Sebastian Berhalter's arrival makes for a unique North American soccer plot twist

New York Times

30-04-2025

Study Sebastian Berhalter's rapidly burgeoning goal catalog, and the majority of any clip's duration leaves him out of the frame entirely.
A breakout star on the Vancouver Whitecaps, currently the hottest team in North America, Berhalter is a regular starter as a right-sided central midfielder. He's a vital part of the Whitecaps' build-up, an increasingly expert progressive passer who rates among MLS's best in the current season. Once the ball is among the forward line, he carefully picks him moment to arrive near the box, a facet of his game that he's been relishing in to date this year.
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Minnesota United was just the latest to learn about Berhalter's late-arriving quality to open the scoring in their Sunday matinee.
It's perhaps a fitting calling card given Berhalter's gradual rise as a player. Just shy of his 24th birthday, he was touted as a player to watch as a future MLS contributor but was often overshadowed. He didn't break out before turning 20, as peers like Aidan Morris and Caden Clark may have, and he wasn't a regular starter until landing with his third team in the league, joining Vancouver ahead of the 2022 season.
Banger by Berhalter. 🔥
After review, Sebastian Berhalter's strike stands!
📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/uXFQKQAbF5 pic.twitter.com/0qLUGPAMUr
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 27, 2025
These days, the son of former USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter is making a name all his own, among the headliners of a Whitecaps side entering the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal second leg against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in pole position.
'It's kind of been a steady incline, and I think that's something that's kind of been consistent in my life,' Berhalter told The Athletic. 'It's never come for me all at once. I've had to work really hard to be where I'm at, so it's kind of like — I don't want to say it's what I'm expecting, but it's something that I have the confidence that if I just keep doing what I'm going to do, then eventually it's going to come.'
The 2020 season was poised to be the dawn of Berhalter's MLS career. He had just signed a homegrown contract with the Columbus Crew and was projected to earn MLS minutes. When the COVID-19 pandemic put the country into lockdown, however, his development went in an entirely different direction.
With the world displaying an abundance of caution, the sport stood still for clubs and countries alike. There were no games, no training sessions for young players to get their reps and be ready for a return to play. Sebastian headed to Chicago, joining his father and working under Gregg to refine his game as his professional career was just kicking off.
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Look beyond the family ties, and this was a rare chance for a still-developing young midfielder to get one-on-one guidance from an active national team coach. Throughout his upbringing, Sebastian had been told he'd need to forge his own path to reach his professional dreams.
'That's probably, when I look back at it, one of the most important times in my life, in terms of as a soccer player and as a person,' the younger Berhalter said of those sessions at a field beside Lane Tech High School.
'He knows how to kind of keep me in check, how to push my buttons. It was fun, man. Looking back on it, that's exactly what I needed. I needed to kind of be broken down a little bit, and that's what he did.'
Admittedly, Sebastian didn't always 'love it all the time.' There was no corner to cut, no eased expectations to keep the peace at that night's dinner. These sessions were tailored specifically to bolster the young player's chances of enjoying a successful career.
Among the most important takeaways from these sessions was helping Sebastian adjust his game to 'physically, actually just grow into my body.' Speed was at the top of the list, recalibrating his stride and explosiveness to get as much from him as he could.
'He did a great job, and I'm thankful for that,' Sebastian said, 'because it was one of the only times in my life he's really trained with me. He was super hands off (when I was) growing up. It was always, like, 'You've got to do it by yourself.' It kind of instilled that into me, my work ethic — 'OK, if I want this, I'm gonna have to go get it.''
While he didn't immediately parlay those lessons into a starting role, making nine league appearances as the Crew went on to win MLS Cup 2020, it was a vital crash course that provided a sturdy bedrock upon which to build out his technical skillset and mental acumen.
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When talking about those training sessions, Berhalter calls himself 'one of the luckiest guys in the world.' If he feels he needs a keen observer to provide a tip or some advice, he's able to pick the brain of the USMNT coach with the best winning percentage of anyone who has held the job on a permanent basis.
There were times, however, when that status as a national team manager put Gregg and his family in a bright, if unwanted, spotlight — perhaps at no time more than after the 2022 World Cup.
Sebastian was in Qatar throughout the USMNT's run, seeing his dad's team advance from its group before falling to the Netherlands in the round of 16. Soon after, news broke that midfield star Gio Reyna — whose lack of utilization was a common talking point during the team's run — had frustrated his teammates with a lack of effort in training before the opening match against Wales. Reyna apologized to the team later during the group stage, and the matter seemed resolved.
Public interest around Reyna's situation sustained into early 2023, when Gregg Berhalter's comments at a leadership symposium went public. He referenced the situation (omitting any player's name) in what he said was supposed to be an off-record session. News also broke that Reyna's parents, Claudio and Danielle, had called U.S. Soccer to bring up a domestic incident between Gregg and his now-wife, Rosalind, while the two were in college — a perceived attempt at blackmail against a coach who didn't start their child at a World Cup.
That the two families were close and had shared deep ties with each other made for, without a doubt, one of the ugliest off-field scandals in program history. Berhalter was ultimately re-hired for a second tenure after an independent investigation, and his dynamic with Gio Reyna was a frequent point of discussion through the rest of his tenure, which ended after the 2024 Copa América. While it was undeniably a difficult moment, Sebastian felt it ultimately strengthened the Berhalters' bond.
'I think it definitely brought our family closer together, everyone,' Sebastian said. 'Because of that, we're closer together than we were before, which is cool, just to see everyone have each other's backs. Now we know that we're a tight-knit family.'
Berhalter unequivocally said he's proud of his father's work with the USMNT, adding that he took cues from how Gregg handled media scrutiny.
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'It just never affected him. It doesn't matter what anyone says, you're doing your job. It's something that I definitely take with me,' he said.
Given their similar ages and parents' friendship, Sebastian and Gio (who is roughly 18 months younger) grew up as friends. When asked if he and Gio have spoken about the saga, or if their relationship is in a better place, Sebastian simply said 'no,' not displaying a desire to elaborate.
To further Berhalter's development after its 2020 MLS Cup title, Columbus sent him on loan to Austin FC for their inaugural season in 2021. Coached by Josh Wolff, a former assistant of Gregg's with the Crew and USMNT, Sebastian Berhalter admitted he 'got beat down a little bit,' but quickly assessed that it was what he needed to make it at the game's highest level.
When Austin, whose sporting director at the time was Claudio Reyna, turned down the purchase option at the end of his loan, Berhalter was traded by Columbus to Vancouver for just $50,000 of allocation money — the lowest amount MLS allows teams to trade — with an additional $50,000 of performance metrics. Even when assuming he cleared those benchmarks, it's among the best bargain acquisitions in recent memory.
Since joining the Whitecaps, Berhalter's minutes have increased with each successive season, and he's on track to eclipse his 2024 ledger of 2,021 in MLS competition. He has evolved into the archetypal box-to-box midfielder, a late-arriving number 8 who can keep the team moving towards goal while having an eagerness to track back and defend if possession changes hands. He's part of an established core that have been together for multiple seasons, making movement patterns easier as many starters can dependably trust each other's instincts.
'I think you see that when we play,' Berhalter said. 'You can see it's a group that's been together for three to four years, and everyone trusts each other. Everyone believes in each other. We know each other so well. It's nice to see that everything's coming together.'
Goals like the opener on Sunday are also a byproduct of how the Whitecaps have had to adjust in the young season. Since 2021, Scotland international Ryan Gauld has been at the heart of Vancouver's attack, among the best playmakers in MLS. However, Gauld picked up a knee injury in the team's third game of the regular season, leaving reason to wonder if the club could maintain its form without its most important facilitator.
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Berhalter has picked up some of that responsibility, also benefitting from new coach Jesper Sørensen's field-tilt machine that keeps more of Vancouver's touches in the final third. As of April 29, he averages 37.4 pass attempts in the opponent's half per 90 minutes, up from roughly 26 per 90 in each of the last three seasons. Despite the massive uptick in volume, he's also displayed career-best accuracy, completing 87.9% of his attacking half passes and 79% of those attempted in the final third.
'It's something I think I can do as a player, and it's been fun,' Berhalter said of his increased utilization near the box. 'I like arriving. I feel like when I arrive, I can still get back, so it's not a big issue for me. I want to score, I want to assist, I want to help the team win games. I think that's the most important thing, whatever role it is.'
'Arriving' is a word Berhalter uses often when talking about his progression over the past year or two, using movement to unsettle a defense as it establishes itself against an attack. Two players he studies closely in regards to arriving are Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali and Barcelona attacking midfielder Pedri.
'I think those two are ones that are a little bit different in ways,' Berhalter said. 'But they both have that almost defining characteristic of having their specialties. With Tonali, it's just powerful, being able to arrive (despite contact). Pedri, it's the way he can take the ball anywhere and also still being able to arrive.'
He's also a key figure on a team that's often overlooked in the broader MLS landscape. Vancouver props up the upper-left corner of the league's geography, some distance from other Canadian clubs in Toronto and Montreal while being overshadowed in the Pacific Northwest by a historic rivalry between the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers. This year has even more weight to it for Vancouver, as the club is actively up for sale.
Berhalter stops short of branding his team an underdog, even as it squares off with the superteam on the opposite corner of MLS's map. He said Vancouver 'doesn't need the media attention,' and has gotten used to not getting much over the past three seasons. When bringing a 2-0 advantage from the first leg to Miami, it's highly unlikely that the moment will phase the Whitecaps.
'Yeah, it's one game at a time,' Berhalter said. 'That's probably been the biggest thing, because when you have that many games, you can't look too far ahead. Especially with opponents like Miami, you can tend to look ahead and be like, 'Oh, we're playing this guy, playing that guy.' It's been good. It's honestly been impressive with this group, how we've handled this. I think just internally, everyone's been really driven, really focused, and everyone knows what they need to do to get the job done.'
The Berhalter family has never been more present in MLS, with Sebastian starring for an MLS Cup contender and Gregg attempting to rebuild the Chicago Fire as head coach and director of football. And we may again see a member of the family back with the USMNT given Sebastian's play. Few midfielders in the U.S. pool are in as fine of form, and his two-way play and emergence stand in sharp contrast to the criticism U.S. players received after a shocking showing in March's Nations League finals.
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As of April 28, Berhalter said he hasn't heard from manager Mauricio Pochettino or his staff about whether he's being eyed for a possible call-up at this summer's Concacaf Gold Cup. Then again, these things move quickly — Charlotte FC striker Patrick Agyemang hadn't heard from the federation either until just before his debut in January. While Berhalter is level-headed as always with his answer, it's clear how much it would mean for him to represent his country.
'It's been my dream since I've been a kid, but I think it's something that I'm just taking one game at a time,' Berhalter said. 'Being around the national team so much — I think I've watched every recent game more than probably anyone else has (laughing) — but yeah, it's not something I'm thinking about. I just worry about winning games here and performing well.'
Those wins keep coming for Vancouver, which sits atop the MLS Supporters' Shield standings at the end of April. Goal contributions and good team results are providing plenty of highlights and moments to bookmark. So, too, did the team's sole defeat to date in league play.
On March 22, with the Whitecaps among many teams carrying depleted rosters during the international window, Vancouver welcomed Chicago to BC Place. For the first time, Sebastian lined up against a team coached by his father. The Fire won 3-1.
Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable instance for a player who has earned his starting spot. Regardless of whether he breaks through with the U.S. before the World Cup, or at all, his form since becoming a regular in the Whitecaps' lineup last year has cemented his arrival.
'I went to him before the game,' Sebastian said of Gregg, 'and right after everyone shook hands, he just came over and said he's proud of me. That was probably one of the coolest moments in my career, where you have your dad on the sideline telling you he's proud of you.
'It was a cool moment. That gave me the confidence to just go have fun and enjoy it; you know, you've earned this.'