Here's some interesting comments on the next USMNT coach from Brad Freidel:
In his column for Daily Mail, legendary USMNT goalkeeper Brad Friedel wrote that he would prefer an American like Jesse Marsch to be next coach of the team over non-American coaches, even if they are Pep Guardiola or Zinedine Zidane.
“I am a firm believer that any sporting director, any general manager and any head coach should be American. I don't think it should be someone foreign, even though the best coaches in the world are foreign,” Friedel wrote.
“Our system of soccer in the United States is different, vastly different, and it takes the best of the best a minimum two years to learn the lay of the land here. Then they are going to want to instill their own differences to the system and we are supposed to be getting a team together to compete at a high level for 2026.”
“Pep is great, he is phenomenal, so is Zinedine Zidane. But the system over here, and I don't mean playing system, is different, and it has to be someone who knows it inside and out and can come in, make the team competitive and make the players he has available better.”
“I think Jesse is a really good coach. And there are a lot of really good coaches who don't make it through long term stays in the Premier League.”
Friedel spent 18 years playing in England for clubs such as Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Blackburn, and Aston Villa. He’s also spent time in Denmark and Turkey.
He played 82 games for the USMNT, including every game in the team’s famous quarterfinal run in the 2002 World Cup— earning a nickname “The Human Wall" after two heroic penalty saves against South Korea and Poland.
