McKennie and Berhalter: USMNT's Growth Ahead of World Cup
The first thing Weston McKennie wanted at the Chicago Fire training facility wasn’t a ball or a bib. It was a familiar face.
Gregg Berhalter’s.
Beside him, Sebastian Berhalter had the same hope for very different reasons. One man looking for a mentor. The other, a son hoping to see his father on what has become USMNT ground zero ahead of a World Cup summer.
“He’s a great person, and I’m not just saying this because [Sebastian is here],” McKennie said with a laugh, talking about the former U.S. head coach who helped shape his international career.
McKennie had barely set his bag down before he and the younger Berhalter were pushed in front of microphones. Even so, his mind was already wandering to the past: to team meetings, hard conversations, and the quiet moments in coaches’ offices that never make the highlight reels.
“I went to him with problems on and off the field. I’ve cried in front of him,” McKennie admitted. “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 “Babies” Are Men Now
Gregg Berhalter inherited a broken program after the 2018 qualifying failure and a group of teenagers who barely knew what being a professional truly meant. He watched them grow in real time.
Now, he’s on the outside looking in. But he hasn’t stepped away emotionally.
“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.”
That’s the emotional undercurrent running beneath this camp. A generation that came of age under Berhalter now steps into another World Cup cycle without him, but not without his fingerprints.
Richards, Timelines and a Manager’s Frustration
Out on the grass Friday, Chris Richards joined the warm-up, moving freely with the rest of the group. For a fan watching from a distance, it would have looked like business as usual.
It isn’t.
He won’t play this weekend. Mauricio Pochettino confirmed it. The defender is fit enough to train, not fit enough to be risked, and the coach is clearly irritated 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,” 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.”
That’s the tightrope. A month without competitive minutes, then a call: trust the player’s ceiling or protect the squad from a half-ready defender in a tournament that offers no margin for error.
Pochettino knows Richards isn’t the only one carrying something. He smiled when asked to list the knocks and niggles. Normal for this time of year, he said. Normal, but still a headache.
Saturday, he admitted, is a puzzle with no perfect solution.
No Safe Choices Before a World Cup
Every coach walks into the final pre-World Cup window knowing one thing: there is no safe play.
Rest the stars and people will say the team isn’t sharp enough. Play them and an injury will be framed as recklessness. In 2024, every decision is screenshot, quote-tweeted and dissected in real time.
“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.”
So he leans on the only constant he can control: the level of opposition.
Back in March, he spoke about the need to test this group against top European sides. Those chances don’t come often for the U.S., and when they do, they tend to define the narrative for months.
After beating Senegal, Germany awaits this weekend. Pochettino sees more than a 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.”
Germany Again, but a Different U.S.
The U.S. know exactly how dangerous Germany can be. They felt it last October in Connecticut, when a Christian Pulisic strike wasn’t enough to prevent a 3-1 defeat. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were involved that day.
McKennie doesn’t dwell on the details of Germany’s lineup. What stuck with him was the feeling that the U.S. belonged on the same field.
“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. New style. Same opponent. It’s a useful barometer for a group that insists it has moved on from the “plucky underdog” phase and into something more ambitious.
McKennie’s Role, McKennie’s Form
On paper, McKennie arrives in camp as one of the form players. Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League underline a season of real end product with Juventus, even if the club itself fell short, missing the final Champions League spot by just two points.
What that means for the U.S. is a more nuanced question. Deeper conductor? Late-arriving threat in the box? Somewhere in between?
“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. The World Cup doesn’t always care about club form, but players do. They carry it with them, good or bad, into training, into team meetings, into the tunnel.
McKennie walks into this summer with his head up, his numbers strong, and his role still flexible. For a U.S. team that has grown from “babies” into something far more mature, he stands as a symbol of the shift.
The question now is simple and unforgiving: when Germany, and then the world, come calling, can this generation finally turn that growth into something tangible on the biggest stage?
