World Cup Day 2: Why USMNT will go as far as Adams takes them

Day two of the 2026 World Cup brings the other two hosts to the forefront when both Canada and the United States begin their tournaments with what threaten to be tricky games. Jesse Marsch’s side is up first and will be conscious of slipping behind the eight ball in what profiles as a battle for second place against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Then it’s the USMNT’s turn. Once more, the stakes are very high. Of course, Mauricio Pochettino’s side will be expecting to finish top of their group, but the margins threaten to be tight between them Turkey, Australia and Friday’s opponent Paraguay. It is with the game in Los Angeles that we’ll start this look ahead to day two, and with an injury-addled Premier League player whose status promises to be pivotal to what the hosts can achieve this summer. No, no, not that one. Chris Richards is back in full training.

Can Tyler Adams’ fitness hold?

The great Chris Richards crisis has taken the spotlight off several other spots in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, particularly the somewhat weird construction of a 26-man roster that threatens to leave the USMNT with four players to fill two extremely significant spots. The center has to hold for the wing backs to fly up the field, for the front three to be able to press at its best, for the team to really function. And for the USA that means that Tyler Adams needs to be ball winner, ball progressor and plenty of other things in between.

In talent terms, there’s no reason to think Adams can’t give this team what it needs. He was excellent for Bournemouth last season, ranking fourth among Premier League midfielders for interceptions and in the top 30 for tackles, aerial duels and clearances. He got the ball upfield quite frequently too, for a Bournemouth side that generally got most of their progression up the flanks. You wouldn’t think of him as a great creator, but his role under Andoni Iraola was less about doing things in the final third than stopping the other team from getting into his third and then helping the ball up the pitch. What you’re looking at below, courtesy of Gradient Sports, is a player that averages out at an average to maybe slightly above average Premier League midfielder. Given the ever-increasing standard of the English top flight, that profiles as useful stuff for the USMNT.

Very useful stuff… if you can get it. Though the 26-year-old has won a lot of admirers since leaving RB Leipzig, first for Leeds and then Bournemouth, he has struggled with injuries and has cleared the 2,000 minute barrier only once in Europe. A relatively injury light year like 2025-26 still saw the midfielder suffer knee and hamstring issues; he returned from the latter in April, but he was carefully managed to less than six hours of football in Bournemouth’s final seven league games, which came at a game a week stretch.

His now former manager Iraola has previously hinted that Adams needs management, that the only doubts he has about the player are his availability. That’s why his jubilant celebration of the Knicks’ game four win — the only correct response to those glorious Knickerbockers — was as much a heart-in-the-mouth moment for supporters as anything else. 

Adams is a reliable performer in the toughest league in the world. There are not many others in any position in Pochettino’s squad where that is true. It is rather hard to believe that Sebastian Berhalter and Cristian Roldan, plucked from the MLS, can deliver at that level. That is not a slight on either player so much as an endorsement of Adams. His is a body whose holding up to 90 minutes upon 90 minutes under the heat of a North American summer would do the US a world of good. They might have palm trees in Bournemouth, but the conditions for Adams this season have not exactly been ideal preparation for a World Cup.

Jonathan David: In search of better times

Compare and contrast the following images. First I’m going to show you how Canada Soccer Men’s Player of the Year Jonathan David rated against his positional peers in Europe’s top five leagues in the 2024-25 season, his last with French side Lille.

That’s some broadly good stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. An above average scorer who gives you some very helpful work in possession. At 25 years of age he probably has not developed into the sort of forward who could start for one of Europe’s true elites, as had been hoped a few years earlier, but in a contract year this is the sort of output that makes you feel Juventus have got a steal. A year later…

A lot of those bars are not that much worse, are they? Sure, there has been a bit of a drop off in scoring, but the combined non-penalty expected goals and expected assists — a handy metric for assessing how often a player is getting himself or the ball in the right positions for goals to happen — is where it was for Lille. That’s comparable underlying metrics in a more challenging league, during a fairly turbulent season, where he was in and out of the lineup. In statistical terms the most profound difference between David of 2024-25 and David of 2025-26 is how often the ball went in the net, 25 times across all competitions with Lille as opposed to eight with Juventus.

Of course that number matters a lot but his other statistics having held up relatively well is at least a partial rejoinder to the rumors that Juventus might consider calling this deal a bust after one year. David is still doing a lot of things at a high level. Perhaps a World Cup on home soil can serve as a reminder of that.