USMNT’s Journey: McKennie, Berhalter, and Growing Up Before the World Cup
Weston McKennie walked into the Chicago Fire training facility on Friday with a grin and a mission. He was there to train, to talk, to look ahead to Germany and the World Cup. But he was also hoping to bump into a familiar figure who helped shape his career and, in many ways, this entire U.S. generation.
Gregg Berhalter.
Across from him on the podium sat Sebastian Berhalter, Gregg’s son, waiting for the same meeting for very different reasons. The subtext didn’t need spelling out.
“He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here],” McKennie said, laughing, but the warmth in his voice made it clear this wasn’t a throwaway line.
This was about more than tactics or team talks. It was about history.
The Coach Who Raised a Generation
McKennie hadn’t been at the facility long when he spoke, but he was already thinking ahead to a quiet moment with his former national team manager.
“I went to him with problems on and off the field. I've cried in front of him,” he 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.”
Gregg Berhalter’s bond with this USMNT core runs deep. When he took over after the 2018 World Cup qualifying collapse, he inherited a group of raw, talented kids. Teenagers, mostly. Pros in name, prospects in reality.
Now those “kids” are the backbone of a World Cup squad.
“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,” Gregg 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.”
He no longer picks the team. He no longer stands in the technical area. But the emotional investment remains. He watched them grow up; now he wants to watch them deliver.
Pochettino’s Dilemma and the Richards Frustration
On the training pitch, another key figure in this World Cup story worked through a different kind of tension.
Chris Richards joined the group session on Friday, moving freely, blending into the drills. He looked like any other fit defender. He will not play this weekend.
Mauricio Pochettino confirmed it and didn’t hide his irritation at how the situation 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.”
The calendar is unforgiving. So is public opinion. Pochettino knows he is walking into a no-win scenario.
He acknowledged that several players are managing the usual end-of-season knocks and fatigue. He laughed off attempts to pin him down on specifics, insisting that, broadly, everyone is fine as preparations intensify. But Saturday’s match sits in that dangerous space between tune-up and trap.
“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,” Pochettino 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.”
Hunting Europe’s Best Before the Real Thing
Pochettino has been consistent about one thing: he wants his team tested. Properly tested.
In March, he underlined the value of facing top European sides, the kind of opposition the U.S. still encounters too rarely. The schedule has followed that logic. After beating Senegal, the U.S. now face Germany in another heavyweight friendly.
“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. In October 2023, they fell 3-1 in Connecticut despite a sharp Christian Pulisic goal. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were part of that defeat.
McKennie hasn’t forgotten the level on show that day.
“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. Old scars. A clearer idea of what it takes.
McKennie’s Form, His Role, and a Team Without Egos
McKennie arrives at this camp as one of the form players in the group. His club season with Juventus ended in frustration — no Champions League football next year, the team missing out on the final qualifying spot by just two points — but his own numbers tell a different story.
Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League. A midfielder who influenced games in both boxes, who found rhythm and belief.
He knows that kind of form matters. At least, it matters until the whistle blows.
“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,” McKennie 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.”
The tactical question is obvious: deeper midfielder or more advanced? Ball-winner or late-arriving goal threat? McKennie shrugs at the labels. He sees himself as an adapter, a problem-solver, not a specialist demanding a fixed role.
That mindset mirrors the group. A squad that once leaned on promise now leans on experience, but not entitlement.
At the Chicago Fire facility, the threads of this U.S. story pulled together in one place: the former coach who raised the core, the current coach wrestling with risk and reward, the defender racing the clock, and the midfielder at the peak of his powers.
They used to be “babies,” as Gregg Berhalter put it. Now they are men staring down Germany, a World Cup, and the chance to prove that growing up is only the first step.
