Earnie Stewart, Brian McBride leave US Soccer amid Berhalter drama

With the Gregg Berhalter scandal lurking as a backdrop, the United States Soccer Federation officially underwent some changes on Thursday. 

Sporting director Earnie Stewart plans to leave for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands, while United States men’s national team general manager Brian McBride “decided to move on” after three years — a move communicated prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to a U.S. Soccer release. 

Stewart will stay on until Feb. 15. McBride’s tenure will end Jan. 31. The decisions were independent, according to the release. ESPN and The Athletic, citing anonymous sources, reported Jan. 20 that the USMNT wouldn’t retain McBride. 

“When the opportunity arose to return to the Netherlands to pursue an exciting and challenging role that was near my family, I could not turn it down,” Stewart said in the U.S. Soccer statement. 

United States Soccer Federation CEO JT Batson said Thursday that Berhalter’s investigation had “no impact whatsoever” on these decisions, according to ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle. The Athletic reported that president Cindy Parlow Cone added that Berhalter “remains a candidate” to keep his position as head coach of the men’s national team. 

The U.S. Soccer release stated that the new sporting director will “oversee” the hiring of the USMNT’s head coach, a process that Parlow Cone wants completed by the end of the summer, according to Carlisle. Anthony Hudson has served as the interim head coach amid the Berhalter investigation, as Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022. 

The USMNT has been engulfed by drama following the conclusion of its run to the World Cup knockout stage, losing to the Netherlands in the Round of 16. Danielle Reyna, wife of former USMNT star Claudio Reyna and mother of current USMNT midfielder Gio Reyna, contacted Stewart on Dec. 11 about Berhalter kicking the coach’s now-wife Rosalind in the legs in 1991 while attending college. Danielle Reyna was roommates with Berhalter’s wife when the pair played women’s soccer at North Carolina. 

Her call followed Berhalter’s critical comments about Gio Reyna — though the current USMNT player was not specifically named in the statement — for “clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field.” Berhalter claimed that he was blackmailed throughout the World Cup for the domestic violence incident. 

In a statement to Fox Sports, Danielle Reyna said that she called Stewart because she was “outraged” and felt “very personally betrayed” by Berhalter following his comments about her son. 

“I told Earnie that I thought it was especially unfair that Gio, who had apologized for acting immaturely about his playing time, was still being dragged through the mud when Gregg had asked for and received forgiveness for doing something so much worse at the same age,” Danielle Reyna continued in her January statement. 

After the incident surfaced, U.S. Soccer announced Jan. 3 that it had begun an “independent investigation” into the allegation, where it had already uncovered “potential inappropriate behavior towards multiple members of our staff by individuals outside of our organization.” That followed a “full technical review” of the USMNT from the previous month, the release also revealed. 

Carlisle reported Thursday that the findings and results from that Berhalter investigation won’t be finalized for another two weeks. But with two executives now gone and an uncertain outlook for Berhalter as manager, it appears the USMNT’s reset has already begun.