DOHA, Qatar — The future captain of the U.S. men’s national team and future engine of a self-professed World Cup contender walked into a Lisbon hotel five years ago last month, and almost immediately, says Dave Sarachan, “you could just tell.”
Sarachan was the grandfatherly interim coach of the USMNT at the time, and no, he couldn’t tell precisely what Tyler Adams would become. But on a Monday night in November 2017, he saw an 18-year-old with chipmunk cheeks stride confidently around a meeting room, shaking hands and looking adults in the eye.