Anthony Hudson named USMNT interim manager for January training camp and games

Anthony Hudson will be the interim U.S. men’s soccer team manager for its January camp and games, the program announced Wednesday.

Hudson, 41, is a familiar face in U.S. national team circles. He was in charge of the U.S. under-20 men’s team in 2020 and ‘21 and this year was an assistant on Gregg Berhalter’s bench at the World Cup. Before joining the national team program, he managed the Colorado Rapids from 2017-19, and, before that, managed the men’s national teams of Bahrain and New Zealand.

He was born in Seattle but grew up in England, playing in the youth academy of the Premier League’s West Ham United. He played briefly in England and the Netherlands, then came back to the United States to play for a minor-league team here. After retiring from playing in 2008, he went into coaching, and has been on benches around the world ever since.

Berhalter’s contract with U.S. Soccer expired at the end of 2022. While the governing body has not yet ruled out bringing him back, the revelation on Tuesday of a domestic abuse incident in his past added to the existing uncertainty about his future.

» READ MORE: USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter discloses domestic violence incident from his past

“In the past, the customary review of the past four years of the entire program following a World Cup would begin in the summer, well ahead of any year-end contract expiration,” U.S. Soccer said in a statement. “The unique November-December timing of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar significantly reduced the amount of time that the Federation would have to conduct a proper assessment prior to the end of the head coach’s contract.”

In a news conference a few hours later, Stewart called the last four-and-a-half years -- encompassing everything since the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup — “successful.” He also said he didn’t want to rush the formal review.

“Making the right choice over a speedy choice is always going to be better in my mind,” he said. He added later that the investigation does not preclude him from interviewing other candidates.

U.S. Soccer president Cindy Cone notably said that the on-the-field review, not just the investigation, meant that “Earnie and his team had already prepared to have another coach lead that camp.”

But as Stewart was asked many questions relating to a potential Berhalter return, he never said no.

“Gregg Berhalter, until the investigation and the review takes place, is still under consideration for the head coach job of our U.S. men’s national team,” Stewart said. “We’re here for U.S. Soccer and performing at the best standard that there is.”

» READ MORE: Claudio and Danielle Reyna, Gio’s parents, admit to disclosing incident to U.S. Soccer concerning Gregg Berhalter

Stewart spoke in particular detail about how much he values “the reaction of players towards a coach … that is a very important piece to the direction that you’re going to as an organization.”

“We have lofty goals in front of us, we want to play in a certain way,” he said. “And once you step on a field every single day and you see a coach doing better and taking that group there every single time, and keeping the group, being able to motivate them at every aspect of the of the game -- I mean, that’s where my attention goes to when I look at coaches.”

A moment later, Stewart gave what might have been his most significant signal: “What I do believe is in consistency and continuity in the way that you play, in the way that you do things, and making sure that when players comes in to come into camp that they have a recollection of what happened the last time. That consistency and continuity is really important. That doesn’t necessarily always have to happen with the same coach, but it does make that process easier.”

The January camp mostly will have domestic-based players, as is typical. The roster is still to be determined, and now that Hudson is in place, that work can proceed more easily. The camp will conclude with two friendlies in the Los Angeles area, Jan. 25 against Serbia and Jan. 28 against Colombia.

Hudson’s assistants will be former Union assistant B.J. Callaghan, who’s been on the national team staff since 2019; and Mikey Varas, who succeeded Hudson as U.S. under-20 coach. Last summer, Varas’ squad won the Concacaf under-20 championship and qualified the U.S. for the Olympics, with four Union players playing big roles.

Those will be the first U.S. men’s games of the new broadcast deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, which will put games on the HBO Max streaming service and some games on TV on TNT. The arrangements for these games is yet to be announced. The same is true for the U.S. women’s team’s games in New Zealand on Jan. 17 and 20.

» READ MORE: Four Union players led the U.S. men’s soccer team to end its 16-year Olympics drought