'A dream come true for me' - USMNT boss Gregg Berhalter reacts to World Cup final announcement and gives update on preparations for the 2026 tournament

FIFA announced on Sunday that the 2026 World Cup final will be held in New York/New Jersey, with MetLife Stadium set to host the final game of the world's biggest soccer tournament. Previous reports had pegged Dallas as the favorite to host the final match, but the New York/New Jersey bid ultimately won out for the right to stage the final.

Berhalter, who was born and raised in New Jersey, was thrilled with the news, having spent his youth heading to Giants Stadium, MetLife Stadium's predecessor, to watch the New York Cosmos. Now head coach of the U.S. men's national team, his dream is to return to East Rutherford for a World Cup final.

"It's going to be a special World Cup," Berhalter said. "To have the final in New York/New Jersey is a dream come true for me. Being from that area, and I'm sure for most people from that area, it's an area with a rich tradition of soccer and producing players. To think about when I was little, going to watch the Cosmos and them selling out Giants Stadium, and now this stadium is going to host a World Cup final. It's really special."

FIFA also announced the USMNT's group stage schedule on Sunday, with Berhalter's side starting the tournament with a match in Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium on June 12, 2026. Their next match will be held in Seattle one week later before a return to SoFi Stadium on June 25 to close the group stage.

"It's no secret that the teams were able to give FIFA some input in terms of the venues," Berhatler said, "and our main piece of advice was about the travel and trying to minimize travel and minimize timezones because we know the wear and tear that can take on your body during a major tournament. So overall, we're excited about the single timezone, excited about the lack of travel in the group stage and looking forward to a strong World Cup."

He added: "We've done a lot of work on the base camp already. We're building a national training center and that will be opened before 2026. That's very much in our plans: to utilize our National Training Center, a state-of-the-art facility. I'm thinking about the guys going in there for the first time and it's going to blow them away. We're going to utilize that and then somehow shift over to the West Coast for the tournament and be based there. We see it kind of as a dual-usage type of thing, but we will probably be based in Southern California, go out to Seattle for that game and come back right after the game has finished and regroup in LA."

The last time the World Cup was held in the U.S. in 1994, the tournament final was staged at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Rose Bowl also hosted the semifinal and the third-place game, with Giants Stadium hosting the second semifinal.

Before looking toward 2026, the USMNT first must navigate a busy 2024. Up first is the Nations League, with the U.S. set to play the semifinal and, potentially, a final in March. After that, all eyes will be on this summer's Copa America, which will also be hosted in the U.S. The U.S. will also be sending a team to the Olympics later this summer, giving Berhalter plenty of chances to see different players in high-level competitions on the road to 2026.