Footy Prime is joined by USMNT and Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Sebastien Berhalter!

The gang chats everything from his MD-1 cold plunges, growing up in football as a coach’s kid and his recent ascent as a player in MLS.

We’re just talking about this cold dip you do, match day minus one, and mindfulness. Why do you do it?

You know, it started almost like a year and a half ago and it was something that I was like, what am I doing? Like when am I uncomfortable? And I was just thinking about it. I was like, I don’t feel like almost in a day sometimes I’m not even uncomfortable. I’m just going through things and it’s fine. And then I saw some David Goggins to push yourself. And then one day I was like, “Alright, I’m just gonna, why can’t I just go in the ocean?” You know? He was doing it. I was like, “Why can’t I do it?” So then I did it. 

And then I did it a couple times like, “Alright, this kind of sucks.” And then my buddy Giuseppe Bovalina started doing it with me. And then it just became our thing. Every game minus one, he’d walk to my place, we walk to the water, do our thing, come back. So it just started with trying to be a little bit more comfortable.

Is there anything that you guys do as a team, because you have proven over the course of the season that you guys are mentality monsters, that serves to almost train you to exist in that discomfort?

Honestly, I think it’s just time. I think it’s time. Like I’ve had so many guys that have been here for almost four years. I think that just is us being together for so long and knowing each other so well that no one is going to give up in this moment and we’re just going to fight and give it all we got.

Is it the ocean you dip in, or a lake? What is it?

False Creek

Is it polluted?

Super polluted. Haven’t got sick yet. And, you know, all the water.

So you guys are heading down to San Diego I believe on Friday and we were talking about the different surfaces that you play on. You’re now going down to play on a hybrid bermuda pitch. Compared to artificial and different grasses that you play on, do you find there’s a challenge with the team and yourself personally when you’re playing on different surfaces?

Not really. I think it’s just something that you can’t control. It’s the same for the other team and you can’t control it. So for me there’s nothing to get worked up about or let it get into anything I do. It is what it is.

Looking at your career and you were at Columbus, then you were on loan to Austin and I’m a firm believer that every footballer needs to find a home where you’re comfortable and you start to really enjoy your football. What is it about Vancouver, the city and the club where all of a sudden now you’re flourishing and playing a fantastic brand of football?

I think it starts with them believing in me and me feeling that. Again, there was no reason for them to trade for me, I barely even played, really almost nothing to show as a professional soccer player yet I just proved myself. 

We did win the MLS Cup the first year, but didn’t have an impact really so I think it started with that belief and then just having the almost just them welcoming me, comforting me and just nurturing it, and being like, “Okay, you’re not going to play right away, just keep working.” 

And for me it was just every day was just okay, I’m just going to try to keep getting better, keep getting better and take one day and stack it on top of the next. So it just created an environment that let me grow and let me improve and just to keep getting better and better.

You cost I think $50,000 in allocation. I think that was the trade. I mean it’s one of the great steals in recent MLS history. You spoke about this on YouTube on the breakaway about how there was a time where you didn’t think you were good enough. You looked around and you thought I’m the worst player on the pitch right now. When was that moment when it clicked, or did you always have the confidence and it was just finding the right situation?

It was almost like I knew how bad I was and I’m such a confident guy and confident player that I’m like okay I’m good. And then it just hit me. I was like maybe this isn’t good enough, maybe I’m actually turning every single ball over at training. And I just had to be real with myself. My pops had a huge impact on that and being real with me and saying look you need to get a lot better, and he was right, having those hard talks with me.

Then it was after this game in San Jose, I just told him, called him and said, “Hey, I might have to quit here. This isn’t even fun. I’m not having fun. I thought I loved this. I don’t think I love it.” 

And he’s just supporting me honestly. He’s like, “Just keep working. Whatever you want to do, no problem. Keep working hard and see where it ends you. But if this is what you want and you just want to stop playing, no problem.” And I was like, “Okay.”

So from then, it was just like finding processes and finding routines and doing the most; writing down my whole day, every minute of what I’m going to do, reading books and talking to people and just gathering resources and creating a team around me. And now that support system is the reason why I’m here today because I can reach out to so many people. 

Honestly, I feel like a lot of sports players go through similar things where they have a moment where they’re not that good and then all of a sudden now it’s like, okay how do I get better and how do they adapt? So I don’t think it’s super uncommon. I think mine was a little bit more extreme because I wasn’t even a player yet. I didn’t have any pressure on me. It was just like I wasn’t even good enough yet. I think that moment has been the biggest moment in my career so far to lead me to where I am today.

With your dad being such a high-profile guy in the United States and playing all over the place and you were born in London because he was at Crystal Palace at the time. Did that add a little bit of pressure on you as well having your dad being so high profile?

I think it only helped because it kind of gave me that chip on my shoulder. I was never good enough. I was always just a coach’s son. And I think without that little motivation, that little trying to prove people wrong, it’s still the way I play today. 

I still have that fire and still have that, like, I just want to keep proving people wrong. And sometimes I have no one even wrong to prove, and when there’s no one, I just sometimes make it up. And I’m just like, “All right, I just got to keep going and show these people.” And it’s just how I am.

I remember a previous coach talked to me. He’s like, “Hey, you don’t need to keep proving anything to us. You’re good.” And I was like once I’m good, I know I’m in a tough spot. So that’s why I’m like no, I want to keep getting better and I want to keep proving to myself and to everyone that I’m the player that I think I am.

That chip-on-your-shoulder mentality, is that set up perfectly for Vancouver Whitecaps and what you guys are trying to do this year and how you’re seen, perhaps the perception of the Whitecaps in MLS, that you’re out to prove people wrong?

I think so, but I also think it’s deserved. We’ve never won anything. We’ve never advanced past the conference semi-finals. So people shouldn’t expect for us to be where we’re at. And I think when I came into the club with Tristan Blackmon,  he just came from LAFC and had a lot of success there, and I think we were the only two guys who came in during the transfer window and we were just looking at each other like whoa, this is kind of a reality check. 

We were like alright, things are going to have to change here and we’re going to have to be a big part of it and it’s going to take time. I think we both knew that. And other guys coming in and Jesper coming in has really helped that. But I think that’s something that’s been big, letting it take its time and eventually it’s going to come, and being patient and just keeping doing the right things.

How is it playing under Jesper Sørensen? He seems to be getting the best out of you guys and you’re playing a terrific brand of football at the moment.

He’s great. I think he’s a realist. He’s never going to sugarcoat anything. He doesn’t know any other way. But he cares. He cares about the person before the player. And I think that’s important. And that’s what guys have connected to and I think everyone has just loved him coming in and being who he is.

He spoke about your football IQ and you mentioned how you’re a student of the game. But there’s that side to you and the passion as well, seeing that on Saturday lifting not just your teammates but the crowd. Even us watching, it’s like come on, get in there, son, because you’re just so alive with the match itself. Does that come naturally to you as well?

It definitely comes naturally. I think honestly growing up around my dad and I felt like I was an ultra of like four teams with every team he was with. I’m in with the fans cheering and I’m feeling everything the players are feeling and I think that had an impact on how I am today. I’ve been a fan almost my whole life and I know what it’s like to be in the stands. I think that it’s just how I am. It’s natural and it just felt like what we needed and what was going to get us over the finish line.