U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter will have plenty of decisions to make ahead of the 2024 Copa America and having two of his key players back to full health could certainly help make a few of those decisions easier.
Tyler Adams and Josh Sargent were both included in Berhalter’s 27-player roster for June’s upcoming friendlies vs. Colombia and Brazil. Both players limped across the finish line of their respective club seasons this past week after dealing with recent injuries this spring.
Adams, who missed most of Bournemouth’s season due to a hamstring injury, did not feature in the Cherries’ season finale loss at Chelsea on Sunday. The USMNT midfielder featured twice in March (in addition to two Nations League matches) before back spasms forced the 24-year-old to the sidelines for all of April’s schedule.
Despite playing only nine minutes for Bournemouth since April 2, Adams remains key to the USMNT squad and Berhalter is staying cautious with his workload ahead of the summer tournament.
“We’re trying to get Tyler and Josh in a place where they’re healthy and they feel great going into Copa America,” Berhalter said in a press conference Monday. “You saw the Nations League and seeing how we’re very cautious with Tyler, ramping up his minutes in a way that protected him and it will be no different now.”
Sargent, 24, missed parts of four months for Norwich City last fall due to an ankle injury, but responded in a major way this spring. The American forward scored 13 of his 16 total goals from January 1 onward, helping the Canaries clinch a top-six finish before suffering elimination at the hands of Leeds United in the promotion playoffs.
A slight foot injury might have hampered Sargent’s pair of performances against Leeds over the past two weeks, but his stellar 2024 production has him as a must-watch heading into the pre-Copa America friendlies and the tournament itself.
“Josh has a little bit of foot swelling going on that we want to get control of, you know, Tyler has been training and is back so we want to build him up again in the right way to get them ready,” Berhalter said. “It’s going to be a balancing act in this training camp. We’re looking forward to getting the guys together, really trying to build towards 2026 so that’s the main objective here.
“Just keep stacking these experiences on top of each other, really pushing the players and challenging the players with top-level teams and hope that we continue to build towards our goal of having a strong team in 2026,” he added.
The USMNT faces Colombia and Brazil before opening up group stage play vs. Bolivia.
