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Travis Thomas is a mental performance coach who was the leadership and team dynamics coach for the United States Men’s National Team during the 2022 World Cup.
One of the moments when it became evident to everyone that the World Cup is just a different beast was our game against Iran in 2022 in Qatar.
We had one game left in our group, which happened to be against Iran. We needed to win that game to advance. Iran only needed a tie to advance, and we would have been sent home.
Unbeknownst to the players, U.S. Soccer had posted an altered flag on the federation’s social media accounts to stand in solidarity with people protesting the Iranian government. Iran state media was so upset they asked for the U.S. to be kicked out of the World Cup. The federation deleted the posts.
The episode stoked the flames so much that even the team’s physical safety and well-being felt a little uncertain for the first time. I remember being on the bus to training with a member of our security detail and asking, “How do you feel?”
His response was honest: “Well, we really weren’t prepared for something like this.”
Gregg Berhalter, our head coach, and Tyler Adams, our captain, went to a news conference a couple of days before the match. The questions that Gregg and Tyler were asked had nothing to do with soccer. They were geopolitical questions about our country and Iran.
When Gregg returned to the coaching staff, he was concerned that the players might not be ready for the intensity that awaited them, and that this was now bigger than a game. We felt a temptation, as a coaching staff, to do things differently to get the guys ready.
But as we talked through it and let our emotions settle a bit, we decided that the best thing we could do for our players and our team was not to make it more than a game.
We didn’t tell them that it was just like a friendly or another regular game. We all knew that it wasn’t, so we didn’t need to pretend that this was just another game. But if we were to play our best, we had to make sure we were focused on just the game in front of us, not on external distractions.
We ended up winning with a very intense 1-0 result to advance to the next round. But the thing I was most proud of was that after the game, when so many of the Iranian players were devastated and in tears, a bunch of U.S. players went to console them. I was on the field looking at it and, in my opinion, it was the best of what America stands for.
As Timothy Weah said after the game: “I think it’s more than just football. I think the United States and Iran have had so many issues politically, and I just wanted to show that we are all human beings and we all love each other.”
And that is the biggest challenge of the World Cup. You try to prepare the players to focus on the game, even though everyone knows it’s more than just football. When you know the stakes of every game, of every goal, you either go in and are exposed by the pressure or you embrace the pressure. It’s the world’s biggest event. And it only happens every four years. It’s nonsense to minimize the stakes.
Every player processed that pressure differently. And every player had their own way to deal with that pressure.
Weah would come into the locker room with a giant boombox. He, DeAndre Yedlin and Weston McKennie would have music pumping, getting everybody loose and in a good mood.
Then you’d have players with headphones on and wanting to be a little more introverted. Christian Pulisic was quieter, to himself and intense.
I once asked goalkeeper Matt Turner, who is on the current roster as well, about what he did mentally to stay focused during a game.
He told me he’d go to the hotel room, lay down on his bed and do some journaling. He might close his eyes and meditate. And he said he would usually think about everything that was going on in his personal life.
He said he would think of a word that would help him refocus and ground himself during a game. He would have a different word for every game. It was his reset word. When he noticed he was distracted, it would bring him back to the present moment.
Every game day morning, I would see him at one of our team meals or wait until we got to the locker room, and I’d go up to him and say, “Hey, Matt, what’s the word for the game?”
He would tell me the word, and then he would tell me why. He was super thoughtful. One time the word was gratitude. It was during World Cup qualifying. He said he had so much going on in his personal and professional life, and he said when he got in his head too much, he was going to force himself to say “gratitude.”
He said that would bring him back to the present moment, help him be grateful for where he was and focus on the game.
Even though I’m not with the team anymore, I’ll still text him and ask him for the word of the game.
I’ve been doing improvisational comedy for the past 30 years. It was one of the things that I would do with the players every game day morning. They would have what we called physical activation, where they would all go down to the trainer’s room and get their body work done. They might play a little soccer tennis to loosen up. It was just a good way for the guys to get physically loose.
And then I would do a voluntary mindset activation session. I would typically have eight to 10 guys show up. I would lead them through some breathing exercises. We would stand in a circle and do some gratitude. And then I would take them through a series of improvisational, quick-thinking word games and word play.
The whole point and the reason I called it mindset activation was to get them out of their head and into their body. To get them grounded with gratitude. To get them focused on their breath and their eye contact. To get them to laugh and connect, and to put them in the right frame of mind.
For me, the mental side of the game boils down to this: Can we help players be fully present in the moment to bring their full physical ability? And can they focus on the most important information?
That’s the challenge of the World Cup.
— As told to Jayson Jenks
