Berhalter, whose Columbus team was eliminated from the M.L.S. playoffs weeks ago, should hit the ground running. He has kept journals about tactics, but also his personal successes and failures, since his playing days in the Dutch league, and his Columbus teams — short on star power but long on preparation and organization — earned a reputation for punching above their weight in M.L.S.

The decision to give him the national team job will do little to appease critics of U.S. Soccer’s insider culture (Berhalter’s older brother Jay is U.S. Soccer’s chief commercial officer) or its outreach efforts to the country’s large Hispanic soccer community, which has often felt its contributions — and its players — have been marginalized by the federation.

But Berhalter’s credentials appealed to the one person who mattered most: Stewart. Berhalter represented clubs in the Netherlands, England and Germany during a long playing career, and made more than 40 appearances for the United States senior team — including two starts in the knockout stage of the 2002 World Cup. He earned his coaching licenses while playing in Europe and cut his teeth in an 18-month stint leading Hammarby in Sweden. Fired for fielding teams that were deemed “too defensive,” he returned to M.L.S. — where he had won a league title as a player, under Arena in Los Angeles — to lead Columbus to the playoffs in four of his five seasons in charge.

Berhalter’s first look at the United States team will come in its annual January training camp, which most likely will take place without most of the squad’s European pros. (The January dates are not on the official FIFA calendar, meaning clubs are not required to release their players for them.) That camp will be more than 16 months after the team’s stunning loss to Trinidad and Tobago in World Cup qualifying shook U.S. Soccer to its core.

The 2022 World Cup qualifying cycle is expected to begin next fall. By then, U.S. Soccer hopes, Berhalter and his players will be positioned at last to try to return the country to soccer’s biggest stage.