Did Niko Tsakiris expect to be handed the keys to an MLS team by perhaps American soccer’s most accomplished coach?
“To be honest, no.”
And yet, the 21-year-old San Jose Earthquakes attacking midfielder remembers his discussion with Bruce Arena on the first day of the Quakes’ preseason earlier this year. “He was like, ‘Listen, we're going to give you an opportunity this year. Be free, play free, go and get the ball, make the game for us.’”
“What that does to a young kid who's waiting for his opportunity, waiting for his chance like I have for so long,” Tsakiris mused in an interview with Backheeled. “To finally get that and hear that from him with his experience that he has in this league and at the international level, it was an amazing thing to hear.”
Arena certainly has trusted Tsakiris — among starting attackers in MLS, only his former No. 10 Carles Gil with the New England Revolution is averaging more passes in the defensive and middle thirds of the field than the San Jose homegrown. And the once U.S. U-20 World Cup standout has been putting his touches to good use. Among MLS’s brightest stars this year, Tsakiris is a data darling who regularly flexes his rare on-ball skill.
For all of his dazzling in MLS, Tsakiris wasn’t called into Mauricio Pochettino’s first U.S. men’s national team roster of the new World Cup cycle. He was, however, on the USMNT’s preliminary squad for the recently concluded fall window. Hampered by somewhat recurring injury problems, Tsakris was ramping back to playing full 90-minute matches before Pochettino’s roster dropped and suffered an upper body injury during the international window that forced him to miss San Jose's latest game.
“Things happen pretty quickly in football, so I’m of course frustrated like anybody else who didn’t make it. But again, I feel like this is all part of the journey.”
As his journey continues, here’s a glimpse into how Tsakiris sees the game.
Conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Opponent: San Diego FC
Date: September 9th, 2026
via MLS/Apple
This clip ends with an absurd outside-of-the-foot assist. But before that, you drop deep almost in line with the center backs. You don’t see many players in MLS or any other major league, really, have this sort of freedom. Did you expect Bruce Arena to give you that much license coming into this season?
To be honest, no. I think the initial conversation with him at the start of the season, I think it was the first day of preseason, he was like, “Listen, we're going to give you an opportunity this year. Be free, play free, go and get the ball, make the game for us.”
I think with that, a lot of my qualities come forth and I think this is one of them: helping the team play forward. Then, obviously, this final action here and this clip, it's just confidence that that the group is giving me and that the staff has given me. It's just been a combination of a lot of things, and they're all working for good.
How gratifying is it to be trusted like that? It says something about what Arena and the staff think of you.
Absolutely, but it's what you do with that role. I think that's pretty important. They can give you all the freedom you want, but if you're not making the most of that opportunity, then they might have to look somewhere else and say, “Hey, we need more end product. We need more creativity,” whatever it may be.
But I really do feel like with that confidence that they gave me from the start of the season until now, and with how the team started and how we're getting back into the form of how we were at the beginning of the year, more moments like this will come and we knew that. They were there at the beginning of the season. I think the more that we play together and I'm back on the field with these guys, more moments like this will come.
