It is approaching 10pm on Friday, and a happy and expectant South Stand full of home supporters at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium watch on as two slightly sheepish Americans are doing their best to fist-pump their way into marking a 1-0 Carabao Cup win over Wrexham to kickstart the 2026-27 season.Neither Max Arfsten nor Sebastian Berhalter wholly convince at this crowd-rousing — it’s a modern custom, rather than some historic tradition — but nobody cares. Both United States internationals have just enjoyed winning debuts as Middlesbrough players. There is a Stars and Stripes flag being waved and chants of “USA, USA”, Estelle’s American Boy had been on the stadium PA system at half-time, while on the touchline, non-playing Aidan Morris watches and applauds his new team-mates.Morris, Arfsten, Berhalter — these are Middlesbrough’s three American boys. They have come together at a club formed in 1876 — when Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House — and which celebrates its 150th anniversary this season. Middlesbrough FC are old and new.One hour later, Arfsten and Berhalter are outside the home dressing room, speaking to The Athletic. They are bright-eyed, excited, drained. They review what has just occurred — Arfsten got 67 minutes, Berhalter the whole 90. They are Middlesbrough’s new No 17 and No 6 respectively. Morris is the No 10.“It was definitely intense — that’s the first word that comes to mind,” says Arfsten of his first taste of British football.“It’s different. It’s physical, and it’s definitely intense,” agrees Berhalter.The No 6 earned his first assist on English soil with a clever header towards Middlesbrough’s third debutant on the night, 21-year-old Will Lankshear. Signed from Tottenham Hotspur, Lankshear’s finish was smart and decisive. It is what his new club lacked at times last season.“I think the finish was even better,” Berhalter says of his contribution.Arfsten was also involved in the build-up to the goal, and in some places may be credited with a pre-pre assist.“Yeah, we gotta change that!” he laughs. “But we played really well for the most part, and the special thing is we’re only going to get better when we’re more familiar with one another. A lot of us are still new. It was good vibes (in the dressing room), good energy, happy to get the first win of the season in a competitive match.”Then they were off to see Morris.The two new boys are living with Morris, who arrived from Columbus Crew of MLS in July 2024.Come his birthday in November, all three will be 25 years old and none of them is married; but Arfsten and Berhalter’s girlfriends land soon, and this is no re-run of when England players Paul Merson and Paul Gascoigne, plus the latter’s sidekick Jimmy ‘Five Bellies’ Gardner, briefly shared a house in the area when Merson and Gascoigne were team-mates at the Riverside a quarter of a century ago.Morris has taken the new pair to eat at Nando’s but there has been no sampling of the Teesside region’s chicken ‘parmo’ speciality and no wild nights out, nor any repeat of the Berhalter-Morris Taylor Swift TikTok spoof from a few years ago. These are serious, focused young men.“We’re trying to stay tidy. We cooked Aidan dinner last night — pasta and some salad,” Berhalter says. “We’re doing our best. He’s been great. We’re so lucky to have him. You’re going to have to ask him if he enjoyed our food.”“I think we did a good job,” Arfsten says.Their phones had already pinged with messages from U.S. team-mates who had been watching the Wrexham game on television. Both were in the U.S. World Cup squad this summer, and when the Middlesbrough possibility was growing, Berhalter says they spoke to “the guys in camp who play here (in England), Antonee Robinson and Tyler Adams, and guys who have played in England. They all said good things about the club.”Middlesbrough had not had an American player until Brad Guzan a decade ago. Zack Steffen and Matthew Hoppe followed, as did, for five months in 2022 on loan from Arsenal as a 20-year-old, Folarin Balogun. Berhalter says “speaking to him (Balogun) previously”, he, too, had recommended the club in England’s north-east.What is the future of the USMNT?Tom BogertBalogun probably had other things on his mind at the World Cup. The other person in the U.S. setup with English experience is, of course, head coach Mauricio Pochettino, previously manager of Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. He was also canvassed — “for sure,” as Arfsten says, “when I was thinking it was something I wanted to do. He was very supportive, he told me just to make sure I did some research on the club and how they like to play and their interest in you.”“Yeah,” adds Berhalter, “he (Pochettino) was a big fan of Middlesbrough. We talked about different options, different paths. He knew the owner, Steve Gibson, a bit — pretty well — and he was supportive. When I made the move, I texted him and told him it was official. He said congrats and to keep working. I told him ‘One hundred per cent’.”Rewind three days: Morris, Berhalter and Arfsten are sitting on the patio of the golf club that is adjacent to Middlesbrough’s verdant training ground. It is an idyllic setting and Arfsten, who is the most recent arrival, says: “The place seems very nice, it’s very green, there’s a lot of nature. It’s definitely a cool culture.”Arfsten, a Californian, has come to the club from Columbus Crew, as Morris did. Berhalter also played for the Ohio-based MLS club in 2020-21. His father Gregg had been manager there from 2013-18, too. Initially, Berhalter and Morris overlapped, then Morris and Arfsten.Middlesbrough clearly see something in the Crew and MLS. Chris Jones, their head of recruitment, has been a regular visitor to the States — a year ago, they signed French defender Adilson Malanda from Charlotte FC in North Carolina. Last week, Guzan sent a message to a Middlesbrough official consisting simply of three U.S. flags. Perspectives are changing.“We all have some affiliation with Columbus,” Berhalter says. “I met Aidan when I was 15, we were in the academy there. I then heard a lot about Max through Aidan, because they played together, then I got to meet Max at national camps and us three would hang out after training; we all headed off together.”Morris adds: “It was the same guy who scouted both of them, Chris Jones. He came to my games at Columbus when I was 21 or so and scouted me for a year or two. I felt like my time was up there, in MLS. I was excited to come here. I’d heard so much about the fanbase, how much it means to them.“My first few weeks were different (to the new pair), a bit lonelier, quieter. I was figuring it out by myself, the lay of the land, the culture, the community, where to live, where to go to eat, all those things. I’ve been happy. Now I’ve helped them — crash-coursed it for them.”Arfsten could have joined in January had things fallen right and has eagerly followed Middlesbrough since. Berhalter has been the same for two seasons, he says, since Morris moved across. Whereas the UK and Europe are fresh to Arfsten, Berhalter was born in London, when his dad was playing for Crystal Palace, and spent time in Germany and Sweden after that. He signed from Canadian MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps.Does Berhalter feel like he has some European identity?“I wouldn’t say identity, but I can relate to some things and understand them. Growing up in a lot of different places and seeing a lot of different cultures, it’s helped me fit into locker rooms and be able to adapt to different challenges.“I was at so many Palace games at Selhurst Park. Then going to Germany and starting to understand what it meant to our family. I remember them (his father’s Energie Cottbus team) getting promotion from the second Bundesliga to the first and running onto the field. Big games, crying in the stands, it affected me so much, even though I didn’t know fully what was going on.“It’s always been my goal as a professional to go to Europe and to test myself. It’s the mecca of soccer.”Arfsten nods, and both mention the persuasive role of Morris, as does Middlesbrough’s head coach Kim Hellberg in his pre-Wrexham press conference.“What Aidan told me about the fans — they care a lot, just very passionate,” Arfsten says.“I’ve watched the club for the last two years,” Berhalter says, “so I’ve got to see what it’s about, seen the coaching changes, the type of football Kim’s team played. And Aidan telling me all about behind the scenes, about Kim’s level of detail and how he does things — that made it very attractive. It’s a big reason why I’m here.”It may not seem like it, but we are just 22 days on from the World Cup final — Spain 1-0 Argentina (after extra time) — in case you had forgotten.As Berhalter says: “Yeah, it does feel like a long time ago, so much has happened since.”Thirteen days earlier, Berhalter and Arfsten were on the pitch in Seattle when the USMNT’s tournament came crashing down with a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16. It left the players, staff and the American public with mixed emotions about their previous excitement when defeating the likes of Paraguay and Australia in the group stage.Suddenly it was over, beaten easily amid ongoing astonishment at FIFA’s shady Balogun red-card retraction from the previous round against Bosnia and Herzegovina and uncertainty over Pochettino’s future as the coach.The U.S. were knocked out by Belgium in the last 16 of the World Cup (Joe Scarnici – FIFA via Getty Images)All three of Middlesbrough’s American boys had played in the pre-tournament friendly against Portugal, but Morris did not make the squad’s final cut. Now, post-Belgium, Arfsten and Berhalter were back in the team hotel, hearing one last tournament speech from Pochettino.Arfsten recalls “a very emotional meeting for everyone. He (Pochettino) basically told us how he was very proud of how we performed through the tournament and how we made people feel. He emphasised that — ‘Try to remember how you made people feel’ — as opposed to getting down on yourself because of the (Belgium) result.“And I think that’s a really good message. It goes without saying you want to win that game. But it’s a World Cup in our home country, you have to look back on it with fond memories.”Berhalter tells how Pochettino “brought all the staff together. The message was kind of, ‘We’re not done yet’. I think he honestly said he didn’t know what was going to happen regarding himself, but that this nation is just getting started.“I felt like this is the first time that people have really believed in us, given us a chance, been behind us 10,000 per cent. That’s all we can ask for as American players. Seeing 70,000 American fans in the stands, to have that support, we’re grateful. For him, the message was to keep going.”When asked for a moment he realised the scale of the team’s impact, Berhalter replies: “I would say LeBron James tweeting out about Balogun — that’s almost the biggest athlete in the world taking an interest in soccer; Flo doing the (LeBron) celebration and all the celebrities at games — you see that at (NFL) football games, you see it at basketball games, but to see it at soccer was special. I just think the impact means a chance to grow the game.”By the time all three were on Teesside, Pochettino had announced a contract extension. Both Berhalter and Arfsten owe their U.S. debuts to the Argentinian, and both are enthused.“It sounds great,” Berhalter says. “He gave me my first opportunity; he’s the reason why I got to play for the national team. I made my debut last summer. Since day one, he’s included me. It wasn’t like playing 10 games and, ‘Does he like me, does he like me not?’ From day one, he said, ‘You’re a player with the right attitude, you do things the right way, and I want to help you grow’. That’s all I can ask from a coach.”(From second-left to right) Aidan Morris, Berhalter and Arfsten celebrate with team-mates after the U.S. beat Uruguay 5-1 in November last year (Kevin Sabitus/USSF/Getty Images)Arfsten points out that he “wasn’t part of any national team at any level prior to him (Pochettino) coming in, so I’m grateful for that. And I want to keep getting called into camps, of course.“I think he’s done really well since he’s been the manager. I think he’s something to do with the interest in the game, how he’s managed. Similar to Seb, all you can ask for is an opportunity.”Morris’ first call-up pre-dated Pochettino. He has 14 caps and is keen for more. He is about to begin a third season in England’s demanding second tier and Hellberg, now messaging an impromptu meeting to the patio, is his third Middlesbrough coach.Michael Carrick, now Manchester United’s head coach, was in charge when he signed and produced a strong playing style, one still visible in Hellberg’s possession-heavy, pass-and-probe football. In between came Rob Edwards, who departed abruptly for Wolverhampton Wanderers, then of the Premier League, last November.“The progression has been important,” Morris says. “Carrick was great in terms of giving us a foundation, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to be a footballing club, this is who we are, this is our identity’. So he was great.“With Rob, he taught us things we needed to hear at that moment. It was the work — football can be pretty at times, but it means nothing if you don’t run, work, fight, tackle hard; just those basics.“Kim came in and taught us different things. It started right away. We played such good football and pushed teams so far back, got shots off. It was easy for fans to latch onto the exciting football.“Each coach offered something great, honestly. It’s shaped us into the team we are today. We have the humility of running and working, but also this calmness aspect on the ball.”Understandably, all at Middlesbrough want to move on from ‘Spygate’, the notorious affair in May involving a Southampton intern watching and recording them in a training session before the first leg of the teams’ Championship play-off semi-final. A Wembley play-off final and promotion to the Premier League were at stake.Morris played for Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final last season (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)But the trio are sitting barely 50 yards from a tree that became infamous in football circles as a result of that affair, and Morris is prepared to acknowledge “it was a weird time — interesting.“I don’t think anyone’s ever dealt with an experience like that. But I think everything’s been said.”Yes, but the two play-off matches with Southampton were memorable?“The games were special,” he replies. “I’d never experienced anything like that before, arriving at their stadium with stuff being thrown at the bus. I loved it. It was so cool, you see the passion and intensity of it all. It gets you a little more riled up.”Two people watching it all unfold from across the Atlantic were Arfsten and Berhalter. “It was just a super-strange scenario,” the latter says.Middlesbrough would lose 2-1 on aggregate after extra time, only for Southampton to be expelled from the play-offs. Reinstated four days before the match, Middlesbrough then lost the final to a Hull City goal in the fifth minute of added time, missing out on a return to the Premier League.It means a 10th consecutive Championship season for the club.West Ham United and Wolves, both relegated from the Premier League, are expected to be strong contenders for the two automatic promotion positions. The play-off places have been expanded downwards to eighth position for this season, and this will be the minimum target for Hellberg.It is easy to forget the 38-year-old Swede is only in his 10th month at the club, but Middlesbrough have received good money from Everton for Hayden Hackney and a chunky sell-on from the £117million ($158m) transfer of Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa to Chelsea — and have reinvested. On Saturday, goalkeeper Radek Vitek, arriving from Manchester United, became their sixth permanent signing this summer.Then there is that 150th anniversary.There is a new all-red kit in recognition of Middlesbrough’s original colours, and an altered club crest. ‘Erimus’, their motto, meaning ‘We Shall Be’, remains on corridors and signage and in the players’ tunnel where their two new Americans stood on Friday night.There is optimism this could be a star-spangled season. We shall see.