Tyler Adams has been in their shoes.
He’s carried the weight that the nine teenagers on the U.S. men’s national team’s roster are shouldering right now, and then some.
For all the pressure Cavan Sullivan must be feeling ahead of what could be his first cap with the national team Saturday against Peru, Adams had to contend with labels being thrust on him after an astonishing failure to qualify for the World Cup.
He, Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic weren’t just the next generation eight years ago. They had to save the national team right then and there — or at least that’s what it felt like.
“We continue to be grateful for the opportunity when we get it, but these young kids, there’s not the pressure that — you need to step in right now or else the national team is gonna fall apart,” Adams told The Post in a conversation this week at the national team’s training center outside of Atlanta.
“We have a great core of this national team, even with players that aren’t here right now and something to build off.”
Aside from their own talent, which is considerable unto itself, that is as good a reason as any to believe in the program’s ability to integrate the likes of Sullivan, Adri Mehmeti, Neil Pierre, Mathis Albert, Julian Hall and company. No longer does the USMNT need to build the ship while figuring out how to direct it.
Even on the young roster that will play in Orlando on Saturday, there are double-digit World Cup veterans. There is a program that made it to the Round of 16 less than three months ago, and could justifiably call that a disappointment. There is a second-cycle coach in Mauricio Pochettino with enough experience that he was asked Friday to reflect on Lionel Messi’s international retirement — having coached Messi at Paris Saint-Germain.
When Adams and McKennie earned their first caps in late 2017, none of that was in place. John Brooks, Alejandro Bedoya and DeAndre Yedlin were the only players on that roster with World Cup experience. Dave Sarachan held an interim coaching tag, having replaced Bruce Arena, who himself had replaced Jurgen Klinsmann after he was fired midway through the cycle. There was some up-and-coming talent, and that was the extent of the good news.
Now? The kids can just play.
“I’ve told Adri this himself: There’s no pressure,” Adams said. “You are playing in the MLS consistently. You have had the opportunity to get called up to the national team. Be yourself, continue to grow, make mistakes, learn from them. We are here to support you in tough situations. If you get an opportunity, it’s another game. That’s what it’s about. You have to give these guys an opportunity to make mistakes, to grow, to not be arrogant, to just be humble.
“You’re in a new environment. Sometimes it doesn’t click right away. By the end of camp, you’re gonna be feeling completely different than you are right now.”
Of course, it’s an overstatement to say there’s no pressure on the kids. Sullivan, in particular, is on a list with Freddy Adu and Pulisic as one of the most hyped-up players America has ever produced, and he’s about to step into the national team spotlight — if not against Peru, then at some point over the next four games.
But they’re walking into a situation that’s already good. The “old” guys are, like Adams, in the prime of their careers, and very much expected to be part of the team in 2030, when at least a few of the players making their international debuts now should be part of the picture.
“I’m only 27,” Adams said, jokingly. “Everyone’s acting like I’m Tim Ream’s age. I’m in the middle, you know what I mean? … I’m now playing at the highest level for the last five years, which is amazing. For me, since that 2022 World Cup, it all became really real to me that I’m playing at the highest level.”
Amid the hype cycle, it’s worth remembering what it means to have that in place already.
