USMNT's Growth: McKennie and Berhalter Prepare for Germany

Weston McKennie walked into the Chicago Fire training facility on Friday with a grin and a mission. He was there to train, to talk, to prepare for Germany. But he was also there to find a familiar face.

Gregg Berhalter.

Across from him sat Sebastian Berhalter, the coach’s son, now his teammate in a U.S. camp that looks very different from the one Gregg inherited years ago. The mood was light. The stakes, as everyone in the room knew, were not.

"He's a great person, and I'm not just saying this because [Sebastian is here]," McKennie said, laughing as he spoke about his former national team coach.

This wasn’t just a polite nod to a past manager. It sounded more like a player talking about family.

"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 Generation Comes of Age

Gregg Berhalter took over the USMNT in the wreckage of the 2018 World Cup qualifying failure. What he found was potential: raw, teenage, unpolished. A group that needed structure and belief as much as tactics.

Now he looks at them and sees something else.

"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."

He no longer picks the lineups, no longer calls the meetings, but the connection is obvious. He helped launch this era. Now he wants to watch it deliver.

Pochettino’s Dilemma and the Richards Frustration

On the grass, another story played out. Chris Richards warmed up with the rest of the squad, moved freely, blended into the group. To the eye, he looked ready.

He isn’t. Not for this weekend.

Mauricio Pochettino confirmed Richards will not play. The defender’s situation clearly irritates him.

"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 razor’s edge Pochettino is walking. Players at different fitness levels. A World Cup looming. No perfect choices.

He knows it, and he knows how the outside world will treat him.

"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."

Chasing Europe’s Elite

This camp isn’t just about sentiment or selection headaches. It’s about testing the ceiling.

In March, Pochettino made it clear he wanted top-tier European opposition for this team. The U.S. beat Senegal. Now comes Germany. Before that, they’d measured themselves against the likes of Portugal and Belgium.

"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 that included a Christian Pulisic goal and long stretches where the Americans went toe-to-toe. Fourteen of the 26 players in this squad were there that night.

McKennie hasn’t forgotten the balance of that game.

"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."

Form, Roles and a Maturing Star

McKennie arrives in camp off one of the most productive seasons of his club career. Nine goals and six assists across Serie A and the Champions League underline his influence at Juventus, even if the club fell just short of a Champions League place, missing fourth by two points.

He carries that into the national team, but he doesn’t obsess over whether form will translate. World Cups have their own logic.

"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."

Deep-lying orchestrator or late-arriving runner into the box, McKennie doesn’t seem to care. He sounds more concerned with impact than labels.

And that’s where this U.S. team stands now: no longer the “babies” Berhalter once described, but a group of hardened professionals, some with children of their own, stepping into a World Cup cycle with scars, belief and expectation.

They’ve grown up. Now they have to prove it against Germany—and then on the biggest stage of all.