Is Steve Cherundolo a USMNT coaching candidate? Seriously?
Because if he is, we need to talk about that
Steve Cherundolo may have been one of the most underrated, under-appreciated U.S. internationals to date, part of three World Cup teams while stacking up 87 quality appearances. He’s certainly gotten his MLS coaching career up to speed quickly, with an MLS Cup trophy in just two full seasons in charge around LAFC.
He’s a lot of things, Cherundolo.
One thing he isn’t: the coach U.S. Soccer needs for its men’s national team.
It seems naive and perhaps bordering on foolish to even consider someone with so little high level experience, and no coaching experience at the full international level. And to be fair, we don’t know if U.S. Soccer technical director Matt Crocker is considering LAFC’s third-year manager. “Various media reports” don’t make it so.
This is certainly not personal. As a national writer for ESPN.com, SI.com and others, I always enjoyed talking to Cherundolo, who was thoughtful and insightful in answering questions. He was also someone who would make time for these things; Journalists appreciate that, and I certainly did.
This is about a relatively young coach who is still in the early days of his managerial journey, still learning on the job. It’s about a coach who hasn’t truly distinguished himself as someone for the job at, truly, the most critical time in program history: a talented generation of players about to enter their prime will fight for a World Cup on home soil in 2026. This is a generational opportunity for U.S. Soccer to make some serious noise and bully its way, at least temporarily, into the fraternity of perennial men’s world soccer powers.
Cherundolo has held two professional head coaching jobs. He spent one bedraggled season in charge of the USL’s Las Vegas Lights and … well, I’m not familiar with the organizational challenges he might have faced there, but suffice to say that a 6-23-3 record (W-L-T) and last place finish in the 15-team Western Conference is not the resume topper anybody wants.
Still, LAFC named him manager before the 2022 season, and he’s certainly done a swell job: MLS Cup title the first season, MLS Cup final appearance in Year 2. LAFC leads the West again this year, so let’s put our hands together and applaud a job well done.
But let’s also consider this: Cherundolo has had a wealth of talent at his disposal. Literally, some of the best players in the world; Giorgio Chiellini and Gareth Bale were big parts of the 2022 title run. Longtime France No. 1 Hugo Lloris guards goal for LAFC now, and Denis Bouanga remains an absolute goal scoring force. Abetted by the natural attraction of living large in glamorous L.A., club officials have done a great job of roster assembly.
And it shows. Because Cherundolo’s team was picked almost universally to finish Top 3 in the West. He absolutely deserves some credit for managing things so smoothly.
But that? That qualifies him to make a huge leap? To take the U.S. job at such a critical time?
His only international coaching experience: assistant coach for Germany’s U-15 national team. Assistant coach.
Cherundolo is 45 years old. Right now he’d be younger than Bob Bradley, Jurgen Klinsmann and Bruce Arena when they took charge.
Does he have the street cred to challenge the core group, to dislodge top players from some comfort zones they seem to have fallen into? They need to be challenged at every opportunity — and the guy doing the challenging had better have the juice to do it.
Perhaps in five years this could be a different conversation. But is U.S. Soccer really putting itself in position to fall in love during the interview process with someone who, at present, has three years experience as a head coach, someone who has never walked the sideline in charge of a national team?
That hardly looks smart to me.
I’m all for being bold in this critical choice — but let’s be smart about it, too.