Soccer <\/p>\n
Even in Vancouver\u2019s warmest months, the water at the mouth of False Creek remains pretty brisk by most people\u2019s standards: 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) on average in midsummer, with occasional spikes like the one that\u2019s nudged English Bay\u2019s current levels up to about 19 degrees C (66 F).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Those are wetsuit conditions for all but the hardiest of swimmers or surfers. Sebastian Berhalter<\/a> and his Whitecaps FC<\/a> teammate Giuseppe Bovalina<\/a> have gotten comfortable with the discomfort, though, enshrining an early-morning dip into their pregame rituals, accompanied by some meditation and mindfulness.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s something we do every gameday-1, home and away,\u201d Berhalter explains in the latest episode of Breakaway<\/a>, whose film crew accompanied the breakout midfielder around Rain City earlier this season for the series’ latest episode.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the biggest thing, it’s really a grounding moment, you know? It’s doing stuff that you don’t necessarily want to do. You don’t want to wake up at 6:15, you don’t want to go in cold water.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gets you prepared for the day, and it gets you prepared in that mindset of like, if I can do this, I can do a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n If his breakout 2025 is anything to go by, it\u2019s all working as intended for the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n After five years of grind and graft across three different MLS clubs, Berhalter\u2019s slow, painstaking climb from teenage homegrown to overlooked reserve to regular starter finally exploded into something much more. Over the past few months, he\u2019s become an All-Star and US international, anchoring the Whitecaps\u2019 sensational surge to the Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> final and a place among the ranks of legitimate MLS Cup contenders.<\/p>\n He says this come-up has been a long time coming.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think anything changed. I think it was more of just, opportunity,\u201d Berhalter said in a one-on-one interview<\/a> with the Scuffed podcast at the US men\u2019s national team<\/a>\u2019s hotel in New Jersey last week ahead of their friendly vs. South Korea. \u201cEvery year it’s kind of been just a steady increase, not that everything just all of a sudden clicks. It\u2019s just kind of been steady: each year get a little bit better, little bit better, and just keep working, finding ways to improve.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it’s just at the point where I’m at where I’m at. People might be surprised or shocked, but this is where I feel like I should be now, you know? And this is the progression that my career has led me to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n Meteoric rise<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n