Carlos Cordeiro (left) and Earnie Stewart (second from left) spoke during and after Friday's U.S. Soccer board meeting. Jay Berhalter, brother of Gregg Berhalter (second from right), was once considered a top candidate to replace Dan Flynn (right) as CEO. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

CHICAGO — U.S. Soccer’s most influential backroom leaders convened at a plush hotel off Michigan Avenue here on Friday and Saturday for a board meeting that doubled as a window into the state of the federation.

Outside, there has been unrelenting criticism. Inside, there have been acknowledgements that things must change. Both dynamics framed Friday’s discussions, during a three-plus-hour open session and 40 minutes of roundtable interviews afterward.

The true deep dive into U.S. Soccer’s well-being is occurring Saturday during a closed “executive session.” But Friday was revealing in its own right. Below are the most important and interesting insights from the entire afternoon.

The status of the CEO search

U.S. Soccer has been without a CEO since Dan Flynn stepped down in September. The search for his successor has been ongoing since February. Current COO Jay Berhalter, the brother of U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg, once seemed like a favorite for the position. But some anonymous Glassdoor reviews and an eye-opening New York Times article that detailed a “toxic” workplace culture coincided with a reboot of the search process over the summer.

Cordeiro detailed some, though not much, of that process while speaking with a small group of reporters on Friday:

The search committee, Cordeiro said, comprises eight board members: himself, U.S. Soccer vice president Cindy Parlow Cone, MLS commissioner Don Garber, independent director Patti Hart, independent director Lisa Carnoy, U.S. Youth Soccer Association chair Pete Zopfi, U.S. Adult Soccer Association VP Richard Moeller, and Athletes’ Council chair Chris Ahrens.

Cordeiro said the committee spent Thursday interviewing a shortlist of candidates – men and women, “from across the United States, and even one from abroad. They’re diverse, highly qualified.” When asked if there are internal candidates, he responded, “I said at the start there were internal candidates.” When asked if there are still internal candidates, he said, “I’m not gonna comment beyond that.”

There is no specific timetable for a hire, but the most realistic one is early 2020. “We don’t want to rush an appointment, and then find out it’s the wrong appointment,” Cordeiro said. “Because this person is going to take us to ‘26 and beyond.”

Here’s Cordeiro’s version of the process from February, when Flynn announced he’d be stepping down, until now: “We started working with a search firm in February … that took us through May, three or four months. And to be honest, I wasn’t happy with the results. So we added a new firm, a new organization came on board on the 6th of September. The second firm produced a new list of candidates that the search committee has been working through ever since.”

Is it fair to conclude, then, that the scathing Glassdoor reviews, which began appearing in May, impacted the process?

“Funny enough, no,” Cordeiro said. “I know why you might ask that question, but the truth is, long before June, we felt we needed to look more extensively. … The decision we took in May was to open it up at the end of the summer, more than we had.”

U.S. Soccer’s workplace reforms

The workplace culture in question, however, has been a major topic within and around U.S. Soccer recently. Whether or not it altered the CEO search’s course, “You do pay attention to this stuff. No question you do,” Cordeiro said. He later called the Glassdoor reviews “a good wake-up call. It alerted us to, potentially, some tremor lines.”

So in September, U.S. Soccer enlisted the Leadership Research Institute, an organizational development consulting firm, to conduct a review of the federation. Cordeiro held a town hall at Soccer House, the federation’s Chicago headquarters. Staffers say they filled out an extensive survey, 50-60 questions, the first of its kind in U.S. Soccer’s history. The results were presented to senior staff last month.

“Some pretty telling stories came out of that,” Cordeiro said. “The organization now needs more formalized communication mechanisms, so that staff know what’s going on. That wasn’t happening. That was happening by word of mouth.”

Reforms are already underway. USSF’s chief talent and inclusion officer, Tonya Wallach, presented to the board for the first time on Friday, and her presentation was perhaps the most impressive of the bunch. Yahoo Sports contributor Caitlin Murray will have much more on this topic in the near future.

What will the new USMNT GM do?

One item on Saturday’s agenda is Earnie Stewart’s vision for his old job. Stewart was hired as U.S. men’s national team general manager in 2018, but promoted to a sporting director role when Kate Markgraf was hired as women’s national team GM earlier this year. That left the USMNT GM role vacant. A search to fill it is ongoing.

But, what, exactly, will that USMNT GM do? Will his (or her, but probably his) role be identical to the one Stewart stepped into last year?

“No. No no no,” Stewart told Yahoo Sports after Friday’s roundtable had concluded. “I’d say that has evolved.”

It has evolved, Stewart said, based on his experiences in the role, and based on “what I think is important, with how I look at our organization.” He couldn’t go into detail before presenting to the board on Saturday. “But,” he reiterated, “the GM will have some other responsibilities than I had when I started.”

He was able to divulge one key difference: When he came aboard, “the GM role was solely focused on the men’s national team. I see a little bit more to that role than only the men’s national team.” The new GM will have say “when it comes to performance environments towards our youth national teams. Who better than somebody who’s in that environment to be able to get that alignment down to [the youth teams].”