The Captain presented by Verizon: Tyler Adams on Bournemouth Belief, Fatherhood, and USMNT camp 10/10/25

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network Suboptimal Radio. It makes me so happy, especially walking into my own team changing room, for instance, and just saying like an American is the best player in Serie A. Like, what's the argument? Give me an argument. We'll debate it right now.

0:23My guest today is a gentleman who started this Premier League season by playing his tenacious, hard charging best, flying into every match week like a brick through a window. It's been an absolute joy to watch this American-born war cherry propel Bournemouth into fourth place in the table. Best ever start to a Premier League season for them. Also speaking at the start of a US men's national team camp, two massive friendlies loading against 24th-ranked Ecuador Friday night in Austin, Texas, where I have no doubt the supporters already standing in line at Terry Black's barbecue. And then against 25th-ranked Australia, the mighty Socceroos in Colorado, October 40.

1:02always the highlight of my month. To introduce the captain, presented by our friends at Verizon. Welcome back. It's Mr. Tyler Adams. Raj, thanks for having me back. Tyler, first things first, US squad just released. Your name, not on it. For the best of reasons, tell us in your own words, what's going on? Yeah, unfortunately, not going to be able to join the team, but for obviously an unbelievable reason. My wife is pregnant again. You know, I had conversations with the coach, and of course he understood the circumstances. But yeah, I have to be here to support my wife and welcome our second baby boy.

1:35Another little Jewel International. Yeah, he's going to be born in London. So it's going to be funny one day to talk to them both about that. Going to be another little English baby. How is Sarah doing? How are you feeling going into Fatherhood, the sequel? She's doing great. Very fortunate. My mom is out here right now. Her mom is on the way soon. So we're going to have a little bit of extra help. So we're comfortable right now. But obviously, I don't have to do the hard work. So just there to support. Having one kid is amazing. Having a second, I'd say in my experience, limited experience, is for black belts in parenting.

2:10You said the logistics. I mean, more importantly, how is Jax your firstborn feeling about being a big brother? Does not have my temperament. He has Sarah, so he's very calm and listens to everything, which is crazy. He has a lot of energy still for sure, but he's very calm and such a good boy. So the second one, we'll see who he's more like. Before we go any further, this episode of The Captain is brought to you by Verizon, official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. We are so excited to share the news. Verizon is teaming up with David Beckham and an all-star roster to launch Verizon Ultimate Access for FIFA World Cup 26.

2:48Verizon customers will have access, yes, to thousands of free FIFA World Cup tickets. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to win golden tickets for access onto the field. during the gameplay. Meet and greets for soccer legends, more on the road to the tournament, the FIFA World Cup 2026. No one gets you closer than Verizon. So grateful to them for making this series happen. And, well, Tyler, thank you for joining us to talk about the United States in one second. But I would be remiss if I did not congratulate you again because bloody hell, Bournemouth, the sensational start to this season. Currently, as I said, up top, fourth bloody place.

3:30Bite your arm off. You're on the sixth match unbeaten run, two points behind the leading Arsenal. Is this the new normal for Bournemouth or even you surprised by the start to the season? No, I'm not surprised by how we've started the season because we've worked extremely hard throughout preseason and through the first games to get ourselves on track to what we know we can achieve. But at the same time, you can't say you're not surprised a bit to how quickly the organization has transcended any expectations. just continuously climbing each and every year, achieving new goals, setting new expectations.

4:00To be in the position that we're in right now, we deserve it because we've played a lot of really good football. But at the same time, it's interesting to look back and say only two, three years ago, the club was fighting to stay up in the Premier League. And now we're right now sitting in an unbelievable position. Yeah, but also you're fourth and you're sold. Was it$270 million worth of players? Is that the secret of success in football? sell your best players apart from Tyler Adams. That's just recruitment. The recruitment has been unbelievable. And if you look around our squad, there's so many players that could still have the opportunity to go.

4:34And you look how players are playing right now, but consistently to replace the players that we've done, that's up to recruitment and good coaching because, you know, that's not my job. Oh, God bless. I've got my little Bill Foley bobblehead right here. One of its arms fell off and I keep meaning to glue it back on. But Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson once told us on this show, He said in any season, it takes about 10 games for the table for the results to kind of sort themselves out as truth. In your experience, is that accurate? The table doesn't lie at the end of the season. I think it's always very accurate to how you've played.

5:06You can go on a bad run in the Premier League and find yourself in a terrible position. You can go on a little run and find yourself in an amazing position. The table is so tight, especially this season. I think it will be very difficult. But the way that we've instilled confidence in every single one of our players, the confidence that we have in one another. I think that we can continue this for a really long time.

5:27We will get back to Bournemouth in just one moment. But first, the US men's team. We last spoke at the start of the September international break. The career game was a challenge before a packed crowd that was heavily there in Harrison, New Jersey for the South Korea team. We lost, but then we beat a Japanese 11 to wrap things up. But Columbus coming through for us in our hour of need again. At the end of that, what was Coach Mauricio Pochettino's message? What did he take from that and communicate to you guys? I think he was really happy with the response of the team. I think it's really easy to get caught up in, you know, the noise of everything that's going on around the national team sometime.

6:07But when you look at Korea, we looked at the negatives, we looked at the positives and said, this is the adjustments we need to make. And I think we changed a lot of things, obviously, not just personnel in the second game, but the way that we played formation-wise, set pieces, just everything, a little tweaks to the way that we needed to play. And we got a result against a very good Japanese team. I think you could just see in that game the fluidity of the team, the chemistry and combinations of the players, the understanding of the way that we wanted to play. We looked more comfortable. You know, I think he was happy with the way that we played in the result.

6:38That 2-0 win against Japan, the first goal from Club America's Alex Zendejas, volleying in left foot off a quite glorious cross for Max Arston. Honestly, that was a better approach shot than we had as an entire nation in the whole Ryder Cup. Zendias has been, I'd say, an enigma. One of so many players who've soared for their club. Is it five goals to assist in 11 Liga MX appearances this season? Has found it hard to find a role in a US jersey. You know him, you train with him. What's he like and what's his ceiling in terms of this team? Yeah, his ceiling is really high. And if you talk about Zendayas as a player in that whole 98 group, the team that I was a part of with residency, like the talent that we had in that squad was unbelievable.

7:23You have Christian, you have Weston, you have Haji, right? You have Luka Del Torre, you have Zendayas. Like we had a very strong team and a lot of those players are going to be important players for us, you know, come the World Cup. But Zendayas has always had so much quality. And I think, you know, he started obviously his career at Dallas before making the move to Club America. But you could just see he's coming to his own skin. He's found his niche in his team and his role, and he's soaring right now, like you said. So to have him bring that energy and that confidence into the national team is going to be important for us because he plays one of those roles where he can play an 8, a 10, a wide position, but he's just so comfortable in every role.

7:58You give him the ball in tight situations, he finds solutions. He's just a calming presence to have on the field, and you could see the chemistry between him and Christian in that game. It really just flowed. It comes from years of playing together. Without a doubt. I mean, when you look back on it, we've played with each other since we were 16, 17, you know, them even a little bit longer because I'm a little bit younger than them. But you could see from the time that we played throughout residency, whether it was Nike Friendlies or under 17 World Cup, whatever it was, that he was such a talented player.

8:24So I'm so happy for him. Second goal in the Japan game. Cool left footed finish from Flo Balagan. Ran onto a through ball from one Christian Pulisic. incredibly flow is making his first start under pot scoring for the first time since i think last summer's copra america and that narrative we've talked about it a lot of the number nine and who should wear the u.s jersey it's hung over this team really for the past five years how big was that flow goal in terms of that conversation yeah i mean i think you forget about the national team for a second and you just talk about for him how important it was to do it in a national team shirt Of course, it means a lot to him, but, you know, he's been battling injuries, obviously, and that was a big reason why he wasn't involved in a lot of the camps since Potsch took over.

9:07But for him, you could just see it was it was almost like a huge relief for him just, you know, to get that goal to prove to everyone what he's capable of, how important of a player he can be for our team. I was happy for him because how he was working throughout that camp was honestly very impressive. You know, every single day, just grinding it out. He didn't start the first game, obviously, but came on and had a big impact. And then to start the second game and score a goal was not only good for our team, but just huge for him. The game was a friendly, as all our games until the World Cup proper will be now.

9:34But it was also seen as narrative changing. I often say US fans, we're a crazy bunch. We have two gears. The sky is either falling or we're going to win the World Cup and we're going to win it now. We have like the switch flicks between the two. We have almost nothing in between. As footballers, does narrative actually matter to you, to those on the inside? Or is it just for journalists, fans, headline writers? is? No, for me personally, no, of course, it doesn't matter. I don't care about the outside noise. I just go out there and do my job. And that's what I'm supposed to do. Just as journalists are supposed to write stories.

10:08That's what they're supposed to do. Do you know what I mean? Like everyone has a job and everyone has to make money somehow. So I think for me, the biggest thing is making sure that we believe within our group that the outside noise and narrative doesn't matter. It's not important that just myself, it doesn't matter to someone else. It doesn't matter. It has to be the collective that understands like what we're doing on the inside is going to work and we have to trust this process. So again, it's working through. I think results, you know, they give you confidence and belief in what you're doing.

10:34And I think having that result against Japan put us in a good position to obviously go into this camp and do well. So I'm looking forward to watching the team because I think they can continue that. Last week, Potch announces roster for these games and there were some familiar names back on the list. Goalkeeper, old friend Matt Turner. Now with your mighty New England revs, called up for the first time since the Gold Cup. Also back, Weston McKinney. bat like Landon Donovan's hair for the first time since March. And Jedi himself, Anthony Robinson, making his return, thank God, after recovering from off-season knee injury.

11:08With these boys back, seeing this squad, what phase should we understand we're in right now with the World Cup? What is it, like 249 days away? Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of a reintegration period, of course. Like, you know, for a player like Weston, who had to go to the Club World Cup in the summer, people think it was his choice to miss the national team. It's not your choice. He had to play with his club and that's that. So to be able to have him back in the squad now, you know, playing minutes with Juventus again as well. He's going to be such an important player for us. I mean, everyone saw it in the last World Cup.

11:37Everyone's seen it in the games in between. He has a ton of caps and he has a ton of caps for a reason. So he's going to be an integral part to the way that we want to play. And then, you know, for Jedi, again, he's just one of those guys. I just saw him this past Friday, of course. And to see him again, to see him smiling, to see him just, you know, back out on the pitch. it's exciting because i know what it was like to you know battle some injuries and to be back and see him smiling is important because he's going to be an important player for us and to beat him yeah of course that that's the the cherry on top of course and of course i said that but you know nothing needed to be said after how we finished that game you wouldn't be so chipper if you hadn't won that one team you wouldn't even imagine it if he texted me after the game there's no way i'm meeting up with him after a loss so you already know there's some familiar names not in Camp Gio Reyna, made just two appearances for Gladbach, Atletico Madrid's Johnny Cardoso, PSV's Eginho Dess, Ricardo Pepe, both miss out through injury.

12:29Atalanta's Younis Moussa not called up, nor was Norwich's Josh Sargent, despite his quite remarkable six goals in his first five appearances or competitions. Pochettino said players should be, quote, desperate to perform to convince us to call them in again. I mean, we are eight months from the World Cup. Can you talk about and give us some insight into the pressure that you players feel knowing that every single time you're on the field or not on the field, it can affect the chances of playing for the US next summer? Every single player should have the mindset that when they go into their club situation, I'm not only working towards the goals I have, obviously with my club, but goals of playing for the national team with a World Cup right around the corner.

13:08So obviously good performances is not something that you want to force. It has to come naturally and you have to develop at your club and in due time. But for me, yeah, it's important to obviously have good performances, be playing consistently so that that can translate when you go with the national team so we have a competitive team right now if i think if you're you're not playing consistently it's hard because we have a lot of players that are playing consistently so it's kind of cream of the crop come the the time of the world cup you know if you're playing i think you have an opportunity if you're not i think it's it's always difficult because how do you necessarily trust someone to come into a situation where they haven't been playing and haven't been getting the reps over someone that has do you know what i mean how does this sense of world cup readiness compare to the 2022 cycle for you 249 days out or because these are friendlies and you had qualifying to battle harden you last time is it feel very apples and oranges so it's hard to tell what's similar and what's different yeah it couldn't be more opposite situations to be completely honest with you like when you look at the 2022 world cup i mean i'm just going to take a wild guess that 85 of the roster was made up of guys that were in our world cup qualifying squad do you know what i I mean, so if you were getting those reps consistently and you had put the team in a position to qualify for the World Cup, you're obviously deserving whether you're playing with your club or not to have an opportunity at the World Cup.

14:24But a lot of those guys were playing with their clubs, so they kind of go hand in hand. Whereas now it's a little bit different. Like people question the roster last camp around where you give guys opportunities to play with the national team, give them reps, but there's no circumstances to them. Do you know what I mean? Like it doesn't matter if you lose the game. It doesn't matter if you win the game. Of course, we want results at the end of the day. Like we should always be going out there to play, win, replicate what's going to happen in the World Cup. But at the end of the day, why not give them the opportunity?

14:50Whereas with qualifying, it was we needed results and we needed them quickly so that we could qualify for the World Cup. So there's a fluidity, just like almost like an improvised freedom to where we are right now, that when you are trying to battle hard and then qualify at the same time, you don't have that liberty. Yeah, it's completely different. Like you said, it's apples and oranges. You look at Commie Bowl, for instance, and you look at how enduring that qualifying process is. Do you know what I mean? And we had to go through a very similar thing throughout CONCACAF in order to qualify. But when we don't have that right now, the focus has shifted completely.

15:20It's about getting players ready to different systems, different things, like trying new things. How can we understand the system completely? Take more risks in games. So let's focus on the positive. And when you look at the list of positives, one place you have to start, which is Christian Pulisic. Greatest mashup of Pennsylvania and Italy since Sylvester Stallone was throwing those hard rights at frozen beef rib. He's been balling out at Milan. Serie A's joint top scorer, six goals in eight appearances in all competitions. Even The Guardian recently wrote he is, quote, the best player for the best team in Serie A and he's an American.

15:57It's really quite spectacular what he has lived the last couple of weeks. When it's happening, do you reach out to him when you see him absolutely smiting all comers like this? Is it like a group text that you're all part of? No, I mean, I text him on the side all the time, like individually, but it makes me so happy, especially walking into my own team changing room, for instance, and just saying like, an American's the best player in Serie A. Like, what's the argument? Give me an argument. We'll debate it right now. It's unreal. And it's more the fact that this is now not his first season doing it.

16:28It's been three seasons. The stats don't lie. His performances don't lie against the biggest teams, the best opponents. He is always there showing up. Like you said, an American is the cherry on top, of course. But if he's not world class already, he's as close as you get to being world class. And I don't say that lightly, of course, but how can you deny it? If we're going to call someone that's joint top scorer with him world class, why are we not calling him world class? I mean, he is. Well, I speak to an Italian. He kept just saying, Afuoco, Afuoco, which I use Duolingo to great effect to work out.

16:58But we've talked about this before, and I would love you read on this in this moment. How do we get the best out of Christian tactically when he's wearing the U.S. jersey? Listen, for me, he always shows up in the biggest games, regardless of what game or moment it is. And I've always had that feeling with the national team as well, that he shows up every single time we need him. You know, I don't want to speak for him, but when you watch a player like him play and you watch him with Milan, freedom gives him the best opportunity to be unbelievable. You don't want to pigeonhole him in one position and say, stay out wide.

17:31When you get the ball, then you have your opportunity to go. It's like, come pop up in the spots where you feel you're going to be dangerous. And you watch him play with Milan and he's always popping up in a different spot. The ball goes wide. He's arriving in the box. That's him. Like, that's the quality that he has. And you need to be able to give him that freedom to just be able to go find the solutions for our team. And he's that player. That demigod, Jack Grealish, was asked what's happened to him at Everton. And he said, honestly, I do really well when a coach kind of tells me what to do.

17:56But then also like is on when you're on the ball, it's not telling me cut outside, but I just like leave it to me to intuit. Is that the same with Christian as well? Just that get on the ball, do your thing. I trust you. Yeah, of course. And I think you need to understand the players that you're playing with, who's running in behind, who's coming to the ball, like simple movements of what football is, which everyone understands. But in certain situations like, oh, you need to break down a low block, get Christian the ball. He's that player. So we're finding that rhythm. I think, you know, even against Japan, he popped up in all the right spots, was able to create goals and good moments.

18:29But yeah, he, you know, just like everyone else, we're still learning the system of everything and we're trying to become as cohesive as possible. Another player who has been dominant with his club and I found real joy watching him is Chris Richards, the East member himself. Palace this season just stepped up the mental side to his game. He's been dominant in massive moments, in massive games. One of the reasons why Palace started their season with that six unbeaten, according to their first loss, obviously, in the final minutes, I have to contractually remind you of this, against Everton on Sunday, is Chris Richards.

19:00He's been dominant. Chris is fascinating to me because for the longest time, he was undoubtedly the best player in Alabama on every single field he stepped onto. So to move to the Premier League, it's hard mentally to become harder, to become tougher. Do you speak to Chris about how he's transformed himself mentally? because his game has found another level this past 12 months. Yeah, I speak to Chris a lot. I mean, speaking about his evolution as a player, not so much, but I think you could just see him mature as a person. And with that came his maturity on the field as well. He found it difficult at times to be, you know, a solid player for us in the national team.

19:36You know, he had a few injuries, which kept him out. Obviously he missed the World Cup, but he played really well at moments throughout qualifying and then obviously had an injury, which held him back a little bit. But we always knew Chris was going to be a player. It was just a matter of when he was going to step into that role. And I think now he's found his home at Crystal Palace. You know, the way that they play, the way that he plays, it just suits him really well. Having an obviously an Austrian coach as well, where, you know, Chris speaks fluent German and you're able to communicate really well with him to understand your role.

20:05He just looks at home. And every time I see him play, he's just one of their main players. So I'm super happy for him because, again, that translates to the national team. I think he's played really well with the national team. So, yeah, it's just about continuing that because, you know, centre-backs are hard to come by and he's one of our main guys.

20:23When the league picks back up after the international break, Bournemouth travelled to South London to face Palace. What's that like for you to play against one of your mates? How does it feel when you walk out in the tunnel with Chris? I know that you always see like the players from the same international teams just like high-fiving each other. But is it like that process of teammates becoming opponents, is it just normal? Or is it something you actually appreciate differently and look forward to? What's crazy about it is like now we have so many Americans playing at a high level and you have the opportunity to play against them more often than not.

20:58I've already played against Brendan. I played against Jedi the other day. I'm going to play against Chris after this international break and I do my talking on the field. I try to trash talk him as much as possible or come up against him as much as possible. but I think it's a unique experience. And yeah, hopefully we get the best of them. Is Chris a talker? No, he doesn't talk on the field, but boy, does he talk off the field. Oh my God. That's what makes it so much better on the field. Oh my God, I swear. He talks more than anyone. We talked about you missing this window and you've missed windows in the past, but that was because of, I mean, agonizing back injuries.

21:30What's it now like to not play for this team for personal reasons? I mean, I'll let you know how much sleep I get this week to determine, you know, how nice it is to not be in camp. But it's an amazing thing that obviously starting a family and having another son. So I'm extremely grateful for the circumstances. It is difficult because, again, it is the lead up to the World Cup and I want to be supporting the boys. But at the same time, you know, nothing comes before my family. When we had our third child, it was the World Cup. And I think Spain were getting beat by Chile. I actually watched the game.

22:02This makes me look terrible. While she was in labour, it's a long labour. Chile won. It was a very good game. Will you watch these U.S. games or is it too hard for you emotionally when you're not playing? It's definitely emotional when I'm not playing, not to be there and supporting the boys, of course, but I'll still support them by any means. If the games are at a reasonable time, well, I don't even know why I'm asking because I'm probably going to be up now that we're having another baby. So I'll definitely be watching. What am I saying? What's it like for you to watch your team when you cannot impact play?