Jim Curtin wasn’t surprised by Gregg Berhalter’s firing, and still wants to help the USMNT some day

As a member of the soccer coaching fraternity, Union manager Jim Curtin would never be publicly happy about a colleague’s demise.

But like everyone else, he knew it was clearly time for Gregg Berhalter to go from the U.S. men’s national team.

“Anytime anybody loses their job it’s difficult,” Curtin said in his weekly news conference Thursday. “I know Gregg as a friend, I know B.J. Callaghan [Berhalter’s former assistant] as a friend and a former colleague. So I know how much they put into the job, the hours that they spend, the desire to win, to take a group forward. I know they gave everything for that cause.”

Curtin said he did not know any of what went on behind the scenes around Berhalter’s dismissal. Callaghan’s departure from the U.S. program came before then, as the former Union assistant and Ursinus product left to become the manager of MLS’ Nashville SC franchise.

“The reality is they made a change,” Curtin said. “It’s a hard thing when there is a change. And now there’s an opportunity going towards 2026 to make a decision — and it’s a really big decision.”

» READ MORE: Gregg Berhalter fired by U.S. Soccer after Copa América flop by men’s national team

Curtin knew his name would come up — and already has — in conversations about Berhalter’s successor. Curtin’s stock isn’t as high as it was a year ago when U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker had to decide whether to bring Berhalter back after the Reyna family scandal, but Curtin’s reputation as a people-manager is still high within the sport.

“My full focus right now is getting us out of the hole that we’ve dug, improving the Philadelphia Union, getting ourselves into the playoffs,” Curtin said. “Is it flattering to even have your name brought up like it was in the past? Absolutely. I’ve said it before, I’d be willing to do anything to try to help.”

That was a reference to Curtin’s remarks before last season that he would have left the Union for a U.S. assistant job, especially if the top gig went to his good friend Jesse Marsch. Crocker wanted to hire Marsch at one point but deferred to the vocal desire of a few top players to have Berhalter return.

Who knows how things would have turned out had Crocker stuck with Marsch. It certainly didn’t help the optics that while Berhalter’s U.S. team crashed out of the Copa América with a lack of intensity, Marsch took the Canada job in May and marshaled a gritty run to the semifinals.

» READ MORE: With Gregg Berhalter fired, who might be the next USMNT manager?

“There’s always going to be comparisons, but that’s the nature of our sport and how things go,” Curtin said. “Just feel bad for a colleague and a friend who I know wanted nothing but the best for the U.S.”

That opportunity is lost now, and Crocker must go find someone else. The biggest name on the board is former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, and Curtin hinted he’d like to see Klopp get the job. But hours after England’s Independent newspaper reported U.S. Soccer had reached out to the Germany native, the Athletic reported Klopp politely said no — coincidentally right as Curtin was talking.

“I’ve met Matt Crocker before. I know he is a very detail-oriented, process-oriented, smart guy,” Curtin said. “Hopefully [he] can hire a coach that can take this group that is a very talented group to the World Cup... and put on a team that performs really well and makes the country proud.”

Curtin knows his stock is down at the moment courtesy of the Union’s poor season. But if Crocker makes a foreign hire, Curtin would still make an ideal top deputy with American roots.

» READ MORE: B.J. Callaghan’s rise up the soccer coaching ranks has roots at Villanova

“Timing is everything in life,” he said. “I recognize that we’re not in our best run of form now. So I understand how different things will get considered.”

He also knows candidates from MLS for the U.S. job will be criticized by some fans for not being as high-profile as European managers.

“Timing is everything as well with the stigma of [MLS coaches],” Curtin said. “There [are] great candidates that are in MLS, however, people associated with our league right now, because of the past, maybe aren’t going to get the same consideration or get the same positivity around them moving forward. That doesn’t mean an MLS coach can’t go in there and do a great job, but the perception will be negative if that is where it lands.”

Beyond that, Curtin is just like most other watchers out there.

“If Jurgen Klopp is available to do it and wants to do it, you don’t need an interview process for that,” he said. “That’s the guy. But the reality is I don’t know how serious that is.”

As of now, it seems highly unlikely.

» READ MORE: Paxten Aaronson makes it three players with Union ties on the U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team

Striker Mikael Uhre will be back from a groin injury and midfielder Jesús Bueno will be back from an ankle injury for Saturday’s game at Toronto FC (7:30 p.m., Apple TV; all games league-wide are free this weekend).

Curtin said midfielder Alejandro Bedoya will be able to “play a little bit of a bigger role” than the 16 minutes he had as a late substitute in last Saturday’s scoreless tie with the New York Red Bulls.

Midfielder José Andrés Martínez is on the way back to town after a few days off following Venezuela’s Copa América quarterfinal run. Curtin said he “hopefully can make the trip” to Toronto and come off the bench.

The big question is, as usual, about goalkeeper Andre Blake. Curtin said Blake trained with the team Thursday, there would be a meeting later in the day and a final decision will be made following Friday’s practice. The team will leave for Toronto after that.

» READ MORE: Damion Lowe's return against the Red Bulls helped the Union get a brief respite from their storm of a season