Closer and closer. As I write this, we are seven days from the USA opening their World Cup campaign against Paraguay in Group D.
So, who is the most important US player at this World Cup? Let’s dive in and discuss.
Attack
Let’s start up front. There are some obvious options. Christian Pulisic has been the face of this team for a generation. He, Tim Weah, and Haji Wright are the only players on the roster to have actually scored at a World Cup before. Pulisic (and maybe Balogun) are the most likely players to score goals,
and goals win games. Beyond that, Pulisic’s demeanor can be up and down at times. When he’s thriving, the team level goes up a notch. When things aren’t good for him, it affects other guys as well.
Striker may be the area the USA has improved the most since the 2022 World Cup, and Folarin Balogun’s decision to play in red, white, and blue is a big reason why. The 2022 strikers were Josh Sargent, Haji Wright, and Jesús Ferreira. Now, that’s also because Gregg Berhalter decided to leave Ricardo Pepi at home, but we don’t have to go there right now. Balogun is a natural goalscorer and a striker the US hasn’t seen the likes of for years. His importance is obvious.
Ricardo Pepi may not be the first-choice striker on this roster – or he may be! It’s hard to tell sometimes. Even if he’s coming off the bench, or splitting starts with Balogun, Pepi has emerged as a definitive presence at PSV, and he’s been great for the US for years. Check out his playmaking ability in that perfectly-weighted assist to Pulisic:
Midfield
Here comes the obvious one: Tyler Adams. Maybe because we just don’t have a like-for-like replacement for him, especially with Johnny Cardoso out injured. Also, because Mauricio Pochettino chose to leave Tanner Tessmann, Yunus Musah, and other holding midfield options at home in favor of one Cristian Roldan. Especially because of Tyler’s injury history. We know that players like Weston McKennie can move back into that holding role and do a job when needed, but that’s not Weston’s best use, and moving him back there weakens us in the attacking phase. Tyler’s injury history could make him the most important player on this team for the wrong reasons. Let’s hope he’s 100% fit throughout the tournament and that he proves to be the most important player for all his strong performances instead.
Weston McKennie comes into camp as maybe the best US club player right now, with his outstanding performances for Juventus this season. His positional flexibility can sometimes mask his technical ability and just what a special player he is. Hopefully Adams will stay healthy so that we get to see Wes in more of that box-to-box “8” or attacking “10” role. He could be the difference-maker this team needs.
Malik Tillman is a special player in the final third. His ability to combine with guys like Pulisic and Balogun, and create scoring chances for them, could make a huge difference for this team. The 2022 “MMA” midfield of McKennie, Musah, and Adams was excellent, but one thing it lacked was creative ability in the attacking phase. Tillman can deliver that. If he does, his importance is sky-high.
Oh, Gio Reyna. Sometimes it feels like he’s taunting us by showing flashes of his peak ability, while not displaying it at a consistent level (at least, not for club). We don’t know yet what role Gio is going to have on this team in 2026. We just know it’s dangerous not to include him on this list.
Defense
A year or two ago, Antonee Robinson was competing with Christian Pulisic, and perhaps had even displaced Pulisic, as the USMNT player with the best performances at club level. There have been some injuries along the way, and while Jedi is still a critical piece of this team (the dropoff from him to Arfsten is no joke), he may not be at quite the same level. Let’s hope he is. When he’s at his best, he is a stalwart piece of this squad.
Sergiño Dest is so special. A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine said to me that Dest had been left off the US World Cup roster (this was before the roster was public). Imagining what this team would be like without Dest was painful. Alex Freeman’s emergence on the right side is a welcome blessing, but Dest remains unique in his ability to receive the ball in the defensive third, shimmy past defenders, and get us into the final third quickly with an attacking chance. Moving him forward into more of a right midfield role with three at the back gives him an even greater chance to exhibit his attacking abilities, and we saw that against Senegal a few days ago.
I don’t have videos featured here for defenders Chris Richards and Tim Ream. They don’t score as often as the others. No big deal. They’re both important. Richards, like Adams, may have his importance be seen and felt because of injury. We will have to hope that he is able to perform at 100% for as much of the tournament as possible. The dropoff after him is significant.
That dropoff is where Tim Ream comes into the story. Rolling into the 2022 World Cup, 35-year-old Tim Ream was having an unbelievable renaissance, putting in performance after performance for Fulham in the Premier League. His rise was so dramatic that Gregg Berhalter made him a starter at the World Cup despite the fact that Ream wasn’t even called up for the international window prior. Remember Aaron Long and Walker Zimmerman being asked to play out of the back that window? That distribution is what Ream is capable of doing so well — and it’s that ability (and his experience) that has kept him as a mainstay on this team, despite being 38 now, despite swapping the Premier League for MLS, and despite his athletic ability being on a downward trajectory (at least compared to all the unbelievable young athletes he will need to defend at the World Cup). If Ream is able to roll back the years and reach his past heights, we may not think of him as very important to this team; he may go unnoticed. If his age and his slower first step become problems, he could be important indeed.
Matt Turner put in a good enough performance at Qatar in 2022 and gained some honor for his name. In the years since then, it would be natural to hope that he would be ascendant, or that another American would have surpassed him in goal. That did seem to happen — Matt Freese has earned a number of starts for this team, and seemed the clear first-choice even recently (maybe now too?) — but it’s not certain. There seems to be a fairly significant gap between Turner’s floor and his ceiling. He’s capable of some ugly gaffes, and capable of an 11-save performance vs Brazil (below). I chose not to include Freese on this list because Freese seems steadier, with a smaller gap from floor to ceiling. Perhaps this tournament will change that. Hopefully, if it does, it’s in a good way.
Who do you think will be the most important US player at the World Cup? Hit the comments to discuss.
