USMNT's Growth: From Babies to Men Under Berhalter
The hugs came first.
At the Chicago Fire training facility on Friday, Weston McKennie and Sebastian Berhalter walked into a place that felt less like a neutral venue and more like a family reunion. Somewhere in the building, Gregg Berhalter – former USMNT head coach, current Chicago Fire boss, and Sebastian’s father – was going about his day.
McKennie was hoping to find him. Not as a player hunting down a tactician. As a grown man looking for the coach he once cried in front of.
“He’s a great person, and I’m not just saying this because [Sebastian is here],” McKennie said with a laugh, speaking about Gregg Berhalter. The smile was easy. The history behind it was not.
“I went to him with problems on and off the field. I’ve cried in front of him,” McKennie added. “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.”
For all the tactics and talk of systems that defined Berhalter’s tenure, this was the other side of it: the human connection that still binds a coach to a group he no longer leads.
From “Babies” to Men
When Gregg Berhalter took over the USMNT in the wake of the 2018 qualifying collapse, he inherited raw material. Talented, yes. But young. Unproven. Teenagers staring at a broken program.
Now, he sees something else.
“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,” he 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.”
He no longer picks the team. He no longer calls the plays. But he still talks like a man emotionally invested in what happens to them this summer. He watched them grow up; now he wants to watch them deliver.
Pochettino’s Dilemma and the Richards Frustration
Out on the training pitch, another figure wrestled with a very different kind of attachment.
Mauricio Pochettino, now the man in charge of this USMNT, put his squad through its paces on Friday. Chris Richards was out there, warming up with the group, moving without obvious trouble. It looked normal. It isn’t.
Richards will not play this weekend. Pochettino confirmed it, and you could hear the irritation in the explanation.
“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. They had built a plan: bench for that final against Rayo Vallecano, then maybe minutes against Senegal, then full involvement now.
None of it has unfolded on schedule.
“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 tightrope. Pochettino knows it. Every manager heading into a World Cup does.
He admitted several players are carrying the usual end-of-season knocks and strains, but he brushed away attempts to get into specifics with a laugh. The broader problem is bigger than one name or one muscle.
If he rests stars, people will say they’re undercooked. If he plays them and someone goes down, he’ll be accused of recklessness. In 2024, that judgment arrives instantly, via a screen.
“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.”
No risk-free option. Just choices, and consequences.
Germany Again, but Different Stakes
Pochettino has been clear since March: he wants this team pushed. Hard. European heavyweights, not soft touches. The U.S. beat Senegal. Now comes Germany.
“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. know Germany well enough. They met in October 2023 in Connecticut. Christian Pulisic scored a brilliant goal, but Germany ran away 3-1. Fourteen of the 26 players in this current squad were involved that day.
McKennie hasn’t forgotten the performance, even if the exact lineups blur.
“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.”
Different coach. Different stakes. Same measuring stick.
McKennie’s Form and a Moving Role
McKennie arrives this summer as one of the form players in the group. His season with Juventus ended in frustration at club level – no Champions League spot, missing out on fourth by just two points – but not for him personally. Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League tell their own story.
Confidence travels. Or at least, that’s the idea.
“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.
The open question is where that version of McKennie will live on the pitch for the national team. Deeper, dictating and breaking things up? Higher, arriving in the box and tilting games in the final third?
“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.”
Some teammates arrive in similar rhythm. Others don’t. That’s the World Cup’s great mystery: form can matter, or vanish on contact. What counts is the 90 minutes in front of you.
McKennie, the kid who once cried in front of Gregg Berhalter, now talks like a senior pillar in a squad expected to shoulder real pressure on the global stage. The coach who first guided him at international level stands across the training ground, watching this group he once called “babies” step into a tournament that will define their era.
They wanted big tests. Germany awaits. Now the question is simple: are these men ready to play like it?
