Gregg Berhalter is rightly proud of a playing career that includes 44 caps and two FIFA World Cups™. It’s nonetheless tough to shake the feeling that his timing was just off.

USA’s national coach did, after all, make his international debut in October 1994 – a few months after his team, and his nation, had made history at an unforgettable home World Cup.

Fast forward three decades though, and Berhalter finds himself with a mouth-watering opportunity to make up for that near miss.

The FIFA World Cup 2026™ is edging ever closer, and Sunday brought another major milestone with the unveiling of the tournament’s match schedule.

The details announced made an already-unmissable event all the more enticing, with the awarding of the final to New York New Jersey – Berhalter’s hometown – of particular significance to the co-hosts’ coach.

“It’s a dream come true for me being from the area, and I’m sure for most people from that area,” he said. “It’s an area with a rich soccer tradition and known for producing players. To think about when I was little going to watch the Cosmos and then selling out Giants Stadium and now this stadium is going to host a World Cup final, it’s really special.”

“If there wasn’t motivation already to try to get to the final, there’s a little bit of extra motivation now to be playing, potentially 15 minutes away from where I grew up,” he added. “That really would be a dream come true.”

Berhalter also discussed Los Angeles’ selection as the venue for his team’s opening matches and fielded questions from FIFA on the Copa America, Men’s Olympic Football Tournament and World Cup preparations.

What are your thoughts about USA’s first match being played in Los Angeles?
It’s an iconic soccer city. The history of Los Angeles in hosting major international events is unrivalled across the world, hosting already three finals: one Men’s World Cup final and two Women’s World Cup finals. The US has had great success there, beating Colombia in the group stage of the ‘۹۴ World Cup.

Think about a traditional club like LA Galaxy winning multiple MLS Cups, and LAFC, which is a newer team but one really taking the league by storm. Then you have the hotbed of talent that Southern California has produced, and you add all that together to the Hollywood script and SoFi Stadium being one of the best stadiums in the world, so there’s a lot going on in LA. We’re excited to have our opening game there.

What do you think fans coming to this World Cup in North America should be excited about?
Fans coming to this World Cup should expect an amazing sporting event. The United States, Mexico and Canada are going to put on a tournament like no other, and it’s starting with facilities, the cities, the hospitality – in everything you can think about. The other thing is the collection of people that will come here. It’s really going to make for a special event, and the United States is great at doing things like this.

Without qualifiers to negotiate for this World Cup, does that change how you approach tournaments like the Concacaf Nations League and Copa America?
Without having to qualify for this World Cup, it adds extra importance to events like those. It gives us an opportunity to rehearse what the World Cup will actually be like and to play in a tournament like Copa America, the highest level besides the World Cup, will be a great opportunity for our team.

Your U-23s are back in the Olympics for the first time since 2008. Will you be looking at that tournament as an audition for players who could potentially be involved in the 2026 World Cup?
We’re hoping to use the Olympics in Paris as an opportunity for some of the younger players to state their case to be involved with the senior team. We have a talented group of young players, and now it’s about how do they make that step on the international level to get to the senior national team and be part of the World Cup team.

You narrowly missed out on the ’۹۴ World Cup as a player. What are your memories from that tournament and how important was it, along with the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, in establishing soccer in the US?
I think both the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women’s World Cup really helped set the stage and change soccer in America. When I think about how the whole world came together in ’۹۴, I was at games in New York and New Jersey, games in Detroit, games in Orlando, and to see the melting pot and the diversity of the fanbase, it was really a special event. And then you have the 1999 World Cup with the women, and to see how the entire nation got behind that team, it’s something we can hope to have in 2026.

In the 2022 World Cup, 25 of the 26 players on the roster were participating in a World Cup for the first time, and what it gave us was a great learning experience. We worked with the youngest playing team at that World Cup, and for this group to be able to take that experience, bring it into the 2026 World Cup and really understand what it’s like to compete at the World Cup, it was extremely important. We’ve learned those lessons, we know the intensity of it, and now it’s about: how do we thrive in knockout competition? Because winning knockout games is always going to be how you make a really successful World Cup.

Given the pressure that comes with being the host nation, how important will the mental aspect of preparation be?
Mental preparation is always important in events like the World Cup. There’s very little that separates a winning team and a losing team, and when you see the quarter-final match-ups or semi-final match-ups, usually one play decides the game, so you have to be mentally tuned in and mentally sharp.

In this World Cup, being the host nation, there is added pressure, but the way we’re looking at it is added support also. And it’s not just the host cities; all the communities around the United States that will be able to get behind our team and really push our team forward. A lot of our players have come from [different] communities, and that’s the beauty of our team – the diversity in our player group. It’s also the beauty of the United States, that we have a collection of people who will get behind the team and really support them in international events.

With the 2026 final taking place in the US, does that give you and your team added reason to dream?
That’s what Americans are good at, the chance to dream, and this World Cup is no better stage. When we think about how we can have all the communities, all the small towns, all the big cities behind us and cheering us on, that definitely creates a momentum for us to be a successful team.