USMNT's Journey: McKennie, Berhalter and Growing Up Fast
The scene at the Chicago Fire training facility on Friday felt less like a sterile pre-World Cup media day and more like a reunion.
Weston McKennie and Sebastian Berhalter walked in together, both with the same quiet hope: bump into Gregg Berhalter. For Sebastian, that’s just dad. For McKennie, it’s something closer to a footballing guardian.
"He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here]," McKennie said with a laugh, as the conversation inevitably turned to the former USMNT manager.
McKennie had barely dropped his bags before he was ushered to the podium. Even so, his mind was already on catching up with the man who helped shape his international career.
"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’s imprint on this group hasn’t faded with his departure. When he took over after the 2018 qualifying collapse, he inherited a fractured program and a wave of teenagers who barely knew what it meant to be professionals. Now, those kids are the spine of a World Cup team.
"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 sense of continuity hangs over this camp. The coach has changed. The stakes have risen. The relationships remain.
Pochettino’s Puzzle: Risk, Reward and Richards
On the training pitch, Chris Richards moved freely with the rest of the squad, another sign that the defender is edging back toward full fitness. On the team sheet for the weekend, though, he’ll be absent. Mauricio Pochettino confirmed Richards will not play, a decision that clearly grates on him.
"When we decided the roster, we thought that Chris could play the final of the Conference [League] because we had designed the roster previously," Pochettino 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."
This is the tightrope every World Cup coach walks. Players are sore, some are just back from injury, others are flying. Pochettino knows there is no safe path, only choices that look smart or foolish depending on what happens next.
He laughed off a question asking for a detailed injury list, saying most are dealing with the usual end-of-season knocks. The bigger issue sits in plain sight: how hard do you push them before the tournament?
"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."
Germany Again, and a Different U.S.
The next test is a familiar one. After beating Senegal, the U.S. face Germany this weekend in another high-end European tune-up, exactly the sort of challenge Pochettino demanded back in March.
"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. saw Germany not long ago, a 3-1 defeat in October 2023 in Connecticut despite a Christian Pulisic goal. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were there that night. The scars and lessons travel with them.
"I don't really remember Germany's roster for that game, and I don't know how similar it is to this roster," McKennie 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 coach, new ideas, same ambition. This is no friendly in the old sense; it’s a measuring stick.
McKennie’s Role, McKennie’s Edge
Few arrive in camp with more momentum than McKennie. His season at Juventus ended with nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League, numbers that underline his evolution as more than just an engine-room destroyer. Juventus still fell two points short of a Champions League place, but his personal confidence hasn’t dipped.
"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.
Where that energy gets deployed is one of the more intriguing tactical questions around this team. Deeper in midfield, breaking up play and starting attacks? Higher up, arriving late in the box and creating chaos? McKennie isn’t about to box himself in.
"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."
Form, of course, is a fragile thing at a World Cup. Some arrive in peak condition and disappear. Others stagger in and catch fire. McKennie sees the tournament for what it is: a series of days where everything comes down to who delivers in the moment.
On Friday in Chicago, though, the moment felt a little different. A group of players once dismissed as kids are now established pros, some with families of their own, all carrying the weight of expectation. Their former coach watched them grow up. Their current coach is trying to push them over the next hill.
Germany awaits. The World Cup looms. The question now is not whether this group has grown up.
It’s whether they’re ready to prove it on the biggest stage.
