USMNT’s Gregg Berhalter talks World Cup prep, says team ‘can beat

DOHA, Qatar — Eight years ago, Jurgen Klinsmann famously said it was impossible for his U.S. men’s national team to win the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He said it to me in an extended interview for The New York Times Magazine a few months before the tournament, then doubled down on it in a news conference in Sao Paulo just before the USMNT’s opener. Klinsmann felt it was important to be blunt, but many American fans — and some of Klinsmann’s own players — were troubled by what felt like a defeatist attitude.

On Saturday, in an exclusive interview with ESPN two days before his U.S. team open the World Cup, head coach Gregg Berhalter considered the same question. He paused, just a for a moment, then smiled.

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“What I do believe,” he said, “is that on our best day we can beat anyone in the world. Anyone.”

That’s the mentality Berhalter has ingrained in his young team, pushing them to embrace the idea that the only way they’ll make history is if they believe they can. To help advance that way of thinking, Berhalter recently organized a team meeting in which Eric Thomas, a popular motivational speaker with a remarkable personal story of rising up from homelessness, talked with the players about the incredible power of belief.

And while Berhalter, a well-known sneakerhead, said he hasn’t yet picked which shoes he’ll wear to the USMNT’s first match against Wales, he didn’t hesitate when asked how many pairs he’d brought with him to Qatar: seven, one for each possible game through to the final.

“Look, it is a great honor to play in the World Cup, but we don’t want to just be participants,” Berhalter said. “We want to perform.”

To be clear: Berhalter isn’t predicting the U.S. will be champions. He’s simply focusing on the notion that success rarely comes without conviction. That was something Berhalter learned first as an…