Sebastian Berhalter epitomizes the energy and culture of the U.S. men’s national team’s Mauricio Pochettino era. Think about that. Berhalter is a player whose professional career is far from impressive. He’s not a Europe-based player. He’s hardly a front-facing star in MLS, even if he was a 2025 Best XI selection. Berhalter, though, in his limited opportunities under Pochettino and on a weekly basis for his club, has demonstrated a conviction to be part of the Argentine manager’s culture transformation.
Take last Saturday night inside Vancouver’s sold-out BC Place as the latest bit of evidence. LAFC had snatched momentum from the home team in second-half stoppage time, and it felt like Vancouver’s wonderful season was slipping away. A pinpoint free kick from LAFC superstar Son Heung-min had tied the score at 2-2, completing a comeback from 2-0 down. In extra time, the Whitecaps were already down to 10 men and out of substitutions when resolute center back Belal Halbouni was forced off with a knee injury, zapping BC Place of its energy. But then there was Berhalter, barking at the home crowd and waving his arms with a contagious, primal energy.
Vancouver then survived the remainder of extra time with nine men, and before the penalty shootout, Berhalter whipped the crowd into a frenzy again. He would convert his spot kick and let out another cathartic scream before his side ultimately advanced to the Western Conference final for the first time.
Whether you believe that Berhalter has, as they say, that dog in him, or if he’s more of a classic underdog, the 24-year-old is precisely what Pochettino wants from a national team player. Even more intriguing is the fact that Berhalter is the son of Pochettino’s predecessor, Gregg Berhalter. It’s a fascinating dynamic that may have only materialized because the U.S. had crashed out in the group stage of the 2024 Copa América. The elder Berhalter was subsequently fired. At that time, Sebastian was only beginning to establish himself with the Whitecaps. His pathway to the national team wasn’t just unlikely, it was nonexistent. Firstly, because he was not playing at a level that would warrant a national team call-up, and secondly, and perhaps more difficult to navigate, would have been the prospect of nepotism.
Berhalter would not have been able to justify calling up his son during his nearly six-year term as the national team head coach based on all evidence. Sebastian is a Columbus Crew academy product who couldn’t break into the first team and establish himself within an MLS Cup-winning midfield. As the national team’s player pool and play style began to take shape under Gregg Berhalter in 2021, Sebastian was struggling as a fringe player with Austin FC, an MLS expansion side.
Austin’s sporting director at the time, Claudio Reyna, signed Sebastian on loan in March of 2021 and later declined his purchase option. While he was not a central figure in the public feud between the Berhalters and Reynas after the 2022 World Cup, Sebastian was quietly embroiled in it. These are all realities. Sebastian was closer to being rooted to an MLS bench than he was to any type of international glory.
Sebastian Berhalter and Gio Reyna embrace on the field during the USMNT’s rout of Uruguay (Rich Storry / Getty Images)
Pochettino’s arrival occurred on a parallel timeline to Sebastian Berhalter starting to play the best soccer of his career. After a trade from Austin to Vancouver in 2022, for just $50,000 in general allocation money, he is now a valuable member of a team that is one game away from an MLS Cup final berth. Thomas Müller may be the Whitecaps’ main attraction, but Berhalter is the proverbial heart and soul of the team.
And as Pochettino quickly established that no U.S. player had a guaranteed spot on the national team, a door for Berhalter opened. The Argentine manager, who took the U.S. job after stints with Espanyol, Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, was uninterested in coddling star players. Pochettino wanted to build a culture that tore down player hierarchies and catering to individual desires in favor of the team.
“We didn’t see the desperation,” Pochettino told Andrés Cantor and Fútbol de Primera. Pochettino’s answer came during a segment where he and Cantor discussed how players from around the world view the national team as the pinnacle of their professional lives, and that no call-up was to be taken for granted.
“But in the end, that mindset that they had — which is not the players’ fault — is, ‘Well, they are friendly matches,” Pochettino said. “’I’m going to play, but I’m not going to risk getting injured, I’m not going to stick my foot in. I’m not going to run an extra meter or put in an effort, because if I get injured, then I can’t play again.’ In the end, that [mindset] is not felt in any other national team. And here, I think that is one thing that we have been able to change.”
It’s worth revisiting Pochettino’s responsibilities before he was introduced as the U.S. manager in September of 2024. He had replaced Thomas Tuchel at PSG and inherited a team with Hollywood appeal, in which Lionel Messi played alongside Kylian Mbappé and Neymar. Pochettino’s PSG project was one that combined the highest of expectations, both domestically and in the Champions League, with the difficult task of managing some of global football’s biggest personalities. Chelsea was another experiment in man management, high-priced talent and little margin for error.
With that foundation, Pochettino accepted the U.S. job with the task of fixing a team culture that had gotten too comfortable; where complacency began to undermine the bigger objectives.
“With Argentina or with France, with Spain, the goal is always to increase your chance of being in the next call-up,” Pochettino told Cantor. “What happened is that (in the U.S.) the idea had settled that certain players already had their position secured. It implies that they already take it for granted that there is a secured spot at the World Cup. So these are those things that sometimes I don’t understand.”
Sebastian Berhalter scored the first goal of his USMNT career vs. Uruguay (Edgardo Medina / NurPhoto / Getty Images)
So, yes, Pochettino’s squad lists over 22 matches have been favorable to MLS players like Sebastian Berhalter. One surefire way to put pressure on the U.S.’s European contingent of players is to use the performances of undervalued and unsung professionals. It was the perfect situation for players like Diego Luna, Max Arfsten and Cristian Roldan. And Berhalter fits the mold.
“It’s just that the cradle of world football, the world champions, are somewhere else,” Pochettino said. “They are not here. Here they are champions of basketball, of football, of hockey. Not soccer. Changing that is very difficult.”
With Vancouver, Berhalter understands what ownership and accountability feel like. He’s a team leader and one of the squad’s driving forces. What’s notable is that Berhalter has gradually improved in nine senior U.S. team appearances. He isn’t a player who dazzles. His technical ability is good, not great. He is, however, a very coachable player (it helps being the son of a coach).
No one is expecting Berhalter, a box-to-box central midfielder, to outplay a seasoned international in the middle of the park next summer. But he has earned the chance to potentially represent his country at the World Cup by personifying what a baseline U.S. national team player should look like: someone that is gritty, overlooked and devoted to the badge.
The likes of Christian Pulisic, a star at AC Milan, may embody what American soccer fans hope every future U.S. international can be, but a player like Berhalter — a fire-breathing competitor with a chip on his shoulder, is a true representation of the American soccer warrior. Berhalter has minimized his lack of experience and physical limitations by becoming a dead-ball specialist. Free-kick efficiency is only possible through hours of repetition. It’s not an innate characteristic. Berhalter has put in the work and now has a level of expertise that could see him carve out a place on Pochettino’s 26-man squad come May.
In the U.S.’s 5-1 rout of Uruguay last week, Berhalter played the entire 90 minutes. He scored the game’s first goal from a well-taken set-piece strike that curled into the top corner. He added a set-piece assist and finished with a passing rate of 88 percent (28/32 passes) against a formidable opponent. Barring an injury crisis in the U.S. midfield, Berhalter is a long shot to be in Pochettino’s World Cup starting XI on June 12 in Los Angeles. But he’s on pace to be there as an option. As Pochettino has made abundantly clear, to represent this country at a World Cup takes more than stature. Berhalter may have what it takes to earn the ultimate reward in 2026.