Gregg Berhalter renews his title as 'striker whisperer'

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It isn't Lionel Messi. It isn't Luis Suarez. It isn't Christian Benteke, final yr's clear winner with 23 objectives to his identify. It is little-known Belgian striker Hugo Cuypers of the resurgent Chicago Fireplace.

Cuypers arrived in MLS in 2024 with a large $12 million switch price and a questionable goal-scoring report. The 27-year-old scored simply six objectives for Belgian staff Gent within the 2023-24 season and did not do significantly better in his first season in Chicago, netting simply 10 objectives in 31 video games within the Windy Metropolis in 2024.

2025, although? That is been a totally totally different story. Cuypers has eight objectives in twelve video games and he is pushing Chicago up the Japanese Convention desk. He is outperforming all his MLS friends and he is earned each penny of his $12 million switch price. Cuypers credit new coach Gregg Berhalter, previously of the U. S. Males's Nationwide Crew, for a lot of his good kind.

“His means of taking part in is fairly clear for us as a staff. It is what we would have liked after an absence of perhaps stability or id final yr, that gamers may fall again into a transparent id," Cuypers mentioned.,, by way of Charles Boehm of the MLS web site. "After which it is as much as us to execute it on the pitch. Nevertheless it certainly makes it simpler when the rules are clear.”

Many American soccer followers solely know Berhalter for his unlucky stint with the USMNT, and that is a disgrace. He is an clever coach with a powerful report of success in MLS. Berhalter has many abilities as a pacesetter, however none shine stronger than his potential to develop strikers like Cuypers. The Belgian is the third consecutive MLS scorer that Berhalter has became a league-leading expertise.

Berhalter's first striker undertaking got here in 2015, when MLS legend Kei Kamara arrived on the Columbus Crew. Kamara was coming off two middling seasons in Kansas Metropolis (11 objectives in 2012, seven objectives in 2013) and a failed mortgage spell in England (4 objectives with Middlesbrough in 2014.) Berhalter thought a easy change—transferring Kamara from a rangy vast position to an old-school down-the-middle putting place—would possibly unlock Kamara, and he was proper. Kamara scored 22 objectives in MLS in 2015.

Berhalter repeated the trick in 2018, when Gyasi Zardes arrived in Columbus from the L.A. Galaxy. As soon as hyped as the subsequent nice American striker, Zardes's profession had stuttered to a halt inside the Galaxy system. He scored simply eight objectives throughout three seasons earlier than being shipped to Ohio.

Zardes wanted a confidence enhance, and Berhalter gave it to him. He took the "subsequent massive factor" weight off Zardes's shoulders and had him give attention to serving to the staff as a substitute. The outcomes spoke for themselves: in his debut season with Columbus, Zardes scored 19 objectives and gained MLS's coveted Comeback Participant of the Yr award. He even earned himself a beginning spot within the entrance line of the USMNT.

With Cuypers, Berhalter is at it once more.

“Hugo is an attention-grabbing one. Actually is likely one of the most centered gamers I've ever seen, I've ever been round,” he mentioned, by way of Boehm. "I am amazed watching him within the penalty field, how he finishes, how he is capable of put the ball on track with no time, below lots of stress. So to me, there's simply lots of upside with him.”

If Berhalter can do with Cuypers what he did with Kamara and Zardes, then the Chicago Fireplace simply might need the oomph to make the MLS Playoffs for the primary time since 2017. The membership already beat league chief Vancouver and held Messi's Inter Miami to a 0-0 draw. The sky is the restrict for Berhalter and his males.