Gregg Berhalter Leads USMNT’s Desire for World Redemption ( News New York )

DOHA, Qatar — Tyler Adams smiled Sunday night when asked about his debut with the United States national soccer team.

It was 2018, and the program was at a standstill for an odd time. The World Cup was taking place in Russia that year, but the American team did not perform well in the qualifying round. The squad lacked a coach and, in Adam’s mind, a general purpose.

“No identity, no game plan,” Adams said. “It’s almost like you’re going to a national team camp to have fun.”

Then came Gregg Berhalter. Hired at the end of 2018, he was given a blank canvas and a clear mandate: to position the team to compete again on the biggest stage in the near future and for years to come. The face is almost completely covered. It was time and space to form an identity, to reverse the game plan.

On Monday, the United States soccer team in Berhalter’s image will play its opening match at the World Cup — its first game in the tournament since 2014 — and all the planning and theorizing and character-building of the past four years will finally be put to rest. they prove

“We’re very pleased with how this group is built,” Berhalter said after his team met in Doha last week. “We’re pleased with the core of this team. We think the core of this team has a ton of potential. And we’re just excited to get started in the tournament.”

The match against Wales has been a long time coming, and Berhalter, a former defender who has played for clubs in Belgium, Germany, England and the United States, has seemed impatient at times over the past week for it to arrive.

A veteran of two World Cups as a player, Berhalter, 49, was asked what wisdom he could impart to the players to prepare them for the intensity of this tournament. His answer: not much.

“We can say anything we want, and I can give any experience I’ve had,” he said. “But I know this group, and they won’t really know until the whistle blows in Wales.”

Perhaps there is no more to say at this point, he knows, because he has had the undivided attention of the players since 2018. He has already instilled in them his football ethos and various motivational mantras, and almost constantly encouraged them to “change”. the way the world sees US politics. “

Berhalter took the program as an evangelist based on soccer possession, a type of play he used with great success as coach of the Columbus Crew in the Major League. Over time, in recognition of a young, athletic and still developing artistic group, he stylistically turned to a more urgent and relentless approach to development.

They also filled out the features of their behavior. He used the sideline as a bridge to build his personal collection of rare and expensive sneakers. His penchant for all manner of basketball shooting styles has suddenly become a joke among US internet fans. Through interaction with players and members of the media, the professorial impact common to international soccer coaches is pleasantly dry with sparks of humor.

In a FaceTime call this month with Weston McKennie, a midfielder who plays with Juventus in Italy’s top league, Berhalter slipped into an Italian accent to deliver the news that McKennie had made the World Cup team.

“Bye, McKennie!” Berhalter said in a moment that was captured on camera and shared in the team’s campaign for the tournament.

DeAndre Yedlin, 29, who is the only player in the team with any experience in the tournament after playing in the 2014 World Cup, summed up the effectiveness of writing Berhalter’s coaching in two points.

The first was an almost exhaustive approach to maximizing performance – using data, sports science, psychology and various other modern tools – to allow players to receive and digest that information.

“He’s so meticulous, and you know how he likes every little thing,” Yedlin said in an interview a month before the World Cup.

The second was his neighborhood. A player coach is said to be comparing players from player to player in order to establish a level of comfort and confidence for their overall project.

“We can make plans — maybe there are too many meetings, maybe we need some time in the afternoon, maybe we want to wear a certain thing — and we’ll have a conversation with ourselves,” Yedlin said. It is not, ‘O players, you decide.’ It’s not, hey, you hire the coaches or the staff. It is, “let’s sit in the middle and talk about something that works for us.”

Adam personified this. On Sunday, the captain of the team for the tournament was announced. Over the course of four years, Berhalter used a rotation of coaches for different sports. But before the World Cup, a group of leaders consulted about the role, and they preferred that there should be one manager for the tournament. A vote was taken of about 35 players, and Adam was the first choice.

Adams on Sunday praised the work Berhalter had done to shape the team’s identity after accepting Dave Sarachani, who served as interim coach after Bruce Arena resigned in the wake of the 2018 qualifying disaster. Sarachan has been widely praised by the players and coaching staff for managing a difficult situation, but is now in doubt for Berhalter’s team.

“You have a coach that comes in and tactfully understands the game better than almost any coach I’ve ever had,” Adams said of Berhalter. “And it puts the policy in place of really wanting to develop players, these young players, giving them an opportunity and having faith in them, and this was different than what US Soccer has done before.”

Berhalter’s first task, however, was doing what the United States always expected – reaching the World Cup. He and the fans do it. Now they will see how far Hyacinthus Berhalteri can take them.