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, or a treatment table.

He wanted Gregg Berhalter.

So did Sebastian Berhalter, for slightly different reasons.

"He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here]," McKennie said with a laugh, glancing over at the coach’s son beside him.

It was a reunion day in Chicago. The USMNT were using the Fire’s base as they prepare for Germany this weekend and, more importantly, a World Cup that feels like a final exam for a generation Berhalter once shepherded from raw promise to hardened professionals.

McKennie had only just arrived when he and Sebastian stepped up to the microphones, but his mind was already on his former national team coach.

"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 fingerprints are still all over this team, even if he no longer picks the lineups.

He took over after the 2018 qualifying collapse, inheriting a broken program and a bunch of teenagers who were still figuring out how to be pros. Many of those “kids” now anchor Europe’s biggest clubs. They’ve grown up in public, with Berhalter watching from the front row.

"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’s the bet again this summer: that this group, now in its prime years, will rise when the lights are brightest.

Pochettino’s Dilemma and the Richards Frustration

On the grass, another coach wrestled with a very different challenge.

Chris Richards trained with the group on Friday, moved freely, looked part of it. But he won’t play this weekend. Mauricio Pochettino confirmed as much, and the disappointment seeped through his explanation.

"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."

It’s the classic pre-tournament tightrope. Players want minutes. Coaches want rhythm without risk. Medical updates shift by the day.

Pochettino knows there is no safe path.

He smiled when asked about the general state of the squad’s fitness, acknowledging the usual end-of-season knocks and tight muscles, but his wider point cut through the noise of the social media era.

"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."

Whatever he does on Saturday will be second-guessed. That’s the job now.

A Familiar Giant: Germany Again

The reward for all this planning? Germany. Again.

Back in October 2023, the U.S. ran with the four-time world champions for long stretches in Connecticut, even led through a Christian Pulisic strike, but still lost 3-1. Fourteen of the 26 players in this camp were part of that game.

McKennie doesn’t dwell on the details of Germany’s lineup that day, but he hasn’t forgotten the level.

"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."

Pochettino has been consistent on this point since March: he wants the toughest possible schedule. The U.S. have already seen Portugal, Belgium, Senegal. Now comes another heavyweight.

"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 won’t define the summer. But it will reveal something.

McKennie’s Form, and a Role to Be Determined

McKennie arrives in camp carrying something precious: confidence.

Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League this season underline his impact for Juventus. The club’s year ended in frustration — two points short of the final Champions League spot — but his own level never really dipped.

He knows that kind of form can carry over.

"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 the live question. Deeper in midfield? Higher up, crashing the box? McKennie isn’t staking a claim for one role over another.

"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."

Some teammates arrive in better club form than others. Some have barely played. That’s the World Cup’s great equalizer: none of it matters once the whistle goes. It’s about the 90 minutes in front of you.

On Friday, though, before Germany, before the tournament, before any of that, the scene in Chicago was simpler.

A coach who once called them “babies” watched his former players walk past with their own kids. A midfielder who used to lean on him in private now speaks like a leader of the group. A new manager tries to steer the same core through the chaos of modern football.

The generation Berhalter raised is no longer growing into the moment.

It’s time to see if they can own it.