USMNT Grows Up: McKennie, Berhalter, and the World Cup Journey
The Chicago Fire training facility can feel anonymous on a gray weekday. On Friday, it didn’t.
Weston McKennie walked in first, still shaking off the travel, then Sebastian Berhalter. Both headed for the podium. Both, in their own ways, were looking for the same man.
Gregg Berhalter.
McKennie wanted to see the coach who helped shape him. Sebastian wanted to see his father.
"He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here]," McKennie said with a laugh, the kind that hints at a lot of shared history.
This wasn’t just a routine media hit. It felt like a reunion day for a generation that grew up under Berhalter’s watch.
From “Babies” to Men
When Gregg Berhalter took over the USMNT in the wreckage of the 2018 World Cup qualifying failure, he inherited raw talent and a fractured program. Many of those players were still teenagers, scattered across academies and early pro careers, trying to figure out what “professional” really meant.
He watched them learn it in real time.
"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."
McKennie feels that bond as strongly as anyone. He didn’t just go to Berhalter for tactical tweaks or video sessions.
"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."
For a squad now staring at another World Cup, that shared past hangs in the air. Berhalter no longer runs this team, but the fingerprints of his era are everywhere.
Pochettino’s Balancing Act and the Richards Dilemma
On the grass, the focus turned from nostalgia to logistics. Chris Richards trained with the group, moving freely, looking like any other defender in the session.
He still won’t play this weekend.
Mauricio Pochettino confirmed it, and his frustration with the situation slipped through the usual manager’s guard.
"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 reality of this stage of the calendar: knocks, half-fitness, guesswork. Pochettino knows he’s walking a tightrope with every lineup he picks before the tournament.
He even laughed when asked to list the fitness issues in detail. Everyone’s managing something. Everyone’s “fine” enough. The real question is how much to push.
There is no safe answer, he argued.
"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."
Play them and risk injury. Rest them and risk rust. Either way, judgment comes later, and it’s brutal.
Germany Again, and a Different USMNT
This weekend brings Germany. Another heavyweight, another measuring stick, another chance to see how far this group has really come.
Pochettino has been consistent on this point since March: the U.S. need European tests. They don’t get many.
"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, a 3-1 defeat in Connecticut softened only by a Christian Pulisic goal and a first half that hinted at something more. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were there that night.
McKennie hasn’t forgotten the lesson.
"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 coach. New ideas. Same core. Germany again, but not the same U.S. team.
McKennie’s Form and the Question of Role
McKennie arrives this summer carrying something every national team manager craves: club confidence.
Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League for Juventus tell the story of a season where he found end product as well as energy. The sting, of course, is that Juventus missed the Champions League places by just two points.
The confidence survived the disappointment.
"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."
Deep-lying organizer? Box-crashing No. 8? More advanced, almost as a second forward at times? His role remains one of the big tactical questions for this World Cup.
What McKennie cares about is impact, not labels.
A Generation on the Edge of Its Moment
Some USMNT players hit this World Cup in peak form. Others don’t. That’s always the way. The tournament doesn’t care who was flying in March or who struggled in May. It cares about 90 minutes at a time.
McKennie sees it that way. So does Gregg Berhalter, watching a group he once called “babies” now stride into a World Cup as established professionals.
They’ve lived the chaos of qualification, the scrutiny of a home fanbase that expects more, the churn of club seasons across Europe. Now they get Germany, and then the real thing.
The reunion hugs at the training ground were warm. The advice from an old coach will be welcome.
But the next step—proving that this generation is more than promise—belongs entirely to them.
