In 2017, the U.S. men’s national soccer team reached its modern nadir: For the first time in 32 years, it failed to qualify for the World Cup. The man hired to turn things around? Gregg Berhalter, who in late 2018 was named head coach by the United States Soccer Federation, which is based in Chicago. Berhalter knows a thing or two about the World Cup: He was on the U.S. World Cup team in 2002 — when it reached the quarterfinals, the furthest the U.S. men have advanced since 1930—and in 2006. He played professionally from 1993 to 2011, in the U.S. and Europe, and spent five seasons coaching Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew.
He managed to steer the U.S. team through qualifying for this year’s World Cup, which will be held in Qatar. Now comes the about the “responsibility” the team shoulders, the state of soccer in America, and, of course, the effect.
