Why leadership development should be a priority for the USMNT heading into 2026

Leadership within the locker room and on the field is sometimes difficult to identify or quantify because there are many different forms of leadership: players who lead by example on the field with their performances, players who lead vocally, players who perform in big moments , players who do not play a leading role but are good teammates within the locker room: all these characteristics become an important part of the composition of a successful team.

The United States men’s national team is no different.

In fact, if one were to look at previous USMNT teams and the leaders those teams owned, they would see a correlation. Let’s use the 2010 World Cup squad as an example.

In the United States’ final group game against Algeria, which came down to a last-minute goal by Landon Donovan, we started with six different players who had captained teams at certain points in their careers:

• Carlos Bocanegra
• Landon Donovan
• Tim Howard
• Michael Bradley
• DaMarcus Beasley
• Steve Cherundolo

To their credit, almost all of those players got regular minutes and played important leadership roles for their clubs, which A) gave them confidence and B) allowed that confidence to carry over to the national team. They ended up being incredibly important in the big games.

They were the type of players who could influence a team’s momentum. They could pick you up when the team was down. They knew how to remain calm in the most hectic moments. They knew how to handle the pressure, whether they were facing elimination against Algeria in the World Cup or against a Spanish team with a 35-game unbeaten streak in the Confederations Cup semifinals the previous year.

A little more than two decades later, in the qualifying phases for the 2022 World Cup, the USMNT presented one of the youngest lineups in its history. Gregg Berhalter put a lot of faith in this young and talented group and chose to stay young to allow these young players to grow into leadership roles within the team and find their own voice. It empowered them and throughout the campaign we saw the predictable ups and downs, but many more good moments than bad.

The team entered the World Cup as the second youngest team in the tournament and emerged from the group with a win against Iran, a draw against Wales and an impressive draw against England. The signs were encouraging and the general belief was that this team would continue to improve heading into 2026.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Copa América. The USMNT came into the tournament with the vast majority of their important players having not played significant minutes with their clubs and without playing significant leadership roles within their teams. The results and performances were there for all to see: a group stage defeat to Panama with a red card for Tim Weah, and then a disappointing attacking performance against Uruguay.

The USMNT was eliminated from the tournament, becoming the first host nation in the tournament’s history to not advance beyond the group stage.

Coming out of the tournament, one of my biggest criticisms of the current USMNT was the lack of leadership within the team. There simply weren’t enough big players within the team who could be captains on the field or create big moments for the team.

Tyler Adams, captain of the United States at the 2022 World Cup, is the team’s natural leader, but he played limited minutes in the tournament due to his injury and was greatly missed in midfield. Yunus Musah is not a leader on the field, nor is Gio Reyna; certainly not with his age (22) and the lack of minutes he had at the time.

Tim Ream was pretty much the only exception. Ream, 37, captained Fulham to a mid-table Premier League finish as their first-choice centre-back before joining the USMNT for the Copa America. That experience as a leader benefited the United States during the tournament, but there was only so much he could do as one person leading the backline.

Ream’s former Fulham teammate Antonee Robinson played alongside him in the backline and was rock solid throughout the tournament with her performances, but she is still on her way to becoming the kind of figure who can lead at level of national team.

Now things are starting to change.

On Sunday, Robinson captained Fulham for the first time in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham. He has been a stalwart for Fulham all season, but now other players (and coaches, clearly) are starting to see that he is capable of handling the armband, and that will continue to strengthen him.

Robinson isn’t the only USMNT player who has grown as a leader in just a few months. Pulisic, who is in the middle of a season at AC Milan, has slowly come to terms with the idea of ​​being a leader.

Pulisic has worn the USMNT armband in the past, but I think more so because he has been the best player on the team and sometimes in those situations, a coach knows the potential impact the star player has if he later becomes a leader.

Lionel Messi is a great example of this. He’s not the biggest vocal leader, although he’s grown a lot in that area over the years; He doesn’t go around giving big, massive speeches for everyone to see; he is not so lively when he is in the field; but he is a leader by example and a captain of performance. When he is in the field, he produces this wonderful magic. The players around him expect him to create these big moments, and that’s where leadership comes from.

Early in Pulisic’s career, I think there were elements of that, but more recently, I’ve been very impressed with his ability as a captain to take some responsibility and show some leadership with the way he talks to the media, the way he coaches. . the team on the field and their way of leading the proceedings.

Robinson and Pulisic’s rapid development as leaders can easily be traced back to them becoming more important players at their clubs, and that is the way forward for the other prominent names in the playing pool.

Weston McKennie is now playing significant minutes for Juventus – can he have more confidence at club level and a bit more maturity as a player to be a leader for the US where he can be counted on as more than just a guy What’s going to jump? Go in and fight and be physically aggressive? He’s shown that he’s capable of standing up for his teammates and can lead that way, but can he also be a calming influence on this team?

There’s also Chris Richards. He’s had a bit of bad luck with injuries at Crystal Palace, but I think as a player, if he can find his voice, he could be a guy who could lead from the back, either alongside or in place of Ream. Because if you don’t have Ream there in 2026, who will be that big, dominant centre-back?

When you think about some of the best teams and countries in the world, they have these towering centre-backs (Virgil Van Dijk with the Netherlands and Rúben Dias with Portugal) who are leaders at the back. They organize the team, intimidate rivals. Can Richards develop in that type of role?

Then there is Yunus Musah, who is getting more regular minutes at his club; Tim Weah, who is becoming an important player at Juventus; and Ricardo Pepi, who is scoring many goals for PSV.

Each player’s individual skill attributes and counting stats are important, of course, and we, as fans of the game and analysts, love to obsess over those qualities. But the ability to step up and lead in big moments is also a skill, and arguably has a greater impact on a game-to-game basis, but it’s not talked about as much.

The good news is that the plan is there; The onus is now on the players to establish themselves more at their club, take on bigger roles and make bigger impacts, and hope that translates to the national team. The USMNT needs to have a much better and more experienced core leadership group heading into the 2026 World Cup; We’ll see who steps forward.

Stu Holden, former midfielder for the United States Men’s National Team, is FOX Sports’ lead match analyst for its featured soccer coverage.