In just two years, Gregg Berhalter – enabled by owner Anthony Precourt – has turned around the soccer culture of Columbus Crew SC.

When Berhalter arrived in late 2013, Columbus was a middling club in MLS. There was no buzz around the franchise and nothing for fans to be excited about. The team wasn’t horrible enough for a massive overhaul from the Hunt family, who owned the club at the time, but wasn’t good enough to contend for anything meaningful.

But when Precourt bought the team and installed Berhalter, the coach began tearing down walls – literally.

“He gave up his office at our training facility to make the gym bigger,” midfielder Justin Meram recalled, noting that former boss Robert Warzycha’s office was “pretty sick.”

“(Berhalter’s) office is the smallest room in that building. He knew what was important. And that extra space right there just shows what he wants. He’s all for us. Just by tearing down that wall and clearing down his office for us to have a bigger gym…it just shows that he has all the right answers for this club and he’s doing everything he can to make us champions.”

But even a partial demolition project can’t turn things around on the field.

For Berhalter’s tenure, the renovation represented a shift to a holistic approach. His attention to detail has become a hallmark of the club, and the players have taken notice.

“Off the field, [Crew SC leadership] has made a lot of changes,” defender and team captain Michael Parkhurst said. “[As] players, we recognize that and we’re thankful for that. We have a lot of respect for those people when they’re looking out for your best interests on and off the field, and it makes you want to work that much harder for them.

"The more seamless things are off the field," continued Parkhurst, "and the more well taken care of you are, you can focus solely on soccer and working hard and getting better on the field, and they’ve put us in a position to do that.”