Gregg Berhalter’s Former Coach: Steffen’s World Cup Exclusion Was a ‘Good Call’

Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, SiriusXM FC host Glenn Crooks sat lanugo with Rick Jacobs to discuss U.S. Men’s National Team throne mentor Gregg Berhalter’s visualization to leave Middlesbrough goalkeeper Zack Steffen off his squad.

Jacobs, who coached Berhalter in upper school, thinks Berhalter excluded Steffen from the roster due to his accent on “team unity” and made the correct decision. Watch the video here:

Berhalter and Steffen have a history together. Berhalter coached Steffen on the Columbus Crew SC, surpassing calling on him to join the USMNT without stuff named throne mentor in 2018.

Steffen made 6 appearances in 2018 and then 11 increasingly in 2019 rhadamanthine Berhalter’s top nomination in goal.

It remained that way through 2022 World Cup qualifying. Steffen started the last three Concacaf qualifiers which included a wipe sheet at Estadio Azteca versus Mexico.

It was then perplexing that Steffen was left off the squad that is currently in Qatar preparing for their World Cup opener versus Wales.

Berhalter offered a nebulous explanation, but Rick Jacobs said he understood.

Steffen has struggled in recent matches for Middlesbrough and Jacobs – Berhalter’s upper school mentor at St. Benedicts Prep in Newark, NJ – deduced that his former sweeper when made the difficult visualization based on team culture from a recent episode of “The Coaching Academy.”

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