There’s a youth movement afoot within the United States men’s soccer team.
On Thursday, coach Mauricio Pochettino named a 28-player roster for the Stars and Stripes’ first matches since reaching the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup – home exhibitions later this month and early next against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada. It’s stocked with almost as many new faces as World Cup veterans, although star attacking midfielder Christian Pulisic will sit out this window.
Christian Pulisic won’t be part of this squad. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
But the list includes 13 members of the squad that won its group and a knockout match against Bosnia and Herzegovina before being eliminated by Belgium. There are familiar names like Tyler Adams and Chris Richards plus five World Cup goalscorers: Sebastian Berhalter, Alex Freeman, Gio Reyna, Malik Tillman and Auston Trusty.
However, the list also features 12 youngsters who will be participating in their first senior international camp when it begins next week at U.S. Soccer’s training center outside Atlanta.
Cavan Sullivan is primed for a big role for the USA. (Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“I think it’s a good mix of experience and fresh and new energy,” said Pochettino, who spoke to reporters following Thursday’s announcement.
Among those are seven teenagers: 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan; 17-year-olds Mathis Albert and Adri Mehmeti; Julian Hall, Peyton Miller and Neil Pierre (all 18) and Justin Ellis (19).
“He’s only 16, he’s a kid,” Pochettino said of Sullivan, who nonetheless has five goals and six assists in his last seven MLS games for the Philadelphia Union. “But I think the most important [thing] is that we have the opportunity now, because he deserves to join us in the national team.”
Here are my takeaways from the roster, plus additional insight from Pochettino.
The absence of several World Cup starters who are either just returning from a long layoff (Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun) or currently injured (Weston McKennie), plus the fact that the U.S. under-20 and -23 teams won’t reconvene until November, opened the door for Pochettino to look at some of the brightest talents in the entire player pool.
The other youngsters are here on merit, too. Pierre, a towering 6-foot-7 center back who is Sullivan’s teammate in Philly, has also been playing and scoring regularly during the second half of the MLS season. Hall, Mehmeti and Miller have all been starters for their MLS clubs all season, and in Miller’s case even longer.
18-year-old defender Neil Pierre is a top prospect. (Photo by Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
And while Albert has been an unused sub in all four of Dortmund’s Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League matches to start the 2026-27 campaign, he did go 90 minutes in a German Cup match in early September and is considered a blue-chip prospect. There were also several 20-year-olds invited: winger Cole Campbell, keeper Diego Kochen and fullback Frankie Westfield.
This camp also marks the return of AC Milan midfielder Yunus Musah, who started all four games for the U.S. at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (where, at 19, he marked England star Jude Bellingham out of the Americans’ scoreless group stage tie against the Three Lions) but didn’t even make the 2026 squad. Still just 23, Musah — whose last cap came almost two years ago — could once again occupy a major role in central midfield this cycle.
Yunus Musah missed out on the 2026 World Cup but has a path toward the next one. (Photo by Matteo Ciambelli/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)
“Yunus is like everyone – the doors are open for everyone,” Pochettino said of Musah, who fell out of favor with the Argentine after skipping the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup along with Rossoneri teammate Pulisic. “Now it’s a new start. It’s a new cycle. It’s not [about] what happened one year or one year-and-a-half ago.”
2.
Rare Chance For These Youngsters
In this first camp of the 2030 World Cup cycle, Pochettino has the luxury of experimenting perhaps more than he will at any other point over the next four years. With FIFA combining the historically separate September and October international windows for the first time, the former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain manager will get a long look at the next generation in both training sessions and games. That’s an exceedingly rare opportunity for an international coach.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring in new players with potential, with the possibility to spend more time training, more time together,” he said.
Still, Poch also wants to win these games — especially next month’s cross-border derbies against Les Rouges and El Tri, two teams he’s never beaten in three tries as U.S. coach. And he has to win starting in November, when the U.S. will meet an opponent to be determined in the quarterfinals of the 2026-27 Concacaf Nations League.
Assuming the Americans advance from home-and-home series, they’ll play the Nations League finals in March, then the Gold Cup in June, with qualifying matches for the 2030 World Cup set to kick off next fall.
That means most of the kids will return to youth national teams, especially the Steve Cherundolo-coached U-23s that will produce at least 15 members of the Olympic team for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Pochettino said that Cherundolo would be at this camp, to which he summoned a dozen Olympic age-eligible players.
“A gold medal,” Pochettino added. “Is the objective of the federation.”
3.Expect Veterans To Be Back For 2030 World Cup
Pulisic wasn’t the only longtime U.S. player left out. Matt Turner and Tim Weah, both starters at the 2022 World Cup who served as depth options this summer, were also omitted despite seeing regular playing time for the Revs and Marseille, respectively. So was 38-year-old Tim Ream, the U.S. captain last summer, and Premier League starter Brenden Aaronson.
Chris Richards will be an anchor for the USA for years to come. (Photo by Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Pulisic is 27. Weah is 26. Both will be back. But their longtime role as team leaders this cycle is up for debate, with Adams, Ricahards, Freeman and others potentially taking on more responsibility during Pochettino’s second go-round with the American squad.
“It’s a very important period for us also to observe if senior players are good role models,” Pochettino said. “They need to know that the young playear are going to see everything: the way that you move, walk, talk, behave, and on the field and off.”