USMNT's Growth Under Berhalter Ahead of World Cup

At Chicago Fire’s training facility on Friday, the past and future of the USMNT shared the same hallway.

Weston McKennie walked in looking for a familiar face. Sebastian Berhalter did too, for different reasons. Both had their eyes peeled for the same man: Gregg Berhalter.

“He’s a great person, and I’m not just saying this because [Sebastian is here],” McKennie said with a laugh, settling into the podium and straight into nostalgia.

For McKennie, this wasn’t just another pre-World Cup media hit. It was a chance to reconnect with the coach who helped shape him, on and off the pitch.

“I went to him with problems on and off the field. I’ve cried in front of him,” McKennie said. “We’ve had tough times and also amazing times together, and so it’ll be really nice to be able to see him around here, hopefully, today, and just to catch up and just go over some memories. I’m sure he’ll probably give me some advice leading into the game and into the World Cup, because that’s just the type of guy he is.”

Berhalter’s Boys, All Grown Up

Gregg Berhalter no longer picks the team sheet, but the team still feels like his.

He took over in the wreckage of the 2018 qualifying failure, handed a brief to rebuild and rewire a broken program. What he got was a group of talented kids, many of them teenagers, still learning how to be professionals. What he sees now are fathers, leaders, hardened club regulars scattered across Europe’s top leagues.

“I think one thing we have to remember is when I got them, they were young, they were babies, and they were just learning what it takes to be a professional athlete,” Berhalter said. “Now I see them, and they’re men! They have kids, and they’re adults, and they know exactly what it means to maintain themselves as professionals. It’s an amazing thing to see.

“I just greeted them now, and was like, ‘I can’t believe it, they’re grown up!’. I think they’ll be ready for this moment. The one thing I know about this group is that they step up to these moments.”

That bond still runs deep. You could hear it in McKennie’s voice. You could see it in the way players gravitated toward Berhalter around the facility. He may not be the man on the touchline anymore, but his fingerprints are all over this generation.

Pochettino’s Dilemma and the Richards Frustration

On the training pitch, another coach wrestled with a very different reality.

Chris Richards was out with the group, warming up cleanly, moving freely. He looked like a player ready to go. He will not play this weekend.

Mauricio Pochettino confirmed it and didn’t hide his irritation at how the defender’s timeline has unfolded.

“When we decided the roster, we thought that Chris could play the final of the Conference [League] because we had designed the roster previously,” he said. “There was a line of information where we were thinking that he could play that final against Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League. He was on the bench, if you remember. After, that he could maybe be [there] against Senegal. After, today, in the end, the timelines were lengthening and [it] angers me a bit. I’m not happy because we know Chris Richards is an important player, of course, we all know it, but also when I was saying is based on the information that we had, and sometimes there wasn’t clarity.

“In the end, we can hope that Chris can be there. But, in the end, we’re going to find ourselves coming without competing [for a month] and after we have to make the decision if he’s in form to compete or not. There’s not a lot of time in the World Cup.”

That’s the knife edge every World Cup manager walks.

Pochettino knows several players are nursing the usual end-of-season knocks and tightness. He smiled when pressed for specifics, but the balancing act is real: risk players now to keep them sharp, or wrap them in cotton wool and hope rhythm returns when the tournament starts.

He knows exactly how that debate plays out online.

“The haters today with social media, they will never agree if you play normally with the players or if you play with the first team for the World Cup,” he said. “If nothing happens, no one is going to say anything, good decision, but if something does happen, they say I have no clue!

“It’s impossible to know what we need to do. That’s why, from the beginning, it is to prepare in the best way that all the players have the possibility to play or to compete.”

There are no clean answers, only choices and consequences.

Germany Looms, and Lessons from Europe

The schedule offers no soft landings. After beating Senegal, the U.S. step straight into another heavyweight test: Germany.

Back in March, Pochettino made it clear he wanted these kinds of fixtures. High-end European opposition, limited windows to face them, and a World Cup on the horizon. This is where the learning gets real.

“We wanted to play the best in preparation for this World Cup,” he said. “I think all the tests of Portugal or Belgium were amazing because they allowed us to improve and to learn what we don’t need to do and how we need to approach it again. I think it’s a great opportunity, after Senegal, this is going to be a beautiful team that we have to face tomorrow, and it’s about approaching in the best way we can.”

The U.S. have already had a taste of this German side. In October 2023, they struck first through Christian Pulisic in Connecticut, then watched Germany flip the game and win 3-1. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were involved that night.

McKennie hasn’t forgotten the level on display, on both sides.

“I don’t really remember Germany’s roster for that game, and I don’t know how similar it is to this roster,” he said. “But I think that game showed, obviously, the quality that they have, but also the quality that we have as well. We played a good game, and we had the potential to win that game as well.

“We go into this game with a lot of players that haven’t played against them yet and players that have, so I think the new energy, the new style, the new circumstances in general leading into a World Cup, I think it’s going to be a great test for us and I think we go out there with the same mentality that we always go out with.”

New energy, familiar opponent, higher stakes. The kind of night that tells a coach exactly where his team stands.

McKennie’s Form and a Flexible Role

If there is one American arriving in camp with his chest out, it’s McKennie.

Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League underline his most productive season yet. Juventus fell just short of the top four, missing the Champions League places by two points, but McKennie’s individual stock climbed.

He wants that Juventus confidence to bleed straight into the national team, even as his exact role remains a live question. Deeper conductor? Late-arriving runner? All-action disruptor?

“I think any player can say that coming out of club form and being in good club form does a lot, because it’s the confidence that you bring, it’s the desire, the want, the everything,” he said. “I think the system that our coach has here, the type of player I am is a player that adapts. I’m the type of player who can play many roles, so I’m more of a guy that, wherever he needs me to do, I’ll do whatever I’m called upon for.

“I try to step up and just be the best I can for the team. I think that’s one thing that this team does have: no one’s selfish. Everyone’s here for the right reasons. Everyone’s here to get a victory for the U.S., so I think it’s amazing to be able to come here with confidence, and coming off a great individual season. Obviously, my club team didn’t finish where we wanted to finish, but the confidence is still there.”

That last line matters. World Cups have a way of ignoring club form when the whistle blows. Heroes emerge from nowhere; stars sometimes fade. McKennie isn’t banking on momentum alone, but he knows what it gives him: a platform, a belief, a sense that he can bend games his way.

Around him, a generation Berhalter once called “babies” now stares down Germany and a World Cup with the poise of seasoned pros. The old coach watches from a short distance, proud, invested, still offering the odd word of advice.

The question now is simple and unforgiving: when the real games start, will this grown-up version of the USMNT step into the moment the way their old manager insists they always do?