{"id":380590,"date":"2026-06-30T12:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/380590\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:57:14","slug":"for-sebastian-berhalter-shot-with-the-u-s-team-well-worth-the-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/380590\/","title":{"rendered":"For Sebastian Berhalter, shot with the U.S. team well worth the wait"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some kids grow up with video games and summer camp. Sebastian Berhalter grew up with the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He was 13 months old when his father, Gregg<\/a>, played in the tournament for the first time and 5 when his dad was called back. And four years ago, when Sebastian was already a professional in his own right, he went to Qatar to watch his father coach the U.S. to the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Yet none of that prepared the younger Berhalter for his own World Cup debut earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d Sebastian said. \u201cBefore the game, I just kept chuckling to myself, like, \u2018What the hell is going on?\u2019 Literally I couldn\u2019t believe it. Playing for my country, it\u2019s the best feeling in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t believe that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor could he believe what happened next. Because after making appearances off the bench in the team\u2019s first two group-play games \u2014 both of which<\/a> ended in U.S. victories<\/a> \u2014 Berhalter started the third game. And with a goal and an assist in a loss to Turkey<\/a>, he already has more World Cup goals and assists than his dad.<\/p>\n

In fact, he\u2019s the only American with a goal and assist in the same World Cup game in the last 96 years. Not bad for your first start in the tournament.<\/p>\n

His father still has bragging rights in one category, however, since the 2002 team he played for is still the only American team to win a knockout game in a World Cup. Sebastian can match that Wednesday in Santa Clara when the U.S. plays Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 of this summer\u2019s expanded tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a good team,\u201d Sebastian said of the Bosnians. \u201cIt\u2019s a round of 32, so do or die. I think you play every game like it\u2019s a knockout game. For us it\u2019s, it\u2019s keep doing what we\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Gregg provided the inspiration and the road map that guided his son to the World Cup team, the younger Berhalter had to wait for Mauricio Pochettino<\/a> before he could take his first steps on that road. That came in the spring of 2025, about 11 months after his dad had been sacked as coach, when Pochettino, the new manager, gave the younger Berhalter his first national team call-up.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s gone on to make 16 appearances for the U.S., including three in the World Cup. And that\u2019s something Gregg is convinced couldn\u2019t have happened as long as he was coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about it all the time,\u201d he recently told ESPN. \u201cI never could have picked him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scrutiny would have been too fierce, he feared, the whispers of nepotism too loud. Sure, Michael Bradley played more than 50 internationals games for his father Bob, including four in the 2010 World Cup. But he was already on the team when his father took over from Bruce Arena, who gave Michael his first call-up.<\/p>\n

So, Sebastian had to wait. He had to play for three MLS teams, win an MLS Cup and three Canadian Championships and become too good to ignore in order to get his first shot with the national team \u2014 one which came from Pochettino, not his father.<\/p>\n

Neither Berhalter has regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I know,\u201d Gregg, now coach and sporting director of the Chicago Fire, told ESPN, \u201cis that everything is in the place it\u2019s supposed to be. This is how life is. It\u2019s his turn. It\u2019s his time now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s playing as if there\u2019s no time to waste.<\/p>\n

After making his international debut in a friendly with Switzerland last May, Sebastian played five full games in the Gold Cup last summer, then scored his first international goal in a friendly with Uruguay less than three weeks before leading the Vancouver Whitecaps into the MLS Cup against Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

So, when the time came for Pochettino to name his World Cup roster last month, it was clear Sebastian, 25, had earned a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a monster. He\u2019s a monster, in the way of how professional he is,\u201d the coach said. \u201cHe\u2019s the type of player who\u2019s going to train, going to train, going to train. I mean, sometimes I have to say [to him], \u2018Go inside, no?\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n

After stumbling in the group-play final, which Turkey won with a goal deep in stoppage time, the U.S. will have no room for error in its first elimination game. It\u2019s a game in which history may \u2014 or may not \u2014 be on the Americans\u2019 side.<\/p>\n

On one side, the U.S. is winless in its last 13 games against European opponents. On the other, its last win over a UEFA team came in December 2021, in California, over Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team to which it has never lost.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an omen in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to win the World Cup,\u201d Sebastian said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we want to do. It\u2019s always been our mission and we\u2019re still taking it one game at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the family record book to think about. One more victory and Sebastian will have more World Cup wins than his dad. Two more and he\u2019ll be in the tournament quarterfinals, which is as far as his father went in his first World Cup.<\/p>\n

In Qatar, Sebastian was the one in stands, cheering on his dad. In this tournament, the roles have been reversed. And Gregg told his son he couldn\u2019t be happier about or prouder of how things have worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years ago, I was waiting for him to come up in the stands. Now, he was waiting for me to come up in the stands,\u201d Sebastian said. \u201cThat was special.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear words that your dad is proud of you, that\u2019s a cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some kids grow up with video games and summer camp. Sebastian Berhalter grew up with the World Cup.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9229,6314,153886,9831,423,2194,153887,48,52,51,47,50,49,138083,153885,129647,427,12967,2281,5393,153888],"class_list":["post-380590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dad","tag-father","tag-father-coach","tag-first-time","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-gregg","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mauricio-pochettino","tag-sebastian","tag-sebastian-berhalter","tag-team","tag-tournament","tag-u-s","tag-world-cup","tag-young-berhalter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}