DOHA, Qatar — Frustration paralyzed Tyler Adams for the first few minutes of the next four years. It knocked him down on one knee here at the Khalifa International Stadium just after a final whistle shattered his World Cup dreams. It forced him to crouch as the Netherlands huddled in and celebrated a 3-1 win over his United States. Eventually he was drawn to the grass.
But as he sat there, head bowed, amid scowls and sincere sympathy, his thoughts turned to the future and his mood changed.
“It’s probably the first time in a long time that people are like, ‘Wow, there’s something special about this team,'” Adams thought, later commenting on the US men’s national team and the public perception of it. “Potential is just potential, but we could see that if we maximize it in the right way, it can be a good thing.”
However, he was speaking after a known World Cup result caused by known errors, a round of 16 elimination, the same as in 2014 and 2010 and damn it, 1994. So I asked Adams, why is that different?
“Uh, I mean, I think you could probably make that assessment yourself,” he said. And he was right.
“With the players that are on our team versus previous teams — I wasn’t on the 2010 team, I wasn’t on the 2014 team, so I can’t sit here and judge the potential of those teams,” he continued. “But I think being the second youngest team at the World Cup and getting the same result speaks for itself.”
Their four starting lineups were actually the four youngest ever at this World Cup. They were full of still-rising stars who had already surpassed many of their USMNT predecessors. Adams, perhaps out of respect for those predecessors, wouldn’t quite say his team had more talent than theirs. But it clearly does.
However, his current talent isn’t the only reason for unprecedented optimism. As the vast majority of football-playing nations can attest, talent reaches the senior team in fits and starts, via random ups and downs.
The story goes on
The hope in American football, however, is that this generation is not just a golden generation primed to shine on home soil in 2026; It’s the beginning of a carefully crafted trend and a sign of even better generations to come.
US players applaud fans after the game as the United States are eliminated from the World Cup. (Portal/Annegret Hilse)
USMNT is a work in progress
The seeds of change and USMNT 2022 were sown in the mid-2000s, when the men who run American football essentially realized that, as former US Football President Sunil Gulati told Yahoo Sports, their youth development model was “completely on the was turned upside down.”
It was backward. Kids played more than practiced, effectively taking more tests than classes. In a way, Chris Hayden, FC Dallas’ longtime academy director, told Yahoo Sports, “We developed players rather randomly.”
In 2007, as Major League Soccer increased its investment in youth programs, US Soccer launched its controversial Development Academy. The DA, as it became known, was a nationwide league that featured America’s best teens competing weekly. In addition, three, then four training sessions per week were prescribed. It stuttered early and ruffled the feathers, infuriating some youth football directors across the country downright. But it reformed a “broken” system and began producing, especially as it expanded over the past decade.
It helped produce 17 of the 26 players in this year’s World Cup squad, including Adams, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna and Brenden Aaronson. US Soccer closed it in 2020, but by then MLS was poised to take control of the boys’ soccer pyramid. The 29 clubs in the Pro League now invest over US$100 million annually in developing local players. They maintain reserve teams that bridge the gap between juniors and pros, and field their first teams—and with them, the US men’s national team.
They are increasingly attracting European scouts and sending youngsters to top European clubs. There are of course flaws, many flaws, but “the quality of the [American] The number of players has increased significantly in the last five or ten years,” Jochen Sauer, head of Bayern Munich’s academy, told Yahoo Sports in 2018. Many believe it has continued to increase since then and that the country’s development systems ” just scratching the surface”.
In a broader sense, this is also the USMNT. The 2022 World Cup ended on par with expectations, but several people polled for a pre-tournament story on youth development warned against limiting themselves to four games. Many believed that the better evidence would emerge in four years and beyond.
“We will see the final result in five to ten years,” said another Bayern youth coach, Sebastian Dremmler. “[In 2026]They will have a very strong national team.”
Weston McKennie (far right) comforts midfielder Tyler Adams (4) after the United States lost to the Netherlands in their World Cup round of 16 match at the Khalifa International Stadium on December 3, 2022 in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports)
“The American public should be optimistic”
The 2026 World Cup seemed a long way off as somber faces marched out of the Khalifa on Saturday night. Reyna declined interviews. Pulisic’s voice was weak and tortured. Tim Ream was filled with emotion as he realized that unlike many teammates aged 35, he was unlikely to get another chance at this stage.
But beneath the gloomy faces was perspective.
“The future is bright,” Ream said selflessly. “I mean, this core group – and when I say core group, I mean it’s 22, 23, 24 year old guys who haven’t even hit their prime – the potential for this next cycle is just huge. The program is in good hands with these guys. good characters. Good player. Good people. … I’m excited to see what they can do on the world stage.”
DeAndre Yedlin, the sole holdover from the 2014 roster, was asked if that felt like a step forward or a step to the side, saying, “I think it’s a step forward.”
Matt Turner said unprompted, “There’s tremendous potential, and if you don’t see that” — well, he doesn’t know what to tell you. “We played England, we played the Netherlands and we gave both teams really tough, tough times.”
And perhaps most importantly, they did so proactively rather than reactively. They wanted the ball. When the opponents won it, they wanted it back. They fought physically and tactically with England. They got a top 10 side in the world, the Netherlands, to essentially decide that allowing possession and counterattacks was their best hope of beating the USA.
“They should gain confidence in the fact that we can play how we want to play with anyone in the world,” said head coach Gregg Berhalter. “That’s the most important.”
This does not mean that the USMNT has reached Dutch or English level. There remains a gap in quality, which revealed itself in crucial moments on Saturday evening.
But quality will increase with experience and age. The youth system should offer more of this.
“To appear four times in a row at the World Cup with the most recent line-ups and still be able to play as we are – the American public should be optimistic,” Berhalter said.
Four years ago, he and his players set out as a collective to “change the way the world views American football,” as McKennie reiterated Saturday night. “I think we achieved part of that at this World Cup,” said McKennie. Berhalter felt he had “partially achieved it”.
But the holy grail has always changed the way America views American men’s football. They will do this almost exclusively by winning. And here in Qatar, although they have only won once, they have shown that one day they will certainly win many more.
“I think this tournament has really restored a lot of trust and respect for US soccer and soccer in our country,” McKennie said. “I think we showed that we can be giants at some point. We may not be there yet, but I think we’re definitely on our way.”