McKennie and Berhalter: USMNT's Emotional Journey to the World Cup
Weston McKennie walked into the Chicago Fire training facility on Friday and went straight back in time.
He was there with Sebastian Berhalter, but really he was looking for Sebastian’s father. The coach who helped turn him from a talented kid into a hardened professional. The man he once cried in front of. Gregg Berhalter.
"He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here]," McKennie said, laughing, but not hiding the weight behind the words.
McKennie had barely dropped his bag before he and the younger Berhalter were ushered to the podium. Even so, his mind was already on the reunion he hoped would follow.
"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 Gregg Berhalter, this group is more than a former squad. It’s a generation he shepherded from raw promise to full-grown professionals after the wreckage of the 2018 World Cup qualifying failure. Back then, many of them were teenagers. Now, as he watches from the outside, they’re fathers, leaders, stars at major European clubs.
"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."
That’s the emotional backdrop as the U.S. edge toward the World Cup, juggling nostalgia, expectation and the cold reality of selection and fitness.
Richards on Ice, Frustration on the Touchline
On the grass, Chris Richards moved freely with the group on Friday. No limp, no hesitation. He blended into the warm-up like any other player.
He still won’t play this weekend.
Mauricio Pochettino confirmed it, and there was no attempt to hide his irritation with 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."
That’s the tightrope. Richards is too important to rush, too rusty to ignore. And the clock doesn’t care.
Pochettino admitted several players are carrying the usual end-of-season knocks. When pressed on specifics, he laughed them off. The broad picture, he insisted, is positive. The real headache lies elsewhere: how hard to push his stars days before the sport’s most unforgiving tournament.
There is no safe choice. He knows it. Everyone does.
If he rests his key men, the noise will be about rhythm and sharpness. If he plays them and someone falls injured, the uproar will be about recklessness. The judgment, he suggested, always comes after the fact.
"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 schedule offers no soft landings. After beating Senegal, the U.S. now face Germany, another heavyweight European test in a window Pochettino has openly embraced.
"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 is not a mystery opponent. The U.S. met them in October 2023 and actually struck first through Christian Pulisic before losing 3-1 in Connecticut. Fourteen of the 26 players in this current squad were involved that day. The scars and lessons are shared.
"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 energy, same ambition. A familiar opponent, but a very different context.
McKennie’s Form, and a Team That Doesn’t Care About Ego
McKennie arrives in camp with something every coach craves from his midfield: end product and swagger.
He closed his season with Juventus on nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League. The club’s failure to clinch a Champions League place — they missed fourth by just two points — hasn’t dimmed his confidence.
For him, form is fuel. But the World Cup is a strange arena. Some players ride in on a hot streak and disappear. Others flick a switch the moment the anthem plays.
"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 simple, the implications are not: where does that confidence live on the pitch? As a deeper metronome, breaking lines from behind, or as a more advanced disruptor arriving late in the box?
McKennie doesn’t seem bothered. He sounds like a man who just wants the ball and the stage.
A Generation on the Brink
Around him, the squad is a blend of those who soared this season and those who stumbled. Some are flying, some are searching. The World Cup doesn’t care. It asks only what you can give on the day.
Gregg Berhalter looks at this group and sees the kids he once drilled on the basics of professionalism. Now they walk into a World Cup as seasoned pros, fathers, and leaders, with scars from Champions League nights and title races.
Pochettino sees a different picture: a puzzle of form, fitness and risk, with no perfect solution and no time to waste.
McKennie stands between those worlds — the emotional pull of the past, the sharp edge of the present — hoping to catch his old coach in a quiet corner of a training ground in Chicago before Germany, before the World Cup, before this generation finds out if all that growing up was enough.
