Now that the quiet interim space between Christmas and New Year has passed I suppose it's time for a hopeful look forward and quick look back.
First, though, I want to thank the readers of this fledgling newsletter, who’ve stuck with me through the curves of a strange year. When it started I was in Glasgow, when it ended I was in Galway. It began with the dust still settling on Doha, wove through a Spanish victory in Australia, and set upon an evolution toward something new.
Yet despite the surreal highs there’s been real lows, and several disappointments mixed in.
As we turn toward ‘24, I hope to bring you more stories from behind the scenes and on the road, as I did from the 2023 World Cup and various national team camps throughout the year.
I also plan to bring you a more regular schedule of posts to expect in your inbox, including:
One audio release per week
A weekly Wednesday newsletter surveying the previous and coming week in the US men’s and women’s soccerverse
At least 10 posts a month, at least 5 of them paywalled for the people that keep me afloat
This January in particular, I plan to tell a few unboxed stories. Some to do with soccer and some to do with journeys all their own: anecdotes from Orban’s Budapest, thoughts from Ireland’s west coast, unpublished outtakes from one-on-one chats I had with Alex Morgan, Auston Trusty, Ethan Horvath, Yunus Musah, and Matt Turner over the year(s).
But before we move forward, a quick look back:
The US Women’s National Team
2023 will go down as disappointment, though hopefully one that proves necessary in the end.
The warning signs- to the honest eye- took root a long way back, emerging as early as the last Olympics, or perhaps even earlier still.
All the same, the year began with a hopeful feeling. A three-peat World Cup victory? The first team to ever do it, on either the men’s or the women’s side? With Mallory Swanson in the form of her life and a strong team performance at the SheBelieves Cup, it felt for some moments like they could pull it off.
Personally, I’d imagined it possible. But I predicted they’d fall just short.
They fell enormously short. They lost to Sweden at the earliest stage in the tournament they’d ever gone out. Schadenfreude descended from various sides— within the country and without.
In the months that followed, it felt like time refused to move on. Lineups didn’t change. Rosters didn’t change. When they did change, the debut of new names came later on. The replacement of Vlatko Andonovski felt slow.
Then the news dropped in November: Emma Hayes would be the next manager of the USWNT. And with that (though her formal arrival waits for summer), hope began anew. Evolution moved faster. Legends retired. Fresh faces got their debut.
With the new year comes a new tournament (the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup, featuring teams from the Americas north and south), and an exciting test in Paris when the Olympics commence in July.
The US Men’s National Team
On the men’s side, 2023 began in the gossip-ridden aftermath of the Qatar World Cup (may Reynagate never rise again).
As the embers of a dramatic December settled on the new season, Gregg Berhalter made a twitter, made a statement, and underwent an investigation, while we operated reasonably well with an interim coach.
Reyna’s injury status obfuscation and playing time oscillation did little to quell debate, though he continued to score marvelous difference-makers in the minutes he did manage. After one such goal, he mimed that he could not hear us, and shut up.
In June, Berhalter came back (And Gio bleached his hair blond). The announcement came like a jolt of surprise that felt inevitable in retrospect. His reinstatement will have until this summer- when South America’s crown jewel of a tournament descends on the US- to test the ultimate merit of his return.
With BJ Callaghan still steering mere minutes after the Gregg announcement, the squad beat Mexico 3-0 in a Nations League semi-final thriller that featured a Christian Pulisic brace, a Ricardo Pepi goal, a brawl or two, a chant, and a few cards. That victorious hullabaloo in Vegas remains among the year’s top affairs.
They beat Canada a few days later to take the Nations League crown, with a newly committed Folarin Balogun scoring after Chris Richards had opened it up.
At times, last spring, it felt like everybody’s post-World Cup form was slumping. Tracking USMNT progress abroad began to feel like observing a torrid tumble down.
The Leeds USA project imploded in admittedly (for me) still entertaining form. Weston McKennie closed that chapter with a serenade from the Yorkshire lads calling him a fat bastard. Tyler Adams was injured and still hasn’t returned. And at the end of a season that began with the hopeful high of a Jesse Marsch Gronk spike while coaching a Premier League game that Brenden Aaronson scored in, Leeds was relegated from the top flight.
A bit further south, Christian Pulisic ended his Chelsea career by getting booed onto the pitch by his own fans.
But the summer was a time of rejuvenation. Multiple key players made advantageous moves across borders, to different teams. Weston McKennie returned to Juventus, and was voted their best player this season by Tuttosport. Christian Pulisic has thrived at AC Milan, ending December with six goals and four assists. In the Netherlands, Earnie Stewart has overseen a PSV rife with Americans - Dest, Tillman, Pepi- and it seems to be going rather well.
Of course, much else happened last year, both as individuals and as a collective. Christian Pulisic scored the goal of the year against Germany, before hopes of a statement win crumbled in the second half. Leonard Maloney and Kristoffer Lund committed to play for the USMNT.
2024 began with a pair of goals from Haji Wright and Josh Sargent. I’ll take it as a good omen. Though this year may likely bring as many curves as the last.
To the future, whatever it brings. Happy New Year everyone.