Patrick Agyemang's road less traveled to USMNT could continue to World Cup

New York Times

07-04-2025

Patrick Agyemang has no problem elaborating on his answers to questions about his rapid rise. He's generous when it comes to sharing detail and perspective. Only one of over a dozen queries warrants a one-word answer of 'no' – albeit with a bit of a chuckle to provide plenty of subtext.
The question: Did he hear from U.S. Soccer or sense he was being considered for inclusion prior to Mauricio Pochettino's tenure?
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It's defensible to an extent. Striker has quickly become one of the deepest position groups in the USMNT pool, with multiple players scoring regularly in Europe – Josh Sargent and Haji Wright were at it again this past weekend – and a steady stable of dependable forwards playing regularly in MLS. Injuries, however, remain a regular concern.
Folarin Balogun has struggled since joining Monaco in the summer of 2023 and hasn't played since October after suffering a shoulder injury. Ricardo Pepi's season ended in late January after suffering a knee injury. Sargent missed all of November and December with a groin injury, and Wright missed nearly four months with an ankle complaint.
Even so, to those who hadn't been watching Agyemang's 2024 season, the 24-year-old's inclusion on Pochettino's January camp squad may have seemed like little more than a flier on a young player.
'It's so easy to go into these camps and think you're not good enough to be here, or just feel like this isn't your level, it's too high for you or something,' Agyemang told The Athletic. 'For me, I go into these camps and I'm just like, 'I need to do my role. I need to work hard. If I get on the field, I need to show that I belong here and I want to be back, to be in this picture.''
Agyemang was arguably the standout player of his first USMNT camp, scoring in each of his first two international caps in wins against Venezuela and Costa Rica. The strong impression kept him in frame for the Nations League finals, where he came off the bench in the semifinal vs. Panama and then started the third-place match against Canada. His 35th-minute goal in the latter fixture helped the U.S. pull level before halftime.
Agyemang with a first touch equalizer! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/PmsamAvENm
— Concacaf Nations League (@CNationsLeague) March 23, 2025
While the end result — a fourth-place showing in a four-team bracket — hardly inspired, Agyemang's conversations with Pochettino made him feel as though he had impressed again.
'I've been really trying to make a presence for myself on the field,' Agyemang said. 'In the first game against Panama, if I could go back, I would change the decisions that I made in a split moment, because essentially, I could have scored two goals, but the fact I was able to create space for myself in those opportunities, (Pochettino) was happy with it. He's realizing I can come in showing a different profile and spark to the game. As long as I continue doing that, he was happy with it.
'There's things I need to still improve on, but in the overall bulk of it, it was a positive outlook on what I did (from him).'
It was hard to find reasons for optimism surrounding the USMNT after those consecutive defeats.
The two games provided a worrying 180 minutes for Pochettino to assess, with defensive miscues and clumsy attempts at upfield progression leaving time for concerningly few glimpses of promise. After each game, pundits and fans alike grasped for answers as to how the U.S., once lauded for grit and determination, could look so flat.
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Throughout the discourse, two players' names emerged as bright spots amid the carnage, the same two who combined for the team's only goal of the window: Diego Luna and Agyemang. While Luna's stock began rising during a breakout 2023, Agyemang's has escalated more rapidly, having only just become Charlotte FC's starting striker in 2024.
He has now been thrust into contention for the 2026 World Cup, and even the loudest detractors of the U.S.'s present form can notice what he brings to the fold.
'Yeah, it has been a lot, just how quickly everything has been moving,' Agyemang said. 'I've always prayed for this. I've always had the faith that at some point, hopefully I'll be able to be on a stage where I can really show what I can do and just give my all for it, just to see that this is the start of something that potentially could just keep going higher. It's a blessing.'
At a time when former U.S. stars are questioning the motivation and commitment of the current group of players, Agyemang's performances have merited increased attention. While many other U.S. forwards have played abroad, Agyemang's development has fully come stateside, first in the college ranks and then with Charlotte.
A striker can often force his way onto a tournament squad on the back of strong scoring form, and Agyemang is no exception. The fact that making the World Cup squad seems like a genuine possibility is an impressive development from a player whose professional career is still getting started.
'To hear stuff like that, it's a nice feeling,' Agyemang said of his increasing support, 'but that just makes me want to do it more.'
Agyemang's ascent is even more impressive when considering that he didn't begin playing striker regularly until he was 21.
Given his pace and dribbling ability, coaches asked Agyemang to play on the wing, most often on the left to cut inwards onto his preferred right foot. It's the spot where Agyemang began his college career with his hometown Eastern Connecticut State Warriors. He was prolific during his two years in Division III, bagging 30 goals and 10 assists in 39 appearances and garnering D-1 interest from the University of Rhode Island. Once he arrived, his new coach saw a different way to maximize his skillset.
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'When I got to Rhode Island, that's when the coaches said, 'I want you to be my No. 9,'' Agyemang said. 'I was like, 'OK, cool. I could do pretty well (in) this position for myself.' I thought if I continue just learning more about the nine position, I could be a really good nine.'
Agyemang took to his new position and level of competition quickly, landing on the Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team in both his junior and senior seasons. He scored 19 times while adding 12 assists in 37 games, and that caused his stock to soar ahead of the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, where Charlotte traded up to select him 12th overall.
While he earned 423 minutes across the regular season and Leagues Cup, scoring twice, most of his rookie development came in MLS Next Pro with Crown Legacy FC. Throughout 2023, however, he found himself being asked to play striker in a less agile manner, a potential byproduct of his 6-foot-4 stature as well as a coach (Christian Lattanzio) whose positional play model had granularly defined job descriptions for each role.
'It's hard,' Agyemang said of being assessed on his stature. 'I remember when I first got here, a lot of times, it was just like: hold the ball, set and go. Obviously, that's a lot of principles that as a striker you want, because at the end, you want to score your goals in the box and stuff like that. I think I had to build into it, because I was letting people know, like, I could do more than that.
'I know my game, and I know when I'm at my best. I know what I'm good at. When the ball is on my feet, I'm never scared to, like, take somebody on in a 1-v-1. I look for those opportunities, and I always want to go.'
Ahead of 2024, Charlotte appointed Dean Smith as its new head coach, bringing the former Aston Villa and Norwich City boss over for his first job outside England. Early in preseason, Agyemang worked with his new coaching staff to try incorporating more of his natural skillset into his game.
Agyemang feels as though Smith — like Pochettino with the national team — took the time to size up how he could thrive most.
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'There's a difference,' Agyemang said of coaches who tailor game plans to their personnel instead of forcing players into strict systems. 'You definitely feel that. Initially, when I first was here at Charlotte, it felt like I was just a role, like they weren't really looking into who I was as a player.
'I think a lot of times, coaches try to give you too much information rather than letting you just play. So I think now, especially with the coaches I've been working with now, it's been a big change. I feel like now, I'm just gonna continue to elevate my game.'
Agyemang and Charlotte leveled up during a transformative 2024. Across 2,014 minutes in the regular season and playoffs, Agyemang led the club with 10 goals and tied for the team lead with six assists. He bagged three crucial game-winners as Charlotte found its rhythm in the spring and summer, showing Smith he could swing results with his approach to leading the line.
'His ceiling is as much as he wants it to be, to be honest,' Smith told the Total Soccer Show podcast in March. While he has just one goal to date in the 2025 MLS season, the underlying numbers show that he has the requisite instinct to find dangerous areas that typifies an elite center forward.
Since the start of 2024, 30 strikers have played at least 1,500 minutes in MLS. It's a sample that includes luminaries like Luis Suárez, Christian Benteke and Cucho Hernández as well as prolific MLS forwards like Jordan Morris and Cristian Arango. While Agyemang's numbers are competitive among them in most categories, he tops the charts in two crucial rate stats for a forward with his profile.
Nobody has a higher progressive carry rate — that is, how often his carries advance the ball at least five yards closer to goal — of 32% (second-best is 22.1%), while no striker has logged a greater share of his touches in the opponent's box than Agyemang's rate of 25.4%.
When presented with the data, Agyemang can't help but take a little pride in how his work is paying off. Still, he sees it as evidence that he needs to keep refining the rest of his game.
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'It's cool to hear those stats, but I just know how I like to play the game now,' Agyemang said. 'I'm comfortable being on the ball and on the run with the ball. With my frame, you look at me, and you're like, 'A 6'4' winger, it just doesn't make sense.'
'I like to add those things I've learned on the wing, and bring it into my game, because I want to make my game unique to myself. There's a lot of players in the world that play the nine in a way, but I want to make it my unique way. That's why I think like that progressive ball carrying is a way that I like to do. Maybe nines, you know, they don't want the ball (that far from goal), but I love carrying the ball.'
UNSTOPPABLE from Patrick Agyemang to double the lead!#USMNT x @VW pic.twitter.com/BxMB1B16Lx
— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) January 18, 2025
Another area that Agyemang continues to refine is his off-ball movement, a facet that changes considerably when shifting from the wing to center forward.
He admits to being 'very critical' of himself, watching each of his performances back to revisit in-moment thoughts that crop up in games. He looks for 'patterns' that come up in game scenarios, trying to identify pockets of space that opponents are presenting his team so he can exploit them to create room for himself or his teammates as a clever decoy.
'I've just been really working on that, because before I really didn't do as much movement,' Agyemang said, 'But the best way as a striker is like, you want to feel as if the defenders don't know where to go at times. If I'm always in front of them and stuff like that, it's a field day for them. You kind of mix it up and find ways to open space.'
That effort is possibly more crucial now as Smith calibrates his system to include Wilfried Zaha, who joined the club this winter on an initial loan. The former Crystal Palace great is among the modern era's most prolific dribblers, and his presence will inevitably take some carrying responsibility off of Agyemang's shoulders. While the striker acknowledged that they're 'still learning and understanding each other's games,' the initial collaboration has been positive and he's already seen glimpses of the pair 'getting that rhythm down.'
Charlotte fans are watching that partnership blossom with great hope, as the team — which also includes U.S. international defender Tim Ream and former Villa and Burnley midfielder Ashley Westwood — projects to remain in contention in the Eastern Conference. It'll also be closely assessed by Pochettino and his staff as they continue to size up the U.S.'s player pool ahead of next summer.
Agyemang's work rate in the Nations League finals stood out in contrast to some of his teammates. His goal against Canada was a just return for his first-half shift, where his movement had unsettled the defense and opened spaces for Luna, Tim Weah and Christian Pulisic.
To him, that inner drive was refined during his time in the NCAA.
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'I think there's things that I still need to work on, but I think it's just like the grit and the grind part — like the determination,' Agyemang said of his college tenure. 'No matter what happens, I'm gonna keep going. I think that's the part I really like grabbed and has stuck with me since college.'
He, like his peers, will also want to play in the 2026 World Cup. The fierce competition in his position will keep a fire under Agyemang to turn in good performances, refine that interplay with Zaha and keep himself on the radar regardless of what his compatriots are doing.
Agyemang isn't fixating too much on what could happen when the tournament kicks off in over 15 months — after all, he wasn't even a projected starter for his club 15 months ago.
'For me, I try not to look too far, because it brings a lot of extra pressure,' he said. 'But at the end of the day, it's home. If you're a part of that, you're involved in something that's so special, just to be able to play in a World Cup on your home soil. That's such a special feeling. I think a lot of Americans will want to be a part of that. It's cool to just be in the conversation for it. At the end of the day, who knows?'
And so, the hard work continues in Charlotte and off the training ground. Agyemang emphasized that he wants to improve his consistency in 2025, and not just in front of goal. He's studying the tape to see how he can improve his defensive pressing, how to be even better at retaining the ball and making better decisions when it's at his feet. In total, it's about 'polishing the cleanness of (his) game' now that he's getting consistent reps.
At a time when greats like Landon Donovan question if the current group wants to represent the U.S., it's an honor that's only fueling Agyemang to push on. Although it comes with increased expectations and scrutiny, it's a blessing he's worked hard to invite – and an area where he's more than happy to elaborate.
'Now that I've quickly gotten into this national team, they're expecting more from me,' Agyemang said. 'For me, it's cool. It's a fun dynamic to work with. At the end of the day, if you want to be a great player, you need to know what's to come with it.
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'I'm blessed to be in this position, but I won't puff my chest because of what's come, if that makes sense. I'm always this type of guy to keep my head down and want to do more, and get better each and every day. I don't want it to just be, like, that was my first and my last camp. I want it to be the beginning of something to come.'