DOHA, Qatar — Tyler Adams has been named the United States‘ captain for the World Cup ahead of their opener against Wales on Monday.
Adams, who has captained the U.S. nine times in 32 career caps, wore the armband in seven of his 12 appearances in World Cup qualifying.
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“It’s a huge honor for me, obviously, to be named captain of this team,” Adams said. “A very young team, but a lot of credit to my teammates because anyone throughout our leadership council can wear that arm band and represent us with pride and represent us in the right way.”
Throughout coach Gregg Berhalter’s tenure, the responsibility has rotated between multiple players on the team’s leadership council, with Christian Pulisic, Walker Zimmerman and Weston McKennie all having held the role since World Cup qualifying began.
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“There was something where the last three and a half years, we’ve been working with a leadership council and we’re very open and we ask them, ‘Hey, what do you guys wanna do for the World Cup?’ And they thought it’d be better to have a captain named for the World Cup,” Berhalter said.
“We’re proud to announce Tyler is the captain for the World Cup. We think he has great leadership capabilities, he leads by his actions and his words.”
Adams, 23, will be the U.S.’s youngest captain at a World Cup since Harry Keough (22 years, seven months, 17 days) in 1950 and and Berhalter’s side will be the second-youngest team at the tournament behind Ghana.
“Tyler’s a guy that’s just matured beyond his years and you notice it from the minute you start talking to him,” Berhalter said. “I can go on and on about the strengths of Tyler, but I think the other thing about him is his humility and he’s a guy that the teammates know exactly what they’re gonna get from him.
“They know that he’s gonna go out on the field and compete. They know that he’s gonna be thinking about the game. They know that he’s gonna be into the details of the game. He’s not just a competitor, he’s also a strategist and I think that helps the group because he calms people down and he’s a guy that people get behind.”
The Leeds United midfielder previously played for the U.S. at the U17 World Cup in 2017 before making his full national team debut against Portugal later that year.
A day after midfielder Weston McKennie and right back Sergino Dest said they were healthy and ready to play, Berhalter wasn’t ready to proclaim either 90-minutes fit.
“They’ve made great progress,” Berhalter said. “We see them as being able to take part in the game. For how long? We have to see.
“That’s part of having five substitutes. They can either come into the game or start them and take them out of the game when we feel that they’re getting close to that threshold, but both of them are definitely in position to help this team tomorrow.”
Brenden Aaronson, Adams’ teammate at Leeds, is the primary candidate to play in central midfield should McKennie be limited, while it’s less clear who would replace Dest at right-back with DeAndre Yedlin, Joe Scally and Shaq Moore all options.
FIFA announced Sunday that the U.S.-Wales match will be refereed by Qatari officials, led by Abdulrahman Al Jassim.
Al Jassim refereed three matches at the Gold Cup in 2019, including the Americans’ 1-0 victory against Panama. He also refereed the U.S.’ 6-0 win against New Zealand at the 2017 U-20 World Cup in the Round of 16, in which Adams, Josh Sargent and Luca de la Torre all featured.