Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson, and other USMNT players know they’ve blown a big opportunity

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many questions needed to be asked of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s players, not just manager Gregg Berhalter, after they crashed out of the Copa América on Monday.

But it did not need to be asked whether the players were angry about it. They obviously were. And a group that hails from some of the world’s biggest clubs knows this tournament’s games were likely the biggest the team will play together before co-hosting the 2026 World Cup.

“The only reason there’s pressure on this group to do anything is because everyone sees the potential in the group,” said stalwart midfielder Tyler Adams. “That’s a good thing. And I think everyone needs to learn to embrace that, be able to show up in pressure situations.”

Berhalter spoke of the same subject in his postgame news conference, making an unusually clear criticism of his players over it.

“The guys did a great job, worked extremely hard, put in a great effort against a really good team, but that needs to be the standard,” he said. “Every time we step on the field, that needs to be the same effort. … We’re getting there, but we’re not always there, and that’s something that we can improve.”

» READ MORE: USMNT crashes out of Copa América with loss to Uruguay, piling pressure on manager Gregg Berhalter

The players know Berhalter’s bosses are facing a torrent of calls to fire him. Adams and fellow midfielder Weston McKennie were among the players who backed their manager.

“He stuck with us through a lot of tough moments, I think we’re going to stick with him as well,” Adams said.

“I think the connection that we have with him is what’s important, in having a coach that players that would run through a brick wall for him, players that listen to him,” McKennie said. “Whatever happens, happens, but I think if he’s the coach, we’re all happy, get up, dust off, learn, and keep moving forward. That’s the only thing you can do now.”

McKennie’s “whatever happens” caveat was notable, and so was something Adams added: that the players should bear real responsibility for not delivering.

“Listen, I don’t think it’s a coach’s job in a lot of situations,” Adams said. “We put a game plan in place, guys need to follow the game plan of course, but you’re a footballer at the end of the day. How many times have you played the game? You need to be able to find solutions on the field as well.”

Striker Josh Sargent echoed that sentiment, telling The Inquirer: “It’s definitely time for us to look at ourselves, look at what went wrong, look at what we can do better — and figure it out as a team. Because it’s not good enough to go out in the group stage.”

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It’s harder to deliver if you’re not on the field. Quite a few players on the squad weren’t used very much, if at all. Berhalter used the same starting lineup in the first two group games, then made just one change for the third — and it was forced by Tim Weah’s red card suspension.

Just 21 of the 26 players on the U.S. Copa roster played, and that includes No. 2 goalkeeper Ethan Horvath subbing in for starter Matt Turner at halftime of the Panama game because of an injury.

Medford native Brenden Aaronson played just once in the tournament, and it was a four-minute cameo late in the group stage-opening win over Bolivia. But he didn’t mind stopping for a moment to talk with The Inquirer on his way out.

“For sure it hurts — I think that’s why it hurts so much,” Aaronson said of his team’s elimination. “We know it was a big tournament, we know how much it meant to us, and it [stinks]. This was something that we were going to go in and try to win at the end of the day, and to go out in the group, it [stinks].”

Aaronson now heads into a bit more time off than he hoped for this summer, before he returns to England’s Leeds United for his second stint there. One might hope — he certainly does — that he and other U.S. players will take their energy of annoyance with the Copa collapse and channel it into delivering for their clubs.

“Yeah, 100 percent,” Aaronson said. “I’m taking it as, I’m going to go back and do the best I can, and show that yeah, I’m a great player.”

» READ MORE: There was real pressure on Gregg Berhalter and USMNT players at their biggest game since the World Cup