An over-the-top gathering: Welcome to the World Cup, American style

NEW YORK — Matt Turner bounded up the stairs, gripped the red, white, and blue jersey in his hands, and waved it to the boisterous crowd below. As the first officially named member of the United States’s roster for the World Cup tournament that opens in two-and-a-half weeks, the Revolution goaltender found himself the leader of a uniquely American parade Tuesday afternoon, starring in an over-the-top gathering at New York City’s South Street Seaport.

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As the additional 25 players heard their names and collected their jerseys, as smoke machines flooded the stage and music blared from skyscraper sized speakers, as emcee Rob Stone teased it as “the biggest sports event the planet has ever seen,” Fox Sports televised the hourlong live show under the banner “Roster Reveal 2026.”

Welcome to the World Cup, American style.

“I’d expect nothing less,” veteran midfielder Tyler Adams, a New York native, said. “It’s a huge event, the biggest event that the US will ever host. To be honest, it’s kind of what I expected.”

Sitting behind a microphone in the hours after the announcement was complete, after joining Turner and other fellow holdover 2022 World Cuppers such as Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Ream, Haji Wright, Sergino Dest, Antonee Robinson, and Gio Reyna or exciting newcomers including Folarin Balogun, Ricardo Pepi and potential starting goalkeeper Matt Freese, Adams spoke for all of them when he admitted things are finally getting real.

“Two days ago I was playing against Nottingham Forest hoping to achieve something. Yesterday, got off the plane and we’re in Times Square,” he said. “I think it’ll probably all hit tomorrow, to be honest with you, when we start training properly and really start preparing for these friendlies and then for the tournament to begin.

“Once you run out on the grass with the boys, it starts to feel more real.”

From the announcement eight years ago that the US had won the bid to host its second World Cup, this time joining Canada and Mexico rather than going it solo as it did back in 1994, the buildup has been slow and deliberate. No apology needed if you forgot it was even happening, struggling as soccer often does to push into the foreground of the American sports calendar. Take into account a political climate that lurches from supporting without question anything that happens in red, white, and blue to knocking anything without doubt that is supported by the current occupant of the White House, the World Cup lands in the middle of that divide.

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Yet whether you love it or hate it, it’s here. And now, the push is on.

Now, it’s real.

Real for the 26 players who received a simultaneous video message from head coach Mauricio Pochettino that they had made the cut, a video that is likely the culprit for the exact makeup of the roster getting leaked prior to Tuesday’s festivities. For the newly appointed savior of a national team program still looking for a breakthrough World Cup performance and the fruition of decades-long increases in American youth soccer participation, Pochettino described himself as very matter-of-fact in delivering the good news. But that didn’t mean he didn’t understand the joy for those who made it, just as he did himself in 2002 when he finally got the call to represent his native Argentina.

Asked if he included inspiring words in his recorded message, Pochettino said, “The video wasn’t the moment to inspire them. It was the moment to communicate the roster. The moment you communicate the roster is inspiring. A moment like today [at South Street Seaport] is for you to realize what it is to be on the roster for a World Cup. It is a dream come true. For anyone who plays soccer, or football outside of America, the dream is to play in the World Cup. I said it in England — you’re over the moon. You feel so happy, full happiness in your whole body.”

Now the real work begins, with the US team heading to its California training center in advance of a first friendly May 31 against Senegal. That’s when Pochettino will make the final call between Turner and Freese, the former Harvard star. When he will see the condition of Pulisic and whether he can get his most talented player back in the goal-scoring column. When he will decide if Ream gets the captain’s armband, as he did for 16 of the 23 USA matches Pochettino coached so far. When he will place his trust in Adams, the captain of the 2022 squad, to hold down the defensive midfield. When he will put into action the flexibility he said was a key component of his roster-building process.

“We were working one year a half really hard to arrive in this moment in the best condition with all the information, to make the right decision,” he said. “It’s impossible to be fair with everyone, but this is our decision to make the most competitive team. … We really believe these 26 players are the right players, are the best players for us.”

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Here we go.