How the USMNT backed itself into a 2022 World Cup qualifying corner

U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart (left) and USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter have committed to a plan. And nobody, not even them, can be sure it's going to work. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)Earnie Stewart arrived with a vision. For better or worse, on a momentous Chicago morning last August, U.S. Soccer’s first general manager walked through the gates at 1801 S. Prairie Ave. to stabilize a rudderless program. He came with a plan. A few months later, he hired a coach to implement it. And finally, after years of clamoring for some direction, U.S. men’s national team fans had what they’d clamored for.

Stewart’s arrival represented a stark departure from the scatterbrained reign of…