Tyler Adams World Cup diary: ‘We have the ability to do something special’

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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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The West Coast looks good on Tyler Adams.

“I just haven’t spent much time out here,” the 27-year-old midfielder told Andscape as he sat down for his seventh diary installment just 12 hours after the United States men’s national team finished the group stage of the World Cup.

“It’s so nice. Some of my best friends went to the Seattle game [where the U.S. defeated Australia 2-0 on June 19] and they didn’t want to leave.”

In fairness, Adams and his teammates are getting the full West Coast experience, complete with games exclusively in NFC West stadiums (Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco) and a team hotel perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Orange County, California.

With an expanded field of 48 teams, the schedule is also more relaxed, giving the players a week between games — time for balance, training, recovery and downtime.

“I feel like I’m living a double life,” Adams said, wearing flip-flops and a red U.S. Soccer T-shirt. “I hang out with my family and we’re going to the beach, and then I come back up to the hotel and hang out with my friends — going to the beach, training and doing whatever. Part of it doesn’t feel real.

“You have an opportunity to play World Cup games on the weekend and then see your family during the week at times. Taking it all in has been a little bit difficult, because it does seem fake at times. And you have to kind of remind yourself, it’s like a ‘pinch-me’ moment to have an opportunity to play in a World Cup and also share it with your family.”

The California vibe is just an off-pitch mindset — Adams is fully aware that everything to this point has just been the prelude.

The Americans clinched a berth in the knockout stages after starting the tournament with a bang – a 4-1 exclamation point in the opening match June 12 against Paraguay in Los Angeles, coupled with a physical 2-0 grind a week later against a gritty Australia team in Seattle. The U.S. will face Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday in San Francisco in the round of 32. Bosnia-Herzegovina qualified by finishing third in Group B behind Switzerland and Canada.

“It gets real now,” Adams said the day after the group stage ended. “I think we have the belief in our team — in our quality and maturity — that it doesn’t matter if we’re playing France, England, or whoever. We back ourselves to compete at a very high clip and ultimately win any game.

“I think going into this knockout game, there’s an understanding around the group that we have the ability to do something special here. We said coming into this World Cup that the growth of the game [in America] depends on the success of how we do. And we have an opportunity to change that.”

The following is Adams’ seventh diary, as told to Andscape on Saturday as the United States prepared for Bosnia-Herzegovina in the knockout round.

THE GROUP STAGE IS OVER

Personally, I’m feeling great. I think the team is feeling great as well. I mean, obviously, to end the group stage with a win would have been the ideal scenario for everyone. [The U.S. lost 3-2 to Turkey after a goal in stoppage time.] But I think how we’ve represented so far in this group stage is exactly how we’ve wanted to develop over the process of it all. I think now heading into to the knockouts against Bosnia, we’re excited for it. We’re full steam ahead. We’ll train a couple more days here in L.A. before heading up to San Francisco for another exciting game.

I think the circumstances of our final game against Turkey weren’t necessarily ideal. We had four guys on yellow cards. Of course, you don’t want to risk someone [getting another one and losing] an opportunity to not play in the first knockout game. That being said, we obviously made heavy rotations to the lineup. I think Weston McKennie was the only player that stayed from the previous two lineups and contributed again brilliantly.

But for the guys that got an opportunity to play, with the work that they’ve put in so far to help push us — the guys that were playing heavier minutes in the first two games — has been incredible. Every single player that played absolutely deserved it. We have such a competitive group and such a deep squad. That being said, the focus now has to change pretty quickly, because there’s not too many days between last night’s game and our next game in five days.

So it’s rest, recover, and get everyone going again. We’ll train hard today and prepare for the next one.

SEATTLE

I think for every one of these World Cup games, you don’t necessarily know what to expect in terms of atmosphere. I think the previous games that we’ve played on home soil before this World Cup, we weren’t always heavily favored in terms of the crowd. Now every single time we walk out our minds are absolutely blown away.

When you picture the growth of the game in the U.S., this is exactly why you play the game. You want to walk out to 60,000 or 70,000 people singing your national anthem and cheering “USA” for 90 minutes straight. This gives you that extra motivation, that extra push. The atmosphere in Seattle was one of the first games that I felt emotional like that. You feel so connected and grounded with the people that are supporting you. And that’s what we want to do. We know that having a successful World Cup means every single stadium, whether it’s 30,000 or 70,000 people, will be filled like that. That’s what the game can do and bring everyone together.

Everyone singing “[Take Me Home,] Country Roads” at the end of the game was incredible. It’s hard [to enjoy the atmosphere] during the game. Obviously, you walk out and you see the atmosphere — it’s exciting and there’s a lot of emotions. But it’s after the game when you can take a deep breath. Once you have put in the hard work and earned the result that you wanted, you finally can just look in the crowd and see the smiles on everyone’s faces.

That’s exactly why you play the game. You walk by your family and you see them smiling and singing the song. When you play in Europe, you don’t always connect with some of the songs that they’re playing. But when you’re when you’re at home… it feels like home in front of Americans. So it’s just more special. That’s what the emotions of this game are about. And it continues to bring people together.

THE PERSONALITY OF THIS TEAM

I think the best way to describe our team would be relentless. The way every single player works for one another and has each other’s back, that’s the bond you talk about and what makes a team successful. For me, the bond of this team is deeper than any team that I’ve played with before.

I think that bond can carry you through a lot of adversity. It helps you a lot. I’d go to war with these guys, and that’s what it feels like every single week. When we step on the field together, we have each other’s backs no matter the circumstance.

I think my role in the team is obviously being a leader. I lead in an abundance of ways. First and foremost, I lead by example. I try to put in good performances, make tough tackles, do the dirty work, and make sure the guys understand there’s no opportunity to take breaks or days off. So I’m setting that standard every single day.

But I’m also a vocal leader. I’m not afraid to get on people. I’m not afraid for people to bite back. That’s what this is about. I always think that when I’m at my best, and other guys are at their best, is the only way the team can be successful.

Iron sharpens iron. So every single day, we’re battling with one another on the field. But as soon as we step off the field, we’re best friends. We watch games together in the lounge, grab snacks, walk down to the beach together — all these kinds of things — because we’re friends. At the end of the day, we’re real friends. I can play whatever role the team needs me to play. But at the end of the day, I just want to win. That’s all that matters.

CHEMISTRY

I think it’s a really unique situation. I think a lot of national teams have played together for a long time, but I was living with some of these kids when I was 15 years old. I left home and these were the people I was roommates with.

So our bond, our relationship, our chemistry just goes a lot deeper. They have an understanding of me and my game, more than players that I play with at my club every single day. When you grow up around these guys, and then you grow older over many years together, you just understand more about one another.

The role that I play on this team is also a product of our system. I get to play a role on this team that allows me to be myself. I think that’s all anyone can ask for is to be allowed to be yourself.

LESSONS FROM QATAR IN 2022

I don’t think there’s any specific [lesson] from that Netherlands game [a 3-1 loss in the round of 16 that eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup in 2022]. I don’t think it was a matter of details. I don’t think it was a matter of emotions. I think it’s a lack of experience — when you don’t have that experience of being in a knockout game before and what that entails.

Holland was just comfortable in that situation. You could see this in how they were playing. It was just another game for them. They just seemed comfortable and on cruise control throughout the game. Whereas for us, I don’t want to say we were rash, but every play felt like it was just at higher stakes.

You just need to be able to be comfortable in this situation. It’s just another 90-minute game. You don’t need to win the game in the first minute; you don’t need to win the game in the 90th minute. Everything just needs to be a little bit calmer.

Going into our first games in this tournament, you could just see the energy we have. We pounce on teams, we attack. Our team is fearless. But there’s also control. Even against Australia, when we were up 2-0 in the second half, they change some things and put a little bit of pressure on us. But we weren’t fazed by the situation.

We were comfortable and we dealt with the situations as they came. For me, that’s the biggest learning curve — and I think the biggest thing I’ve seen from this team in terms of growth. It comes from our guys playing 150 more games in their career between the last World Cup and this World Cup. It’s understanding what the circumstances of high-stakes games feel like. So given all of this, I back our team now.

When you’re playing and competing at a high level around the world — whether it’s Premier League, MLS, or whatever — you play in big games and you feel different things. And it prepares you for when the next opportunity comes.

When I’m playing against Man [Manchester] City or at Liverpool, those are the best teams in the world. I play against those teams week in, week out. So it’s no different now going into a knockout game against Bosnia.

WORLD CUP DAD

My son Jaxon has an obsession now with soccer. I think he understands what’s going on. It’s pretty exciting to watch because every time he sees me, he goes, “Da-da! USA!”

And then he goes and gets a soccer ball. He wants to play soccer — which he didn’t do before we left Bournemouth. During the Premier League season, he was getting more into the games and enjoyed going to the games, but he didn’t have this obsession with playing soccer. Now he’s obsessed with playing.

[This whole experience] doesn’t seem real. Comparing last World Cup to this World Cup — there, we were isolated and only had three days between games. You literally blinked and felt like that World Cup was over. Now having five or six days in between games, you can hang out with your family.

I told Sarah, I feel like I’m living a double life. I hang out with my family and we’re going to the beach, and then I come back up to the hotel and hang out with my friends, going to the beach, training and doing whatever — part of it doesn’t feel real. You have an opportunity to play World Cup games on the weekend and then see your family during the week at times. Taking it all in has been a little bit difficult because it does seem fake at times. And you have to kind of remind yourself — it’s like a “pinch-me” moment — to have an opportunity to play in a World Cup and also share it with your family.

BOURNEMOUTH AT THE WORLD CUP

It’s been great to have [club] teammates here competing. I’ve stayed connected with them all. I’m really close with Justin [Kluivert, Netherlands midfielder]. Him and I go way back to the Leipzig days with Red Bull. I texted him the other day before his game. He’s patiently waiting for his opportunity to show what he’s capable of.

They’re on a good run right now as well. And he came into the game — I was super excited for him because all he went through at the end of last season, which was a difficult moment. He didn’t know if this moment would happen for him. But what a quality player and a quality person he is. I’m so stoked for him to get his opportunity.

We also have [Brazilian midfielder] Rayan, Ben [Gannon-Doak, Scotland winger] and [Scotland midfielder] Ryan Christie. All of them are doing extremely well. It’s fun to support them from afar. But if we play against them, I can’t be supporting them.

In terms of Rayan, I think we all knew his quality from the first day that he came to Bournemouth with big shoes to fill in the role of Antoine Semenyo. They’re very similar; Antoine exited and Ryan came in. He hit the ground running right away and you could see the quality. When a team buys a 19-year-old for $35-40 million pounds, they must be special, and he contributed to the team right away. Obviously, he’s a reason that we made European competition. To see him get into the Brazil national team at 19 years old is incredible.

I see him breaking records. I see the headlines. But he just stays grounded. He’s humble for his age. He’s mature for his age. The sky is the absolute limit for him.

Antoine [Semenyo] is still in the group chat. He left in January, but he’s still contributing. We tried to help him win the league. It didn’t happen this year … but I’m sure he’ll win one.

THE FANS

Has anything or anyone surprised me? You have to say the fans. The way that our country rallies around the red, white and blue — I certainly do it from afar when the Olympics are going on or something of that nature is happening, so I understand the gravity of what happens. But it’s just more special because in Qatar [four years ago], it was impossible to feel the support.

When you are so far away, you don’t understand the impact that you’re having, whether it’s good or bad. It’s the same as playing in Europe in the Premier League. I don’t know who supports Bournemouth, or who supports me, because I’m so far away and obviously living in almost a different world. Now being on home soil, you see the support of the fans. You see the parents bringing the kids to games, all these kinds of things, and it’s special. It’s really special. Obviously, there’s a lot more for our team to achieve, and we want to make an even bigger impact. So again, tunnel vision.

FACING BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

I watched their qualifying games against Wales and Italy. I’ve played against a few of their players. So it will be an interesting game. They’re a team that has a mentality of a bigger country. They believe they can achieve a lot more.

I think that when you’re an underdog, there’s a lot to be dealt with. And I think that we’ve been an underdog in a lot of circumstances, so we know what that feels like. So we just need to bring the same energy as the first couple of games. And I think when we play like that, we’re a tough team to beat.

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