Could Cavan Sullivan – or Julian Hall, or Justin Ellis, or any of the other young MLS starlets just called into the US men’s national team’s upcoming camp – sooner or later blossom into the United States’ equivalent of Spanish teenage sensation Lamine Yamal?
It’s a heady concept. And just the sort of vision Mauricio Pochettino wants to cultivate as he and his staff face the 2030 FIFA World Cup cycle with a big batch of fresh talent in tow.
“From now, if these guys are here and perform in the way that we expect, they are going to have the opportunity, maybe, to play,” Pochettino told reporters after releasing a roster packed with new faces on Thursday.
“I don't know. If you see Lamine Yamal, who with Spain won the World Cup [at] 18 years old, but it's now already two years or more than three years that he is playing in Barcelona, and you say, ‘no, but he’s young, we need more experience.’ Why? He is the best.
“If some players that have the same age – 17, 16, 18, 19 – are good, and we are performing and perform well, why we are going [to say,] ‘Oh, we need to bring [veterans]’? I think that is an open system … it is about opportunity: Give the opportunity and take the opportunity.”
All eyes on Cavan
MLS fans familiar with the “Play Your Kids” mantra increasingly common around the league will recognize the framework here. The 28-player group which will gather at U.S. Soccer’s new Arthur M. Blank National Training Center in exurban Atlanta next week is more than four years younger on average than the Yanks’ 2026 World Cup squad. Its 13 uncapped newcomers are even greener, with an average age of just 19.5.
Sullivan is the youngest among them, and in the eyes of many, holds the most potential. The Philadelphia Union homegrown has been one of MLS’s top performers since the World Cup break, with productivity levels matching those of Lionel Messi as Philly stormed from the bottom of the Eastern Conference table to Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs places via an 8W-0L-2D unbeaten run.
“He deserves all the praise that he's getting,” said Pochettino of Sullivan, whose club sends more players to this camp than any other. “He's playing well, he's giving assists, scoring goals, and he's 16 – 16. He deserves all the praise. The important thing is to try to help – not to help, but yes, to be with him and to try to provide a solid pattern and support… He deserved to show us in the national team the possibility to talk, the possibility to share ideas, to listen to him, to understand how he is. He is special.
“He deserves to be with us. And this will be a great opportunity for us to know him.”
Youth injection
Conversely, Christian Pulisic was left out of this camp after injuries slowed his start to AC Milan’s campaign. Pochettino was uninterested in providing any further details about the star attacker’s status, even as he revealed that Folarin Balogun, another regular starter, had been nursing a minor leg injury that was a factor in the USMNT’s evaluations.
That still leaves 13 holdovers from this summer’s run to the World Cup Round of 16.
“The young kids, they are going to show us they have the quality,” said the coach, “but also they need to feel the support and the guidance of the players with more experience, and we need the players to show the good examples, to show how to behave.
"... It's a good mix of experience and fresh energy, a new energy.”
Poch doesn’t intend to dial up the hype machine around these youngsters; in fact, he publicly warned them about the pitfalls of that phenomenon just last week. It’s more that he’s determined to broadcast the message that everyone has a chance to make his squad, regardless of age or pedigree, as long as they’re in strong form.
“It's a new start. Of course, all have the door open, but now it's not ‘what I did in the past,’” said Pochettino. “Soccer is about today, and that is in the way that we want to build that process and that cycle.
“That is the mentality that we want to build in this process in these four years. If I come, I need to feel that if I perform, and I give to the team what the team expects from me and the coaches expect from me, I'm going to have a percentage – a high percentage – to come back.”
Going for gold
This is FIFA’s first expanded international autumn window, running from Monday until Oct. 6, enough space to fit in four friendly matches – the Yanks will host Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada – and more time as a group.
It’s roomy enough for Pochettino & Co. to welcome former LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo, the recently-appointed US U-23s head coach who will lead the Olympic team on home soil in two years’ time, and incorporate many potential members of that project.
Nearly half of this new USMNT roster are age-eligible for Los Angeles 2028, where Poch wants the home nation to be medal contenders, adding that time with the senior side now will be “very helpful” for them when that tournament rolls aroud.
“The federation has to help a little bit to build that way to arrive to the 2028 Olympic Games,” he said, “working very closely with Steve, with the under-23s, with all the youth in the federation, all the instructors, to try to build that experience, to arrive to the Olympic Games with the possibility to have that experience that can provide a gold medal.
“That is the objective of the federation, is the objective of everyone, because [this] country loves the Olympic Games, and we know that it's going to be really important for soccer to be sure that we are going to present a very competitive team.”
