Mikey Balazs will take over as head coach of the U.S. men’s national team on an interim basis for select matches in September, according to multiple reports.
The search for a permanent coach is ongoing and Barras could be a candidate and will provide some leadership when the U.S. plays friendlies against Canada on Sept. 7 and New Zealand on Sept. 10.
Balazs, 39, will take over a team that lost 4-0 to Morocco in the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics after longtime head coach Gregg Berhalter was fired on July 10 following a poor performance in the 2024 Copa America.
A native of San Francisco, Barras was previously the head coach of the United States U-20 National Team. He took over as head coach in 2021 and led the team to its third CONCACAF U-20 Championship title in 2022. Barras was unable to replicate that success at the 2023 U-20 World Cup, with the U.S. eliminated in the quarterfinals.
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Taylor Booth dribbles the ball during training with the USMNT U23 on July 23, 2024 in Marseille, France. (Andrea Vilches/ISI/Getty Images)
Prior to that, he served as an assistant coach at FC Dallas under head coach Luchi Gonzalez from 2019-2020, leading the Toros to back-to-back MLS Cup playoff appearances. Barras began his career as head coach of FC Dallas’ under-16 team in 2017. Earlier in his career, he led the U-14 team at Sacramento Republic Academy in 2016. A year later, he was named the US Soccer Development Academy Western Conference U-14 Coach of the Year.
While Valas has extensive experience coaching teenagers, he also has an equally deep interest and philosophy in developing younger players, which he explained in an interview with New York City FC radio announcer Glenn Crooks.
“The youngest age group is the most important age group for fundamental motor skills – under 6 years old. But if there are deficiencies, you probably need to extend that to age 12. Then you hit puberty and the disruption of puberty. And then you stimulate that period again – so you stimulate mostly prepuberty and then a little bit during puberty,” Barras said.
Joe Scali and Mikey Vallas during a workout for the U.S. Men’s Basketball National Team at the Landon School on June 7, 2024 in Bethesda, Maryland. (John Doughton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)
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In an interview with Crooks, Balas said his philosophy was born out of interactions with a professor he declined to name who worked for Italian soccer club ACF Fiorentina. He said the professor stressed the importance of training players in terms of psychomotor and coordination, especially at a young age when kids are less likely to be “out on the streets unsupervised.”
“Street football is disappearing. Purely unsupervised activities on the streets are not just football. [but also] “Behaviors like climbing fences, climbing trees, exploring the neighborhood are disappearing — they’re missing basic motor skills,” Barras said.
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United States head coach Mikey Barras gestures during the FIFA U-20 World Cup Argentina 2023 quarterfinal match against Uruguay on June 4, 2023 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. (Márcio Machado/Eurasia Sports Images/Getty Images)
Balazs added that playing other sports in an unstructured environment at an early age can be a huge advantage in terms of athleticism for future soccer players and other athletes.
“So a generation of people who grew up playing multiple sports in an unstructured way — running, swimming, climbing fences, climbing trees — have better adaptive coordination,” Barras says.
Barras played at the University of San Francisco before spending one season with Chile’s CD Santiago Wanderers.
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