For U.S. World Cup coach Gregg Berhalter, it all began in N.J.

The Saint Benedict’s boys’ soccer team recently was named the No. 1 team in the country for the 14th time in program history, and on the walls of the Newark school are photos from those teams, including the school’s first top-ranked squad in 1990.

Scan the pictures of the 1990 Gray Bees, who were 25-0, and you’ll spot a few future stars: Jim Wandling, who is the current St. Benedict’s coach; U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame inductee Claudio Reyna; and the guy who will coach the U.S. Men’s National Team at the World Cup in Qatar, Gregg Berhalter.

It’s like looking at a team photo of the Yankees’ first championship in 1923: The names on the roster are iconic, but many more titles and stars will follow. Wandling played left back on that team alongside Berhalter, a sweeper-back.

As Berhalter prepares the USMNT for its World Cup opener on Monday against Wales in Group B play, Wandling reminisced to NJ Advance Media about his teammate, who was born in Englewood and grew up in Tenafly.

“He was a student of the game even back when he was in high school,” Wandling said. “He was a very personable guy. Good sense of humor. He treated everyone with the same level of respect, and that’s played out for him over the course of his coaching career.”

Rick Jacobs, who coached the 1990 team, had a 25-year run at St. Benedict’s, starting in 1985, one year after another star — Tab Ramos — had come through the program. Jacobs recalls that Berhalter ended up at St. Benedict’s thanks to the Reyna family.

After watching a few of the Gray Bees’ games, Claudio’s dad, Miguel, decided he wanted his son to play at St. Benedict’s, and he suggested it as a place for Berhalter, who was Reyna’s best friend on a Union County club team coached by Miguel Reyna.

“Miguel said Gregg’s mom and dad may have some interest in St. Benedict’s as well,” Jacobs said. “The Reynas and Berhalters have always been and remain almost like brothers and sisters — like a family.”

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Jacobs – who has remained in touch with Berhalters – recognized the soccer intelligence and a maturity that led to more than 350 professional appearances, domestically and in Europe.

“Gregg’s greatest asset was knowing his strengths and where his deficiencies were,” Jacobs said. “He played on a significant level of tactical awareness. Everybody trusted Gregg. When he told you what to do, you did it because you believed he understood what was going on.”

New Jersey connections have followed Berhalter to the World Cup: His squad includes goalkeeper Matt Turner from Park Ridge, and midfielder Brenden Aaronson from Medford. They will play alongside the team’s biggest stars — Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Weston McKennie.

While there were some surprises when Berhalter chose his World Cup team, Wandling insists the coach knows how to build a team. He saw it first-hand at St. Benedict’s, where Berhalter — mentored by Jacobs — sculpted an ethnically and economically diverse group of individuals. All sorts of kids ended up at inner-city St. Benedict’s.

“Team-building was the very backbone of our efforts at St. Benedict’s,” Wandling said. “It’s opening up about the differences we live with each day. When you have the ability to bring those differences all together, it creates a really special experience. He embraced the differences.

“Early on when Gregg got the [USMNT] job, there were a lot of players talking about the culture that he was implementing. I believe that part of his ability to team-build goes back to what he learned from Rick all the way back in the late ‘80′s and early ‘90′s.”

Jacobs has watched Berhalter throughout his professional coaching career, which began as an assistant with the L.A. Galaxy of Major League Soccer, took him to Hammerby in Sweden and then Columbus Crew SC, where he reached the MLS Final in 2015.

“The Gregg I see, and I’ve seen over these last years is the same guy,” he said. “Sometimes he’s the student and sometimes he’s the teacher.”

And Jacobs believes the student Berhalter absorbed a critical lesson in coaching — that program culture can trump skill set when it comes to succeeding at the highest level.

He used Zack Steffen as an example. A month after Berhalter was named USMNT head coach in 2018, he brought Steffen, his former Columbus Crew goalkeeper, January camp. Steffen made six appearances in 2018 and then 11 more in 2019, becoming Berhalter’s No. 1 goaltender.

It remained that way through 2022 World Cup qualifying. Steffen started the last three Concacaf qualifiers, which included a clean sheet at Estadio Azteca against Mexico.

Despite some uneven performances at Middlesbrough in ‘22, it was perplexing that Steffen was left off the World Cup squad. Berhalter offered a vague explanation, but Jacobs said he understood.

“I think Gregg made a good call on Steffen,” Jacobs said. “Gregg determined that Steffen could not be a No. 2 or No. 3 from a culture standpoint. I believe that he thought that Zack wasn’t going to be the best candidate for that from a team standpoint.

“We’ll know that level of culture and determination, their ability to play for each other and play for the badge. That’s where the United States will need to shine because they will walk on the field against opposition that they won’t be as good at in loads of positions. The proof will now be in how they compete collectively, because if it’s left to individuals, it won’t go well.”