Tyler Adams diary: ‘Now the World Cup feels real’

NEW YORK — Looking down on Times Square from a 21st-floor hotel room, the significance of this full-circle moment isn’t lost on Tyler Adams.

“It’s weird flying back into New York, which has been home for me for so many years in my life,” the United States Men’s National Team midfielder reflected just hours before officially being named to his second World Cup squad.

“Maybe feels a little bit strange, because it’s not where my family is necessarily anymore, like my wife and kids. But it feels like I’m a foreigner in this city every time that I come back. It’s a little bit strange, but I’m super excited to be on home soil again.”

Forty-eight hours earlier, Adams was grinding through 100 minutes in Nottingham, helping complete one of the most remarkable seasons in AFC Bournemouth history. It was a year that saw Adams battle injuries, score perhaps the Premier League goal of the year — a lofted shot from midfield at Sunderland — and help lead the Cherries to their first European qualification in the club’s 127-year history, capped by an 18-match unbeaten run in the Premier League. With a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth secured a sixth-place finish and a spot in the Europa League.

Now, standing above the glow of Times Square, thousands of miles from the picturesque beach town on England’s southwest coast where he currently plays, Adams finds himself both closer to — and farther from — where the story began.

“It’s really exciting to have the opportunity to play in a second World Cup, to be able to represent your country in front of friends and family,” Adams said. “I dreamt of playing in World Cups as a kid and to have an opportunity to play in my second [on home soil] is going to be a bit surreal.”

For that kid growing up about an hour north of New York City in the small town of Wappingers Falls (population: 6,107), the skyline always represented possibility. It’s hard to read an article about his journey that doesn’t mention the long drives his mother made several times a week to Red Bulls Academy for Tyler’s development.

But life has a funny way of turning circles into straight lines. After years spent building a career across Europe — through injuries, captaincies, promotions, relegation battles, and European qualification — Adams has returned to New York not as the kid chasing the dream, but as one of the faces of American soccer, preparing to lead his country into a World Cup on home soil.

The World Cup is from June 11 to July 19. It will be hosted across 16 cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“You need to have that grit, that energy. And I feel like that’s what the U.S. leans on, like that’s who we are. That’s in everything that we do.” Adams said. “I want these kids that are watching to be able to watch me play and say, ‘I want to be the next Tyler Adams. Like, how do I do that?’”

The following is Tyler Adams’ fifth diary entry, as told to Andscape on May 26 in Manhattan.

I found out that I was going to be on the World Cup squad before the last game of the season. Obviously, that’s always a little bit strange when you have so much to play for still in Bournemouth. So I had to put that excitement on the back burner and really focus and stay present with what we were trying to achieve. We knew we were already in Europa League. That was a lock. But we had a small window of opportunity that we might be able to play Champions League. So there was still a lot to play for. The results didn’t go our way (Aston Villa needed to finish in fifth place for Bournemouth to qualify), so that wasn’t in the cards. But to be able to play in Europa League is still something special.

But the next day, I’m in Times Square and we’re going to do a roster reveal. It’s been a whirlwind, to say the least. I think the past 48 hours for myself have just been a lot of positive emotions.

Qualifying for Europe was an objective that we put out at the beginning of the season. There were parts of the season where we didn’t know if it would really come to fruition or not. But we kept ourselves alive the second half of the season, and we did something special. I think we’re one of the few teams in Premier League history to have gone unbeaten through a second round of a Premier League. It was an unbelievable effort by the team and the staff and [it] will be really special to be able to play European nights in a small town like Bournemouth as the club grows and really starts to show its ambition with players, stadium planning, new training grounds. … All these things are really coming together.

Obviously, I’m sad to lose our coach [Andoni Iraola] going into next season. But I know that we’ll be able to continue to do special things. I think it’s very hard to gauge sometimes the sincerity of what a club’s ambitions really are. I think for me, when I was making the transfer from Leeds to Bournemouth, there was an understanding that this is where we’re trying to take the team and this is what we’re trying to do. We didn’t know if it was going to happen in the next two years, three years, four years, five years or what the exact timeline like that looks like … but this is our goal. That being said, they convinced me to come to a club that was really trying to grow and I was going to be a centerpiece of that.

Thanks to their trust, that’s come true. I’ve been able to do that. I’ve been in a pivotal role in the process of what we’re trying to achieve. I didn’t think that within the first three years of me being at the club that was going to be something that we were going to be able to achieve. But I think with the right coach, the right development plan, guys hitting their peak of their performances at the right time, we’ve just been able to go step by step, take our games to the next level as a team and as individuals. So, it’s really exciting with the growth of the club and the ambition.

I give so much credit to Bill Foley, the owner. He’s not afraid to say what he wants and go after [it]. And he’s been successful in everything that he’s wished for. So, it’s been pretty special.

I knew from the first day I came that we had many amazing players, but they just don’t get a lot of credit from the outside. And I think with this team success, people are finally starting to realize the gems that we have within our team. Guys like [Belgium defender] Adrien Truffert, [Argentina defender] Marcos Senesi, [British defender] James Hill, who played an unbelievable role this season.

Veteran Adam Smith, who carries that leadership wherever he goes and is someone that we always rely on. Midfielder Alex Scott coming into his own the season — when I first came into the team, I knew exactly how good he was. It just wasn’t clicking necessarily. This season he was just consistent all the way through. And I really feel that he was able to take that next step. I mean, you talk about his call up into the England national team and you know what that means for a club like Bournemouth and how special that is. I’m really happy for him, especially as a guy that I play next to, because I could see how much potential he has. Junior Kroupi, Rayan, Evanilson. Marcus Tavernier for me is one of the most underrated players in the league. I think the quality that he brings, how many different positions he can play, the versatility, he’s a leader in his own right. We have so many quality, underrated players that make a huge difference for our team.

Now the World Cup feels real. I feel like this whole season has almost been a balancing act of trying to stay so present with what I’m doing with Bournemouth, not letting this objective and goal that you have in your career and in your life of playing in another World Cup get in the way of that. You don’t want to blur the lines. Now that my Bournemouth season is behind me, I’ve accomplished exactly what I’ve set out to accomplish. Our team is in a great position.

Now it’s me and the boys here — the 25 other players — that are going to go out and try to make American fans proud and really change the way that they view this game in America … to grow the game and accomplish something really special. I’m extremely blessed and grateful to be in this position. I worked extremely hard this season to make sure that I’m sitting here with these boys ready to play a pivotal role.

I often get asked what’s changed between 2022 and now. Experience is absolutely invaluable. Anybody that knows soccer will look at me in 2022 and look at me now and say I’m a better player now than I was in 2022. That’s just the objective view of it. But I think that off the field — becoming a dad, understanding the perspective of life, finding balance — is where you really see it. I ask myself, “How do I continue to grow as a player and a person?” I can be really calm in every situation because I’ve been through a lot of different experiences now. I’m ready. I’m primed. And I’m feeling at my best again, which I think is important at this moment in time.

It’s definitely felt a little bit different this time around. Going into 2022 in Qatar, I wasn’t the face of anything. The U.S. playing in the World Cup didn’t matter to the outside world. It was just like what you’re supposed to do. But when you come on home soil and you see the marketing, the media, all the different details that go into making this a special moment … there’s no better place to do it than in the U.S. To be able to go out and play a role in the biggest stage in the world on home soil — all the advertisements make you feel like a star, but you can’t get consumed by it. Past experiences have made me understand that if you get consumed by this then it will affect your play on the field.

My objective is to play at a top level throughout eight games to win a World Cup. I think a lot of people think eight games doesn’t seem like a lot. But it’s a long time and you must stay consistent throughout. You have to block out all that outside noise.

I think for the first match, we need to show the cohesiveness that we’re capable of playing with. And I think we also need to show the ability to manage games. The most important thing to remember throughout these tournaments is that World Cup games are never won in the first minute. It’s about managing moments, set piece situations, being able to go into extra time or penalties and win games. All good teams that end up winning tournaments have moments that win you tournaments — it could take one special play from a player. It can take a special save from a goalkeeper, or a defender blocking a shot. It’s all these intangible things that you almost can’t teach that come out in the biggest moments. I’ve always felt that I was a big-game player. You have to show up in the biggest moments, and this is one of these moments.

I think it’s something that you almost can’t explain — that when you’re around people that are the same nationality as you, that speak the same language as you, that just get what it means to be back on home soil, and really represent your country. I know these guys have my back no matter what. I feel that way on a lot of the teams I’ve played on, but it’s just different when they’re your friends. It’s like we’re almost family. I grew up with a lot of these guys since we were kids, battling against each other in the academy days. All of us have been working to be the best guy so that we could have an opportunity to play on the national team and now we’re here.

My wife Sarah got me an old iPod Nano for this trip, and she put all my old music and favorite songs from iTunes back in the day on it. And I think it’s just a different way to disconnect, because I think a lot of times when you use your phone to listen to music you’re also scrolling or doing something that is a little bit distracting. Whereas now I take my iPod Nano out and just listen to the music and you’re just able to disconnect in a different way.

This World Cup, there will be a lot of downtime in between games. In Qatar in 2022, there was only three days in between games. Now we have six days between games. So it’s a lot of time, which is great [for recovery], but it’s a lot more downtime. People probably believe that you just have time to hang out with your family or whatever, but for me, this is a business trip. I came here with an objective at hand, and I want to make sure we can finish a job.

For me, growing up as a kid, whenever I watched a U.S. team, it didn’t matter if you were the best player on the field or not, you had to believe you were the best player on the field. You needed to compete like you’re the best player in the world. I want our fans to see that fearlessness, that relentlessness. Compete on every single tackle like it’s the last tackle you ever make. Put everything on the line. I think that’s one of these moments, like there’s no holding back. Do you know what I mean? This is the moment that you’re going to have the biggest influence on the millions of kids out there that want to potentially play soccer.

For me, I ask myself, “How can you really influence them to want to be the next to you?”

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