In a bit of news that won’t surprise anyone with a passing knowledge of Tyler Adams, the U.S. men’s national team midfielder wasn’t thrilled with his halftime removal against Bolivia in Sunday’s Copa América opener.
Making his first start since March, the 25-year-old was replaced by Yunus Musah at the break, as the USMNT kicked off the tournament with a 2-0 win over La Verde at AT&T Stadium in Texas.
The substitution was pre-planned, a sensible decision given Adams’ lack of game time leading up to the game on Sunday.
Between Bournemouth and the USMNT, Adams had made just two cameos off the bench since March prior to starting against Bolivia. After returning from a long-term hamstring issue, Adams was slowed by back spasms through the final months of the Premier League season.
But in his post-game press conference, Berhalter said that the notoriously competitive midfielder still wasn’t happy about his prearranged substitution in the Copa opener.
“Guess what he said at halftime. Want to take a guess? ‘Coach, can I play more?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, we’ve been down this road man. We don’t need to have this conversation right now. I’m trying to get clips ready for halftime, trying to get some analysis done,'” Berhalter said.
“But of course he wants to stay on the field and that’s Tyler. How much he means to the team, you see his attitude and his intensity, and he’s a guy that we want on the field, but we just have to be careful. And the plan from the get-go was 45 minutes, and we stuck to the plan.”
For his part, Adams didn’t exactly dispute his coach’s recollection of the incident.
“[Berhalter] said we’ll check in at halftime and see how you feel. I said I felt fine. He still took me out. So that’s his plan,” Adams said in quotes published in the Washington Post.
The USMNT will resume Copa América play on Thursday when it faces Panama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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