, horrible to play against, a battling team,” Robinson stated. “They had good players but, on the whole, as a team, there was a lot of fight in them. And when we first came together as a team, we definitely had that a lot.”

When Robinson talks of grit, he refers to the very foundation of past USMNT squads and squads that were notoriously hard to overcome, even without quite having over-the-top quality players. Although the 2022 World Cup in Qatar offered glimmers of hope, it did not end well, Robinson recalled. “I remember going into the World Cup, playing against England, and feeling that we can make it extremely difficult for teams.” That game, a hard-fought 0-0 draw, was one of the rare moments in the tournament where the USMNT lived up to its reputation as a team that could grind out results.

While they were good in the later stages of the tournament, it had lost its bite, Robinson said. “Towards the end, it felt kind of soft and stagnant. We didn’t have that bite.” That’s the “bite” that Robinson is talking about, which has, at times, made a good team great. But it was also the loss of that bite that set the stage ahead for missed opportunities.

USMNT’s tournament of missed opportunities

The World Cup was supposed to be the proving ground for the USMNT, where the next generation of American talent was anticipated to step forward and make America proud. It had a core group of players who played for top European clubs like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie. However, the results did not meet the hopes of the nation.

“We obviously wanted to push as far as we could in the tournament and try to win it,” Robinson said. “We didn’t even get the chance to get out of the group, which is a big, big letdown for us, especially us being the host nation.”

As the USMNT looks forward to the future, more specifically into the 2026 World Cup under Mauricio Pochettino, where they would be one of the hosts, these candid reflections from Robinson are like a wake-up call. The U.S. needs to get back its identity as a team that needs to dominate as a team. They need to find back this “bite” that Robinson believes was missing in recent times.