USMNT Camp: New Talents Shine and Veterans Return

The next USMNT camp belongs to the kids and the comebacks.

Mauricio Pochettino has ripped up the comfort blanket of a post-World Cup hangover and handed the keys, at least for now, to a new wave of talent and a few familiar faces desperate for a second act.

The 16-year-old in the spotlight

Say hello to the headline: a 16-year-old boy wonder walking into his first senior USMNT camp with the kind of hype that usually crushes players twice his age.

Sullivan has been on the radar for years, but this season the numbers have finally caught up with the noise. Goals. Assists. End product. That’s why he’s here. Not because he trends on social media, not because he’s a shiny marketing piece, but because Pochettino believes he’s a good soccer player right now.

"He deserves all of the praise that he is getting," Pochettino said. "I think it's because he's performing well. He's giving assists, scoring goals, and he's 16. We don't say he doesn't deserve the praise. The important thing is to help, to be with him, and to provide a solid pattern and support, because he still needs to show, improve, evolve, and be more mature. He's only 16. He's a kid, but I think the most important thing is we have the opportunity now because he deserves to join us in the national team."

This camp is not a coronation. It’s a test.

Sullivan might light it up, just as he has at almost every stop so far. He might struggle. Either outcome is acceptable. What matters is the exposure, the speed of the game, the feel of the locker room, the weight of the jersey. You don’t prepare a player for 2030 stardom by wrapping him in bubble wrap until he’s 20.

You throw him in now and see how he swims.

The USMNT staff know the timeline. If the goal is to have Sullivan ready to be a genuine star at 20, this is the starting gun. From here, the responsibility shifts. The coaches have opened the door; it’s on him to walk through it, to live with the spotlight that has already found him and won’t be going anywhere.

Pulisic’s absence and a narrative that won’t move

One name is missing for obvious reasons.

Christian Pulisic has only just returned from injury and made his first appearance of the season. Dragging him across the Atlantic for four games in two weeks would have been reckless for both club and country.

On paper, the decision makes sense. On a deeper level, it stings.

Pulisic still sits at the center of so many arguments about the last World Cup. Questions about his leadership, his edge, his ability to drag games his way haven’t gone away. For a portion of the fanbase, he needs to show more fight, more visible fire. This camp would have given him a stage, even in friendlies.

He won’t get that chance.

The reality is harsh: he can’t change those narratives right now, and he was never going to rewrite them in a handful of friendlies more than three-and-a-half years out from the next World Cup. His reset will have to wait.

"I think now is a completely different approach than was in the past," Pochettino said. "The World Cup is in four years. We need to work with different objective and goals, and for different reasons, that roster is the roster that is the best roster that we can design for this camp."

This is about building something, not rehabbing reputations.

Musah’s road back

If Sullivan is the fresh face, Yunus Musah is the familiar one fighting his way back into the picture.

After more than a year-and-a-half away from the national team, Musah returns. He had stalled at Milan and found little joy on loan at Atalanta. Minutes were sporadic, confidence took a hit, and his trajectory seemed to flatten.

Now he’s back at Milan and contributing. The effect is clear: his belief has grown, and so has Pochettino’s belief in him.

Musah is still only 23. In this group, that almost makes him a veteran, but he remains a young player with upside and room to grow. His path has zigzagged, not followed a straight line. That’s the point. Development rarely does.

"Yunus is still young," Pochettino said. "He wasn't involved in the last World Cup, but now, after seeing from the beginning the season that he is performing in the way that we expect, because some players can play all the game but they are not performing in the way that we expect, but that is why we call again. It's really open, like for rest of the of the players."

This camp is his chance to reset his USMNT story. He has to make a second impression strong enough to stick.

World Cup core trimmed, competition sharpened

Of the 28 players called into this camp, 13 went to the World Cup this summer. The spine remains: Tyler Adams, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Sergino Dest, Matt Freese. The absences are just as telling.

Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun are all out with injury issues. Tim Ream, now 38, is not involved, and while Pochettino hasn’t closed the door and Ream has said he’s still available, his role in this cycle is clearly uncertain.

Then there’s the group squeezed out by the expanding pool.

• Matt Turner
• Max Arfsten
• Mark McKenzie
• Joe Scally
• Cristian Roldan
• Brenden Aaronson
• Tim Weah
• Alejandro Zendejas

– all World Cup veterans, all staying home this time.

Pochettino insisted that this is not a permanent exile. The message, though, is blunt. When you widen the selection net, it’s the players in that 15–26 range of a World Cup roster who feel the heat first. Their spots are no longer assumed; they’re contested.

"The door is open for everyone," Pochettino said. "Now it's a new start. It's a new cycle. It's not what happened one year ago, one year and a half ago, what happened in the World Cup. To be honest, it's a fresh start. It's a roster that we consider is the best for that period."

The fight for 2026 and beyond has already started. Some are in the room. Others are watching, knowing their margin for error just shrank.

Albert, Dortmund, and a gamble on upside

Then there’s Albert, the biggest swing on potential in this camp.

If he plays 93 minutes across these games, he will have logged more senior minutes for his country than he has for his club. That alone tells you how bold this call-up is.

Pochettino clearly thinks it’s worth it.

Unlike Sullivan, Neil Pierre or Adri Mehmeti, Albert hasn’t yet forced his way into the conversation with dominant performances. The difference is his environment. He’s 17, at Dortmund, and already hovering around the first team at one of Europe’s most demanding talent factories.

Dortmund don’t hand out that kind of proximity without conviction. If they’re high on him, there’s usually a reason.

So Albert walks into camp as the least experienced player in the group and maybe the one with the highest ceiling. That’s the kind of profile Pochettino wants to see up close, not on video. This is a learning trip for him, a chance to absorb the level and understand what international football actually looks like.

If it clicks, this could be the start of something bigger – for club and country.

The question now is simple: in a camp built on opportunity, who grabs it hard enough to reshape the depth chart for the next four years?