Berhalter "Hungry" to Succeed in Chicago

Gregg Berhalter has had plenty of job interviews in his career. This month, he had another one, one that resulted in his official presentation as the new Chicago Fire head coach and director of football on Thursday.

The process to find the Fire’s new director of football, which owner Joe Mansueto led, originally started with 80 candidates. It was quickly narrowed down to three, among which Berhalter was a frontrunner.

“We were going through the interview, and there wasn't much excitement from Joe,” Berhalter said of the process. “It was hard to get a read on him. I'm presenting for an hour and a half, and finally, I asked him about his vision for the club. That's where he came to life.”

“I get goosebumps telling the story because it was really about what he wants to do for the city of Chicago, and that's when his eyes lit up, and he was really passionate about that. I think that's the first moment that I really connected with him in terms of this job and said, ‘If a guy is this passionate about building something for the city, it says a lot about him.’ That's the story there.”

Director of Football and Head Coach

Mansueto, who is about to complete his fifth full season as owner of the Fire, has seen little success on the field in that time despite tremendous progress off of it. A successful search this fall resulting in the hiring of Berhalter seems to be a step in the right direction on all fronts.

However, when the search process started in August, Mansueto and the Fire didn’t expect that both the director of football and head coaching roles would be filled by the same person. The dual role is not exactly typical in MLS these days, but for a globally recognized coach like Berhalter, expanded control over transfers and roster-building was part of the deal.

“When we came across Gregg, he expressed a desire to do both,” Mansueto said. “While that was not initially our intention, because of who Gregg is and (the fact that) he had succeeded in this dual role before, we were confident that it would work under Gregg's leadership.”

“From my perspective, what I wanted to do, what I try to do, is to create an environment where people can do their best work. And if he can do his best work as director of football and head coach so there's this seamless connection, I'm fine with it, and he will build underneath him an organization to offload the things – obviously you can't do two full-time jobs, but he will build an organization around him, and I have every confidence he can do that.”

Berhalter’s previous success in a dual role as sporting director and head coach of the Columbus Crew provided reassurance that he would be able to take on the task after several years out of the club game. He will report directly to Mansueto and oversee all operations across the first team, second team, and academy.

From U.S.A. to Chicago

When Berhalter signed off on the Fire’s proposal, it made the club’s list of offseason tasks one extra name shorter since it alleviated the need to find another new head coach. It’s the job Berhalter has been doing for the best part of the last six years, albeit representing the United States in the dramatically different international game.

Berhalter’s re-entry into the club scene comes rather quickly after his USMNT firing. He was let go by the national team in July after the U.S.’ group stage exit from the Copa América and took the Fire job less than three months later.

Leaving the national team role – his dream job – was undoubtedly tough, but he says it motivated him to get back into the game and take over in Chicago.

“t's a really difficult moment when you get fired as a coach,” Berhalter said of his USMNT departure. “I don't want to liken this to life and death at all because it's not. You're still alive, but it is like mourning a death. You wake up the next day, and you feel really bad. Your confidence takes a hit, and it's a really difficult moment.”

“When you get past that mourning period, you have support around you, now it's about reflecting. What could I have done better? We got some information out to the players. We were able to get a lot of feedback that came back to me, and I analyzed it and said, OK, how can I improve, how can I get better for this next opportunity? Then, from there, you become motivated. During that period when I got hungry, there were a number of opportunities that I was looking at. I kept coming back to Chicago and the potential here.”

However, his task in Chicago will significantly differ from his with the national team. He will have greater control over the roster and won’t be restricted to a limited player pool. It will also involve work all day, every day, and far more time throughout the year with the squad.

Though the experiences won’t be the same, Berhalter feels his spell with the U.S. made him a better coach despite the souring performances in the final months of his tenure.

“I strive to be a better coach every day and be better than last week,” Berhalter said. “I think the experience, I think the performance under pressure, the ability to deal with pressure, to compete in high-level games, to adapt and thrive are all qualities that I've developed with the national team. It's a job that you're expected to win each and every game you're in, no matter what game it is, and working under conditions that change rapidly.”

“We always talk about and you named the roster the week before, and then on Sunday you're holding your breath because there's six players that can't come, and you have to adapt. It's about working with what you have there. So all that has made me a better coach and really prepared for this opportunity.”

A Dominant Team

In Chicago, Berhalter will aim to turn MLS’ most consistently underperforming franchises into one of its top ones. The Fire have missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons and, depending on what happens this weekend, could even finish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference for the first time in nearly a decade.

Throughout the last five seasons under a rotating door of head coaches, the Fire have lacked an identity on the field. Teams have been defined most by their shortcomings, and between 2022 and 2023, the Fire made it a habit to concede late leads. Without a distinct style of play, the team suffered.

With the national team, Berhalter redefined the way the U.S. played after the disastrous 2017 qualifying cycle. His style evolved over the course of his tenure, and when the 2022 World Cup rolled around, his gameplan helped the team battle fiercely in the group stage and advance to the knockout rounds.

With the Fire, Berhalter doesn’t just want to build an identity on the field – he wants that to immediately translate into success in the standings.

“Looking forward to Chicago, we want to be a dominant team,” Berhalter said. “We want to be a team that controls the ball. We want to be a team that's not afraid of any other team in the league. And we want to be a team that can hurt other opponents and hurting them both, offensively with the ball, but also defensive compactness, being able to maintain our shape and structure, be difficult to penetrate.”

“When I look at the Columbus team and the national team, I really think it's in the middle of both of them because in MLS, there are more open spaces. You can take advantage of spaces that are between the lines in a stretched field, so we want to certainly be able to do that offensively. Then, defensively, how are we able to control the opponent and really limit the danger that they're able to create against us.”

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With the formalities out of the way, the real work will soon commence. After Saturday’s Decision Day match against Nashville SC, Frank Klopas’ tenure will conclude, and Berhalter’s new era will begin.

But for now, things seem to be positioned pretty well.

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