Tyler Adams surprises even his teammates with his golazo

Tyler Adams’ goal to unlock the USA-Mexico final of the 2024 Concacaf Nations League will go down as one of the greatest U.S. goals in the history of the rivalry.

It was certainly one of the most stunning. At least to his teammates.

Teammate Chris Richards was watching the play unfold from behind Adams late in the scoreless first half.

“Nobody was expecting that. We thought it would go in the stands, I was about to turn around,” he joked after the 2-0 win gave the USA its third straight Nations League title.

Good thing he didn’t.

After Tim Weah and Weston McKennie played the ball around on the left side, drawing central midfielder Erick Sanchez in their direction, McKennie played the ball back to Adams, open in the middle of the field. He took one touch of the ball to tee it up 32 yards out and fire a bullet through both legs of the flying Sanchez and past keeper Guillermo Ochoa, who was slow to react to the shot and could only get a hand on it as it flew past him.

“I saw it in the back of the net,” Richards added, “so we were lit. It was dope. Tyler deserved it. He’s had a tough year or so, so it was the perfect way to end off our Nations League.”

🎥 Watch: Tyler Adams put the USA ahead against Mexico

The match was the first game Adams started for the USA since the Netherlands match in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup more than 15 months ago. And it came more than a year after his last top-level start in club play.

He had played his first Premier League game for Bournemouth less than two weeks earlier and was a surprise inclusion on the USMNT roster for the Nations League.

The national team had an agreement with Bournemouth on how much time Adams, who has battled hamstring problems, could play and he had to be taken off in the middle of overtime after an appearance off the bench of 38 minutes in the 3-1 win over Jamaica on Thursday. He was also on restricted minutes for the final, exiting for Johnny Cardoso at the half against Mexico.

U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said it was an easy decision to start Adams over bringing him on as a sub because it wouldn’t potentially cost the USA two subs like it did against Jamaica if the game went overtime and it wouldn’t cost the USA one of its three windows to make a sub as long as Adams stayed on the field until the break. 

“It gave the guys a boost that you got a guy like Tyler Adams on the field,” said Berhalter, “and you can see how impactful he was in the 45 [minutes].”

It wasn’t so easy to convince Adams at halftime to come out as was planned.

“Typical Tyler,” Berhalter said, “we get into an argument in the locker room and he wants to play more and the guys are asking, why can’t you play more? But we had to stick to it. That’s what we agreed with this club.”

Adams admitted sometimes emotions get the better of him but he was finally persuaded it might be smart that he came out.

“It’s about the long term,” he said, “and making sure that I’m healthy for more events coming up in the future, which we have. A Copa America and a World Cup within two years, so I want to make sure that I’m healthy continuously throughout those two years.”

Berhalter said he has more confidence in Adams’ shooting ability than the midfielder’s teammates do: “Guys think he can’t shoot, but I’ve seen him shoot before and he has a hard shot and generally it has that trajectory where it rises. These balls you can actually hit really hard and are difficult for goalies.”

Adams, whose only previous U.S. goal also came against Mexico, in a 1-0 win in a 2018 friendly in Nashville under Dave Sarachan, said he had a good feeling as soon as he hit the ball. 

“I don’t hit many like that often, but I was confident,” he said. “The team put me in a good position to be able to be open in that situation and have a good shot. These balls that we were using, the new ones, move a lot. So I knew if I could put that one on target maybe it has a chance.”

Adams was told what Berhalter said about his teammates’ opinions about his shooting.

“Of course, he said that now,” he replied. “He always gets on me that I need to shoot a little bit more when I have the opportunity. In training, I’ve been practicing that in my rehab recently. It was a good feeling scoring that one.”