Revs assistant coach Dave Van den Bergh sees promising future for USMNT
BOSTON -- The United States men's national soccer team's run in the World Cup came to an end Saturday when the club fell to the Netherlands, 3-1, in the Round of 16. But there is a lot of promise surrounding their squad, which has many already thinking about four years from now.
The USMNT advanced out of Group Play for the first time since 2014, despite having the second-youngest roster of the 32 teams. Their experience in this year's World Cup should help them immensely when the 2026 World Cup arrives.
New England Revolution assistant coach Dave Van den Bergh is a native of Amsterdam, but he knows quite a bit about the US players. After a 16-year career in Europe and Major League Soccer, he was a USMNT youth coach from 2010-19. He was the man who recruited Sergio Dest to play for the USA, and saw a lot of promise from the men's squad throughout this year's World Cup action.
"I thought it was great with a young team. I think this sets up nicely for 2026 on home soil where all these guys are going to be in the prime of their careers," Van den Bergh told WBZ-TV's Mike Uva on Sunday night's Sports Final. "They're all playing in Europe now so they're going to get plenty more experience.
"I think you need to learn how to lose in order to be able to win. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I think it's good that they got this under their belts," he added. "They now know what is being asked of them at this level against the best of the best in the world. They'll take that in stride and four years from now use that to their advantage."
That young roster will no longer be young when 2026 rolls around, and Van den Bergh has seen a lot of talent in the pipeline. He didn't want to name any names and put any added pressure on young players, but he thinks big things are coming for the United States in the World Cup.
"I would think the guys that were here this time around are only going to get better. Four more years of experience and coming of age," he said. "A lot of these guys we saw are going to be in the sweet spot [of their careers]. Having seen what came through the youth pipeline in the last four years, I'm pretty confident we're going to find some more [Yunus] Musahs and [Giovanni] Reynas and the likes to come in and join this team and make it even better and more creative. I think the future looks very, very bright for us."
Check out Mike Uva's full chat with Dave Van den Bergh in the video above -- including his thoughts on Matt Turner's performance in net -- and tune in to WBZ-TV's Sports Final every Sunday night at 11:35 p.m.!