'I really want that feeling again' - Inside the USMNT’s 2022 World Cup memories, from Christian Pulisic’s defining goal to Gio Reyna’s complicated role

The night before the USMNT’s World Cup opener against Wales, Gregg Berhalter gathered all 26 players in a circle. Before any of them had played a minute in Qatar, he wanted them to understand what they had already achieved.

So he gave them a number.

"He said, 'Each one of you guys has been assigned a number specific to you, and it represents what number you are representing the U.S. in a World Cup'," Walker Zimmerman recalls. "For me, it was 152. I was the 152nd player to represent the U.S. in a World Cup because I was jersey number three and, prior to that, there had been 149.

"Then, we go back to our rooms, and there's the jersey. When you think about it, you're like, '152, that's it?' That's all that has ever gotten to this. Then you go by position and what, a fourth, a fifth, or a sixth of those are centerbacks? What about guys who started a game? You realize you're in such an elite group of players who have ever gotten the chance to do it. That, for me, was pretty special."

For many of the players, the moment carried extra weight because they had reached it together. Tyler Adams had grown up alongside Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie in the youth national team setup before that group was handed the responsibility of leading the USMNT out of the wreckage of 2018. Tim Weah, Josh Sargent and Sergino Dest had shared their own youth-level memories, too. By Qatar, many of them were no longer just teammates. They were part of the same story.

"Those are the best memories," Adams says. "That's why you played soccer, to get to the point of playing pro. Now, I make amazing memories playing pro, but my memories with Weston are always going to be more valuable as a kid. It's the memories of us getting to that stage, even more than where we are now."

Once the tournament began, though, everything accelerated. There were no warm-up games, no slow build into the moment. Players arrived from their clubs and were dropped almost immediately into the most intense environment of their careers.

"It's so quick," defender Tim Ream recalls. "It was a little more condensed than a regular World Cup. You're in such a bubble at the time. The games are late, so it's weird because you're playing at 10 PM, so it switches our body clocks. We're staying up until three in the morning, we're all over the place. Even on days we weren't playing, they wanted us to stay up until 2 o'clock in the morning. Breakfast is at 12, lunch at four, then training."

Some tried to slow it down, however they could.

"I have a good mental coach that I work with, and we made that a big priority," Sargent recalls. "It's going to be a stressful time, you're going to be nervous, but make sure that, while you're there, take some deep breaths and be grateful and take it all in."

But even then, the whole thing could feel impossible to hold onto. Three group games came in eight days. Wales, England, and Iran blurred together with training sessions, late nights, recovery days, and the strange rhythm of life inside the World Cup bubble.

"Looking back now," Haji Wright says, "the World Cup was like a fever dream. It went by so fast."

For some, the experience was different. Joe Scally was one of five USMNT players who did not appear in Qatar, but even from the bench, the pull of the tournament was impossible to miss.

"A World Cup is a World Cup," Scally says. "There's nothing better in sports than a World Cup, so to be there was an awesome experience. Of course, it was different for me than for a couple of other guys. I don't know how many of us there didn't play, but when you look at it as a young player, you have to enjoy this experience, because it's the best, but it also lit a fire underneath me.

"Seeing the guys go out there, national anthem, full stadium, the whole world is watching, it's something you want to be a part of so badly. Of course, I was a part of it, but not on the field."

Three particular players played a unique part in the World Cup, and they did so while booking their place in history by doing something few Americans had done before them: scoring.

Entering the 2022 World Cup, 22 American men had scored a goal on the World Cup stage. Three more solidified their place in that fraternity in Qatar. All have very different memories and very different feelings about their moment in the spotlight.

Up first was Weah, who famously scored the opener in the first game against Wales. Played through by Pulisic, Weah slotted a shot into the back of the net to truly announce the USMNT's return to the world stage. For Weah, it was a dream come true, one that he had visualized for as long as he could remember. When it finally became reality, it was better than expected.

"Leading up to that World Cup, I dreamt of scoring," Weah says. "Years were passing by, and I literally always dreamt of that one moment at a World Cup, how it would feel, how I would celebrate. For it to become a reality, it was - man, it was amazing. It's something you worked for your whole life. Just playing in the World Cup alone was a dream come true, but scoring? It was an amazing feeling."

Pulisic was up next. After a scoreless draw against England, the U.S. went into the third match needing a win to book a spot in the knockout rounds. The opponent? Iran, which brought its own set of tensions. In the end, the U.S. got the win via Pulisic, who put his body on the line to secure it.

As his shot slid over the line in the first half of that group stage finale, Pulisic clattered into Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, injuring his pelvis in the process. As a result, he never had the chance to really enjoy his World Cup moment. There were no celebrations that would be a crucial and defining image of Pulisic's legacy as a player; instead, there was a hospital trip, agony and a FaceTime back to the locker room once the job was completed by his teammates on the pitch.

"It would have been, and it was, a huge moment," Pulisic told GOAL in 2024. "Normally it would have been - I don't know what I would have done - but I would have been excited. I would have had a pretty cool celebration with the team. You could see the team wanted to run over and celebrate, but it was like, I just didn't have that.

"It's funny, but sometimes, things work out that way. I wouldn't have changed it for the world. So the way it happens, that's how it happened. Unfortunately, I just had to celebrate that one lying in the goal. I hope to have many big moments. It's not like I feel like 'Oh, I need that one moment, that iconic celebration'. That's not how I think. I want to go in and I want to win these tournaments. At the end of the day, people will talk about that and that's what they'll remember."

The USMNT's third goalscorer, Haji Wright, feels the same way. He, too, had his World Cup dream diminished by circumstances. Wright's goal was, admittedly, a lucky one: a flick off his foot and into the back of the net to give the USMNT hope in their Round of 16 clash with the Netherlands. That hope never turned into anything more as the U.S. were knocked out in a 3-1 loss.

Because of that, Wright still struggles to really contextualize his big moment. It was a high, for sure, but it came on one of the most difficult nights of his life.

"It felt crazy," Wright says. "After it went in, I kind of felt like the momentum might change a little bit and felt we might get another opportunity. Obviously, that's not how it went. During the game, that's how I felt. Then after the game, you're just emotional, really. It's your dream for your whole life, and then you get knocked out and everything comes out of you. I didn't really ever think about scoring. I still probably haven't really thought about it now.

"I don't really have a memory of the moment of it because it was a happy and a sad moment. Being a World Cup goalscorer is amazing. Being knocked out of that same game, though? What happened after the goal? The emotions that I felt? That's what I remember."

Now, though, all three goal scorers can look back with a little bit more perspective. Social media helps keep those moments fresh, even years later. In the moments themselves, none of the three really appreciated what their goals meant, largely because the circumstances called for more. Now, it's a bit easier to understand what it was like, not just for them, but for those watching back home.

"We were just seeing the reactions online, because obviously we were Twitter searching online," Weah says, "but seeing the fans back home when I scored or when Christian scored, it was amazing, man, just to see the impact that we have and the representation that we have in our country."

Those goals were the loud moments, the ones replayed over and over again throughout time. For many members of the USMNT, though, they aren't the memories that stand out most. The real memories were made behind the scenes, far away from the stadiums and the cameras.

Throughout his career, DeAndre Yedlin has learned the value of perspective. That lesson was crucial in 2022. In 2014, he was a young player trying to find his way on the world's stage. In 2022, he was the veteran, the lone holdover from the last time the USMNT played at this level.

After every game, Yedlin could be seen leading a group of USMNT players back onto the field. In those moments, he and his teammates were trying to take it all in. It was a chance to appreciate the moment individually, but to do it alongside the teammates who had helped them get there.

"It feels like adversity gets multiplied by 10 because there's always a camera on you, always a microscope on you, and everybody has an opinion," Yedlin told GOAL in 2024. "I think it's important to find that space and peace. At the end of the day, maybe as bad as it sounds, but we're literally just entertaining people. That's all we're doing. That can bring inspiration, that can bring hope. There are obviously a lot of things that I think this sport brings in general, but at the end of the day, that's what it is. For me, it's always just about keeping that perspective.

"We're so minuscule in the grand scheme of things. We're such tiny figures in the grand scheme of it all, but we also play a huge part. It's kind of hard, I think, for us as humans, to comprehend how we can be so small, but also play such a huge part."

For many of Yedlin's teammates, finding those moments mattered. It took years of work to reach a World Cup, but once they were there, the whole thing moved almost too quickly to process. Some players tried to stay off their phones. Some tried to memorize every detail. Others could only remember fragments.

"I tried to stay off my phone as much as possible and just be in the moment with the guys," Josh Sargent says. "I just tried to fully embrace it. I feel like I can remember every single detail."

"I can see glimpses of it," Tim Ream adds, "but, for me, it was one of those things where it was like I'm there and I'm so insanely focused. It's like tunnel vision. There's a whole lot that you forget."

There were parts, though, that no one forgot. Qatar made sure of that. The tournament was unlike anything the USMNT players had experienced, both on and off the field. The call to prayer echoed through Doha. Old markets sat alongside stadiums built for the occasion. The city itself seemed to move on World Cup time, with every restaurant, street and conversation pointing back toward the games.

"I enjoyed every bit of it," Matt Turner says. "Honestly, it was so cool to be in a culture I've never experienced before. The call to prayer was going on and, to me, it was peaceful and it was thoughtful, and it was like a time where I'm just like, ‘You know what? Everyone's just with their faith right now’. That was really cool to me. It was special because we were in this foreign land all together, and all the experiences that our team had shared in qualifying and everything, and we had just this rock solid bubble."

For those few weeks, Doha was a bubble, too. Qatar wasn't just hosting a World Cup; it was existing around it. There was always another match somewhere, another bus of fans, another flag, another sound from the streets below.

Sergino Dest tried to take it in however he could. Despite largely being confined to the team hotel, he would sit on the rooftop and listen.

"I was just living in that moment," Dest says. "I would just sit there, drink my water, and watch these people enjoy life. They'd have flags and stuff, watching games, and I remember being like, 'This is it.' I just enjoyed that moment so much. I wanted to see everything and enjoy everything. I was living the dream. I had a big room with a balcony and, in the afternoon, you could just open the window and hear the sound of life. That's what I miss most about it."

Inside the hotel, the soundtrack was different. There, the memories were louder: games on television, movie nights, pool, ping-pong, video games, food and long stretches of time in the Players' Lounge, the room that became the heart of the USMNT's World Cup experience.

The team stayed in The Pearl, an area built on a man-made island, at the Marsa Malaz Kempinski. Unlike most World Cups, there was no need to relocate throughout the tournament, and that helped the hotel become something close to home. For Yunus Musah, the feeling was strong enough that he returned the next summer just to reconnect with it.

"Everything was like a throwback," Musah said in 2025. "The smell! I could smell it again. Everywhere smells so nice. The room, the view. I would just walk around, and it felt like I was experiencing all of those moments from the World Cup all over again. It felt good. For me personally, the World Cup was the best experience ever. I loved it so much."

The Players' Lounge is referenced often by members of that team. For some, it is what they cherish most: not the games or the stadiums, but the hours spent away from the noise, surrounded by teammates who became even closer in those weeks.

"We would go train at night, wake up in the morning, have a late breakfast, trying to adjust to game times," Tyler Adams recalls. "We had so much downtime with one another that it really just allowed us to connect. That Players' Lounge, watching games of the World Cup, taking it all in, no noise, it was like our own little sanctuary.

"Gregg made it a priority that team camaraderie and the time we spent together was valued and sacred. It just felt that, during the World Cup, I got even closer to some guys that I didn't even know I could get closer with. I felt like I knew everything about Weston and Brenden [Aaronson] and Christian, guys that I spent so much time with, but in those times, you just bond. That's all there is to do."

That bonding often came through competition. When games weren't on, there were movie nights. When players weren't resting, they were finding ways to beat each other at something: ping-pong, pool, video games, whatever was available.

"Sean Johnson and DeAndre Yedlin had their crazy style of pool that they were playing," Zimmerman recalls. "It was basically snooker. They barely hit the ball and just tried to make you lose by scratching. You remember that. You remember the times off the field, the times you spend with the guys."

Cristian Roldan remembers trying to avoid his room as much as possible.

"I remember being around the boys in the Players' Lounge and making sure I didn't spend any time in my room and didn't take any moment for granted," Roldan says. "Whether it was training, hanging out in the lounge, or just watching my family enjoy it."

Because that was part of it, too. A World Cup is not something players experience alone. They experience it with teammates, but also with the people who helped carry them there.

Zimmerman remembers walking out for the USMNT's first game against Wales. As the pregame ceremonies went on around him, he zeroed in on one specific area of the stadium: the USMNT family section.

That section, one filled with mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, children and everything else in between, was the real story. There were 11 players in the lineup. There were 15 more on the bench. In that section, though, were dozens of people who made their mark on those 26 players. As the national anthem played, Zimmerman wanted to see what it meant to them.

"Everyone's story is tied up with what that group of supporters has done to get us into this spot," Zimmerman says. "All of the sacrifices that those people made, those families, to get you to where you are on the field. That, for me, was a special moment: just seeing that the family contingent being so proud of us and then being thankful in that moment for all the sacrifices that group made for us."

Even during the World Cup itself, players started to feel that weight. Some of their proudest moments were seeing those who lifted them up on their journeys, either in the stadium or in between games. Everyone arrived in Qatar with a different story, but no one arrived alone. It took a village to produce every World Cup participant and, while that village doesn't always get the spotlight, the players felt their contributions more than ever in those weeks.

"It's so much work and focus and trying to come down from a game or gear yourself up for a game," Ream says. "For me, I think the only times that really do stick out, obviously aside from the games, were the times where we had those few hours of downtime and the families could come over. Those were the only moments where you felt you could actually sit back and breathe and really think, 'Okay, I'm going to take a mental picture of this and remember this'. My wife and kids and I, we're all here in this place together."

A side effect of that was that it also brought players' families closer together. After years of playing together, members of the USMNT truly got to get to know their teammates' loved ones for the first time. That changed relationships for the better.

"It was just this experience that drew us all closer together," Weah says. "We were all really close already, but having that period of time to connect and meet everyone's family, share our lives together, that was amazing. It's something I'll never forget: that emotion and that love that we had for each other and the game. It's one of those memories that, even when you're old and gray, you'll remember those moments."

For many members of the USMNT, family situations have changed over the last few years. Some are fathers now, which means they're no longer the young men they were in Qatar. Others have watched their kids grow up and perhaps find a new understanding or appreciation for what their dad does. Some have gotten married, expanding their circle. Life changes, but the motivation doesn't.

For Roldan, the motivation is even stronger. His daughter is nearly two now, and the opportunity of sharing a World Cup experience with her is what drives him now more than anything.

"It was almost like it was a collective effort to get there," he says. "I think we were all able to experience it in different ways, but we were able to experience it because of all of our sacrifices and effort. I think that's where I got the most joy: getting to see my loved ones there and enjoying it.

"I've had this late surge because I've had my daughter around. It doesn't matter how I compete; I come home and she just wants to see me. She doesn't care if I win or lose. Part of my motivation to extend my career and continue to play at a high level is that I want her to watch me play. I want her to watch daddy play. Part of my motivation is definitely my family and having them see their dad actually playing on that field rather than just being a bench player."

Sebastian Berhalter experienced Qatar from a different angle. At the time, he was still finding his feet in MLS, but during that World Cup, he was simply a son watching his father coach the USMNT on the sport’s biggest stage.

"It's the one time I got to feel like an ultra," Berhalter says with a laugh. "I got to feel everything. Going to that World Cup was so special. Seeing your dad coach against some of the best teams in the world was something I'll never forget. It was just such a surreal feeling being there with my family."

Not every family story from 2022, though, was uncomplicated.

Not every memory from 2022 is wrapped in nostalgia. For Gio Reyna, Qatar became something more complicated: a World Cup he had dreamed of playing in, but one that instead became a lesson in frustration, maturity, and the demands of being part of something bigger than himself.

Reyna entered that tournament dealing with injury issues, and when it became clear that his role would not be what he had imagined, the emotions spilled over. What followed has become one of the most-discussed chapters in modern USMNT history: Reyna’s limited role, questions about his response in training, and after the tournament, a public fallout that included the Reyna family informing U.S. Soccer of a decades-old domestic violence incident involving Gregg Berhalter.

It was an ugly, complicated episode, one that went far beyond anything that happened on the field in Qatar. In the years since, though, all involved have tried to move forward. Berhalter returned to the team in 2023 before eventually being replaced by Mauricio Pochettino. Reyna remained part of the player pool. And now, with the World Cup coming to the U.S., the midfielder is framing 2022 as an experience he learned from.

"I think just individually and collectively, we were all very, very young and maybe a little bit inexperienced at the time," Reyna said, "and then in the end, it's sort of just happened that we came up against a Holland team that was a little bit more experienced, a little bit better, a little bit more savvy with the game, and in the end, it was almost too much for us.

"It's a World Cup. Obviously, it's an amazing experience. I learned so much from that. Of course, would want to play more at this upcoming tournament, but at the same time, you learn that it's about just trying to do whatever you can to help the team. This is your whole country that's fighting something. This one is in our home country, too, so it would be a dream come true just to be there. It's just about the collective. It's about the team doing it every weekend to do something special for our country."

Reyna’s 2022 experience was different from many of his teammates'. Others left Qatar chasing the feeling again. Reyna left with something heavier: the understanding that a World Cup can expose as much as it rewards.

But he is not the only member of the current USMNT pool carrying unfinished business from that tournament. Some never got on the field. Some never got on the plane at all. And as 2026 approaches, several are still chasing the World Cup moment that Qatar denied them.

Miles Robinson was almost certainly going to the World Cup. He was a crucial piece of the USMNT's qualifying group and seemed destined for a starting role in the big tournament. Then came the injury. An Achilles, he learned soon after. There was no chance a trip to Qatar was going to happen.

So, when the World Cup rolled around, he had two choices: turn away from it due to the pain and frustration or find a way to enjoy it. He chose the latter.

"Man, I was outside watching that sh*t," he told GOAL with a smile. "We were partying, watching, cheering on my guys. I really wanted to experience that real-life energy because that's who I am."

Robinson's path towards that feeling was long. He suffered his Achilles injury in May of 2022. There were months of acceptance that led him to that moment. Chris Richards had no such luck.

Leading up to the World Cup, Richards was starting to break through with the senior team. Just a few weeks before the squad was announced, though, the defender suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Crystal Palace. It was always going to be close, and it ended up being too close. Richards was left to rehab in London while his teammates, for club and country, got to live out their dreams.

He, ultimately, did get down to a pub to watch a game. It wasn't like being there, though.

"I'm in London watching the boys kill it at the World Cup," he remembers, "and I was so, so happy for them, but for myself, it was lonely. Yeah, that's what it was: lonely. I didn't want anything to do with soccer. I think it was because it was a dream I had always had, and it felt like it just got ripped away from me right before it. It doesn't mean I wasn't rooting for the boys, though."

Mark McKenzie's World Cup absence wasn't due to injury; it was a coach's decision. That, of course, made it even harder to swallow. Physically, McKenzie knew he could contribute at that World Cup, having started the process of proving exactly that across his first 10 caps. Mentally, he now realizes his exclusion taught him that he might not have been fully ready.

"Missing out on the 22 World Cup? It ripped me apart, bro," McKenzie says. "It was gutwrenching because I was so close. When you get that call that you're not going, that you weren't selected, it's a punch to the stomach. It's an important feeling to have, I think, because it puts everything in perspective in life. Okay, maybe I put too much onus on this, so much that I lost who I was, lost focus on the small areas of my game or my life that I need to improve."

Much has changed since that moment, of course. Gregg Berhalter's time ended in 2024 with a Copa America exit. Mauricio Pochettino is now the man in charge and the man making the decisions about which 26 players will be joining him on the trip this summer.

That trip will be a defining one for the sport in America, given the nature of the 2026 World Cup. It'll also change the lives of those who are part of it. The 2022 veterans know that first-hand.

The magnitude of what had happened didn't really hit Adams until he returned home. What used to be a casual walk around a city close to his heart became something different after playing in Qatar that winter. Everything changed. He did, too.

"I think that, from a notoriety standpoint, people all of a sudden knew who I was walking back home in the streets of New York City," Adams says. "It's a city that I never imagined I'd get recognized in, and people are recognizing you. I had my first kid on the way, too, and I was balancing my personal life and my professional life all of a sudden. It didn't become a challenge, but it was just something I had to figure out and navigate." 

How the USMNT navigates the pressures that come with 2026 will be the storyline of the summer. 2022, in many ways, was the prelude. This tournament, the one being held on home soil in 2026, is the main event. In 2022, the USMNT got a taste of the sport at the highest level and everything that comes with it; this summer, they need more.

They're not participants this time; they're hosts, and with that comes a different set of pressures, particularly in a country where the sport remains something growing, not grown.

"It's an amazing feeling, but also a responsibility at the same time," McKennie says just weeks before the tournament arrives stateside. "Growing up, you see the people that you were looking up to, and social media wasn't as big back then, but you saw guys on TV, maybe in magazines, and if you're lucky, you saw it live. Now, there's a lot of social media, so we have that responsibility as well.

"Hopefully, people see that there is a pathway out there for them. It may not look exactly like mine or Christian's or Chris Richards or the people they look up to, but the ultimate thing is to believe in yourself and bet on yourself always."

In the coming weeks, 26 more players will get the chance to bet on themselves in a World Cup. Some will be doing so with the experience of 2022 in their back pocket. Others will be doing so for the first time. Some will expect to be there, and others will feel lucky to be involved. Some will play massive roles, and some will have no on-field role at all. Everyone will have a different experience, but all will be bonded forever. Such is the nature of a World Cup.

For the members of the USMNT's 2022 World Cup squad, that winter in Qatar will always unite them, regardless of who is and isn't involved this time around. For some, it was a moment in time, and for others, it was the moment that defined their lives. No matter who you talk to, though, they'll say it was special. It was something that can never be replicated.

"I can understand how people call it emotionally draining," Wright says. "After it was over, it felt like soccer had changed me, in a way, and now you find yourself chasing that same feeling. It's hard to get that feeling again outside of a World Cup. It all just feels like yesterday. Now, the next one's already here."

"I had some amazing experiences," Turner adds. "That's why I need to get back there, because I really want that feeling again."