Tyler Adams World Cup diary: ‘We can’t let our foot off the gas’

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Andscape explores the intriguing teams, people and themes around the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

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It’s been a pretty good 48 hours to be Tyler Adams.

Actually, that might be underselling it.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Adams walked onto the pitch at Los Angeles Stadium for the United States Men’s National Team’s first World Cup match on American soil in more than three decades and helped announce the United States’ arrival with a historic 4-1 victory over Paraguay.

“The last 24 hours. I mean, where do you really start?” the 27-year-old midfielder told Andscape on Saturday. “I feel like the past few days, few weeks, few months, everyone’s just kind of been talking about expectations … asking ‘What do you think it’s going to feel like? Does it feel like it’s happening?’

“And to be honest, I was like, it doesn’t really feel like there’s a World Cup happening. But I think yesterday, walking out for the first time, was finally the realization that it’s a World Cup on home soil with friends and family in the stands. I have my brothers around me, the guys that we’ve been working together throughout this process since the last World Cup. It was an amazing moment.”

Then, somehow, the weekend got even more New York.

In the 48-hour blur leading up to the U.S. vs. Paraguay opener, Adams and the USMNT went viral for celebrating OG Anunoby’s improbable tip-in that helped secure NBA Finals Game 4 for the New York Knicks in the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history. The Knicks celebration turned into a dogpile inside the U.S. team hotel — a burst of joy washing over the team just as it prepared for its own defining moment.

“When Jalen Brunson pulled up that shot in the last five seconds of the game, I was like ‘Oh, he’s going to make it.’ And then I saw OG run in and tip it in. That’s got to be one of the best plays in sports history — especially in New York,” said Adams, who was born and raised in Dutchess County, New York, about 50 miles north of New York City.

“Listen, if there’s anything that inspired me to play well in that first game, it was OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson. Honestly, it’s an inspiration sometimes when you can take a game and a performance like that, from a team that you grew up watching.”

Then Saturday, just minutes after Adams strode into the room for his conversation with Andscape, the Knicks — his Knicks, the team he grew up watching, the team that has tested generations of patience — were tipping off Game 5 with an opportunity to capture their first NBA title in 53 years.

Adams has that lightness of someone still processing a rare kind of sports euphoria that hits both parts of his identity at once: the consummate professional locked into a World Cup on home soil, and the kid from Wappingers Falls who still believes the Knicks play better when he turns the TV off.

“I’m very superstitious about things like that, so I turned [Game 4] off after the first half and I was like, ‘For sure they’re going to play better if I’m not watching,’” Adams said. “When the fourth quarter struck, I told everyone, ‘If they come within 10 points, then we’re going to win this game.’”

We all know what happened next.

There is something endearing about watching one of the most composed midfielders in the world talk like every other fan who has tried to negotiate with the sports gods from a couch. Perhaps there are similarities between the ethos of these two rosters that connect the Knicks and the USMNT in this moment: Grit. Toughness. Belief. A group that has taken its share of punches and kept moving forward.

But the deeper connection may be less about style and more about the way good teams are built. Both rosters have star power, but neither seems interested in being defined only by names. They were both methodically built, adding complementary pieces while focusing on personal relationships, trust, and the kind of shared adversity that cannot be faked under the brightest spotlight in sports.

“We’ve grown up with one another. We’ve created this amazing culture where guys can come in, push each other, compete, step on each other’s toes and afterward, dap each other up, hug and laugh. The banter is there. It’s Poch [USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino] coming in and creating this sense that no one is safe — that we need to compete with one another. But you treat everyone with respect.”

As Adams speaks, there is urgency in his voice. He understands that this version of the U.S. team is no longer asking to be taken seriously. It is trying to prove that it already should be. And for a player who has spent much of his career speaking in measured tones about process, growth and perspective, there is something direct about the way he frames this moment.

“We’re living in the moment. We understand that there’s no better time than now to show the world what we’re capable of doing on home soil.”

This is not the young U.S. roster of 2022 in Qatar. Adams is now joined by Chris Richards of Crystal Palace and Antonee Robinson of Fulham in the Premier League. Christian Pulisic of AC Milan and Weston McKennie of Juventus battle every week in Italy. Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman have been shaped by the physicality and demands of the German Bundesliga, while striker Folarin Balogun has found his footing in Ligue 1 with Monaco.

For the uninitiated, this is a roster of players from top international clubs entering the prime of their careers — a roster that is no longer simply excited to be part of the conversation, a roster that, after one emphatic opening performance, has given American fans permission to think bigger.

“Playing in the Premier League week in and week out is going to prepare you for any moment that you have to have in your career.” said Adams, who this season helped his club team AFC Bournemouth qualify for European competition for the first time in its 127-year history. “I think that’s the mentality. And I think that’s why we’ve taken a step in our development. We can’t let our foot off the gas. The best teams in the world don’t let their foot off the gas, whether at the club or international level. We have a bunch of dogs on our team, and we’re going for it.”

A few hours after we spoke, Adams watched the Knicks finish the job during a team barbecue at sunset, somewhere high above the Pacific in Orange County. It was one of those scenes that felt surreal and completely normal at the same time. Pulisic and McKennie posed for pictures. Kids ran across the artificial turf as the sun dropped slowly into the water.

Adams wore a Jalen Brunson T-shirt and posted to Instagram like every other long-suffering Knicks fan who had waited his whole life for this exact night. Maybe that is the part that makes Adams — and this team — so easy to root for.

The following is Adams’s sixth diary with Andscape, told June 13 in California, just 24 hours after the USMNT’s opening-round victory.

THE VALUE OF EXPERIENCE

I had experienced what 2022 was like in Qatar. [Friday] wasn’t my first World Cup game. And I think that experience allowed me to be in the moment as just being another game, obviously one with more pressure. But I looked at this game as a privilege — to play in your second World Cup, to be walking out with some guys that you shared the field with in Qatar and some guys having their first experience.

I want to be that constant in the team no matter what … understanding that I’ve gone through the emotions before. I know what the circumstances are like, so nothing was going to faze me. I just felt super comfortable in that moment, being present in that moment. And I think that’s what allowed me to just be super comfortable with my ability to play on the field, to look in the stands, see my family, my kids, those kinds of things I take with a lot of appreciation.

I think it was normal. I told some of the guys, “Whatever you feel, that’s OK.” Everyone’s going to deal with the circumstance in a completely different way. Before my first game in Qatar, I didn’t know what to expect. I was super anxious. Nervous, just feeling excitement. A bunch of different emotions. I didn’t really know how to cope with that. And then when the whistle blew for the first game, it was like just another game. I was able to settle in. I told the new players, “Once this whistle blows, you guys are going to be able to go through your emotions and you’re going to be able to settle in.”

And if you don’t settle in — I’ll be there. The other guys will be there. I don’t know what they were feeling and I think it’s one of those things that you can’t tell someone what they’re going to feel or what to expect. They just have to go through it.

REPRESENTING YOUR COUNTRY

Whenever the Olympics are going on or there’s another sport where athletes are representing their nation, you see the support that they get. And it did not disappoint when we walked out yesterday. I can genuinely say, looking in that stadium, that was the best support I’ve ever seen.

It made me incredibly proud to be able to represent the U.S. in that moment and just know that we have that many people supporting us. It provides that extra motivation and that extra inspiration. We want to inspire these next generation of people, kids, or whoever, to create them into soccer fans. And there’s no better event to do that than now.

ON FOLARIN BALOGUN

When Gregg Berhalter first took over the national team in 2018, Flo was starting to get integrated into the national team. Now he is a lot more mature, a lot more seasoned, a lot more understanding of the version of exactly what he needs to be every single game.

He’s a niche of a player in the world, and he’s dynamic. He can hold the ball up. He’s not massively big or tall, but he’s strong. He has the ability to run in behind defenders. When you look at our team and how dynamic we are, he fits in perfectly. The season that he’s had in Monaco obviously speaks volumes to what he’s capable of doing. That confidence has clearly translated into the national team. When you get him the ball around the box, he is so efficient. In our first match, he had two or three chances and he had two goals. That’s exactly what we need in the biggest moments.

I felt like in 2022, that’s what we were missing a little bit at times. We were creating a volume of chances, but we weren’t necessarily putting the ball in the back of the net. That comes with us maybe being a little bit more inexperienced, whereas now I think we’re just more ready for the moment.

CHRIS RICHARDS

Chris is an important part of the team. It’s sad that injury kept him out of the last World Cup, as he was more than ready and prepared to be able to play a massive role. That being said, playing in the Premier League week in and week out is going to prepare you for any moment that you may have in your career, and you could tell that in the moments that we need him the most — he steps in and plays a vital role.

He just adds this presence in the back line — aerially, winning duels, putting in tackles — so I can be even more aggressive in what I do and how I hunt for the ball. I can try to make certain plays because I know I have cover behind me. We obviously balance well together, we have a lot of chemistry and we’ve played a lot of games together.

GIO REYNA

People probably don’t understand how close Gio and I are — with both of us being from New York. It’s kind of like we’re always on the same wavelength and we grew up around each other. I always heard about him, and he probably heard about me. He was at NYCFC. I was at Red Bull. We just jelled together. We always seem to find each other in the right groove, in the right moment. When he comes into the game, he’s a special player, and I think people are starting to realize it again. People kind of speak a little bit disrespectful on his name sometimes, but what that kid is capable of with the ball at his feet — he’s in the top echelon in the world. So, he adds a different dimension to the way that we play and he’s going to be a critical player.

REST AND RECOVERY

I’ll take all the rest that I can get in between games. With the heat, with the climate, continuously training, and after enduring a really long season of competition in the Premier League, I think [having longer between games] is nice. And I think when you have momentum, it allows you to have these days to disconnect.

Like for instance, tomorrow we have off completely off. I like being able to disconnect and have a day off, while [we] still have four days to prepare for a game. I think that does wonders for our team. It will allow us to recover and get the best out of every single guy. So I’m looking forward to Australia [on Friday], but I’ve again found a really good balance as I’ve gone a little bit older to be able to disconnect.

I’ll put the phone down, hang out with the family. And then when it’s time to go back to work on Monday, it’s time to go back to work.

BELIEF AND EMOTIONS

I was super excited for a lot of the guys that had their first experience and learning what a World Cup is like. We really believe and understand this process — that we’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs and when people have doubting us. This is exactly the performance we needed to put in. We need to have our eyes set on bigger things without getting too ahead of ourselves. We need to do that every single game. That’s the only way that we can be successful. So again, you can’t let our foot off the gas even 5%.

If you do that, you’re not going to be able to beat Australia. You’re not going to be able to beat Turkey. And that’s our goal at the end of the day: Win the games that we need to win. That’s the most important thing.

I haven’t looked at what anyone says. I haven’t looked about what anyone’s posted. For me, it’s about what is in that locker room as a collective. And what we have is belief. We need to continue believing.

We want to go as far as we can, show how many good quality players we have within the group, and inspire the next generation.

ON THE KNICKS

I grew up going to Knicks games when the Knicks weren’t going to win anything, or they weren’t even going to make the playoffs. Now to see that New York has a lot of players that represent what the city means — the diversity, the energy, the character — I think that means a lot more to the city. And if they’re able to raise a championship — they’ll get everything in New York for free for the rest of their lives, I’m sure. So I’m trying to follow that path in some capacity, man.

PHYSICAL PLAY

The game is an emotional game. There’s so many ups and downs throughout. … Happy, excited, mad, angry, whatever you want to call it. That being said, you need to be able to control your emotions in the biggest moments, because ultimately that’s what decides the games.

I think when you get angry and take it out on someone, you can get a stupid yellow or stupid red card, then you end up missing games. In tournaments like this, you need your most valuable players on the field at all times. So for me, someone that does get a little bit feisty and chippy at times — you have to be smart. You need to be communicating with the referee in situations like that and make sure they have an understanding with you and the way that you play. You need an understanding of what they’re going to tolerate. But also to make sure your teammates understand what the game requires as well, because, if I’m on a yellow [card] and I have an opportunity to miss a game, there’s other guys that need to make tackles and make tactical fouls and do these kinds of things.

So you just have to be clever in those situations, and I think that’s what I’ve learned over the years. But for guys that it’s their first rodeo, they need to understand what the game requires. It gets spicy, do you know what I mean? So if things get physical, that’s what it is, obviously in the safest way. You’re not going out trying to injure anybody or do anything stupid, but you got to play the game and you got to be clever.

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