For two years, the U.S. men’s national team lived with a nagging question mark hovering over its attack. They created chances. Plenty of them. But in the biggest moments — especially against the Netherlands in the Round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup — the finishing touch went missing. That flaw isn’t just a memory now. According to Tyler Adams, it’s been erased by one player: Folarin Balogun.
Adams, the USMNT captain and midfield anchor, sat down ahead of the team’s second World Cup tune-up against Australia and offered a blunt assessment of where the roster stands compared to two years ago. His answer zeroed in on Balogun, the 22-year-old striker who has transformed the national team’s attack since committing to the U.S. program over England and Nigeria.
“When Gregg Berhalter first took over the national team in 2018, Flo was starting to get integrated,” Adams said. “Now he is a lot more mature, a lot more seasoned, a lot more understanding of the version of exactly what he needs to be every single game.”
Balogun isn’t a traditional target forward. He doesn’t tower over defenders or rely on brute force. What he offers is something the USMNT hasn’t consistently had: a complete, dynamic center forward who can do a bit of everything. Adams described him as a player who can hold the ball up, run in behind, and finish with ruthless efficiency.
“He’s a niche of a player in the world, and he’s dynamic,” Adams said. “He can hold the ball up. He’s not massively big or tall, but he’s strong. He has the ability to run in behind defenders. When you look at our team and how dynamic we are, he fits in perfectly.”
The evidence came fast. In the USMNT’s recent 4-1 demolition of Paraguay, Balogun bagged two goals and drew rave reviews. The match set new viewership records for the national team — a sign that fans are tuning in to see what this new-look attack can do.
Adams pointed to the contrast with 2022. “I felt like in 2022, that’s what we were missing a little bit at times. We were creating a volume of chances, but we weren’t necessarily putting the ball in the back of the net. That comes with us maybe being a little bit more inexperienced, whereas now I think we’re just more ready for the moment.”
The implication is clear: Balogun represents the missing piece. His season at Monaco — where he scored 21 goals in Ligue 1 — gave the USMNT a proven finisher who walks onto the field with confidence. That swagger has carried over into the national team environment.
Now the question is whether the group can sustain that momentum. The next test comes Friday against Australia, a match that kicks off at 3:00 ET. For a team that struggled to convert in Qatar, the arrival of a clinical finisher could change the entire trajectory of this World Cup cycle.
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