When things go wrong in sports, it’s easier than ever to blame the coach

It is almost certainly time for U.S. Men’s National Team coach Gregg Berhalter to be relieved of his duties given his side’s unimpressive run of international soccer play in the last two years.

But I also cannot shake two things: 1) How his sacking is being treated as such a foregone conclusion that we see constant lists of successors such as this one pop up before he is even gone. 2) That the number one reason for the latest international flop for the U.S., a group stage departure in Copa America, was easily Tim Weah’s boneheaded decision to hit a Panama player in the head and get sent off from an exceedingly winnable game that would have sent the U.S. through to the knockout stage.

Perhaps the U.S. still would have lost to Panama or made a hasty exit in an early knockout round, leading to calls for Berhalter’s job regardless. But no amount of tactical prowess or other preparation can be equivalent to the impact of Weah’s actions.

The fallout led me down a meandering thought path and this notion: It is increasingly harder to coach or manage any high-level team when factoring in the increased empowerment (and often wealth) of athletes plus the non-existent patience of team supporters. It is all blame and very little glory.

Whenever the Twins are in a funk, as they have been a few times this season, it is immediately Rocco Baldelli’s fault in the eyes of many fans. Now that they have solidified themselves in the upper third of the American League with an extremely consistent past five weeks, as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast, it is the players who are the reason for success.

There are Wolves fans of recent vintage who wanted Chris Finch fired for various grievances (mostly choices about player rotations that are admittedly questionable at times), but maybe 56 wins and a trip to the conference finals changed some hearts and minds. Or perhaps the Wolves simply improved with talent and magic?

At least Finchy isn’t coach for the Bucks, Lakers or some other organization where the players are running the show (and running promising teams into the ground).

This is not to say there aren’t bad coaches or even mediocre ones who have an outsized impact on success or failure. But let’s acknowledge that they shouldn’t get all the blame when things go wrong, and maybe they should even get some credit when things go right?

Here are four more things to know today:

*Reusse and I also talked about the tragic death of Vikings corner Khyree Jackson. Here’s the latest on the accident that killed Jackson and two of his former high school teammates.

*And Reusse wants to see more of the younger Wolves players next season. He wrote about one of them, Jaylen Clark, recently.

*The Twins only have one All-Star, Carlos Correa. Were they snubbed, or is that a testament to have a lot of useful players but not a lot of great ones?

*Star Tribune Wolves writer Chris Hine is expected to join me from Las Vegas on Tuesday’s podcast.