The U.S. men's national team will usher in a batch of fresh faces for their first post-World Cup friendlies this fall, head coach Mauricio Pochettino introducing 13 uncapped players to the fold for a four-game stretch he has described as a "new start" for the group.
The 28-player roster includes 13 uncapped players, including forward Cavan Sullivan, the 16-year-old in the midst of a breakout season in MLS who has a deal in place to join Manchester City following his 18th birthday. Several other prominent MLS talents cracked the list like Sullivan's Philadelphia Union teammates Neil Pierre and Frankie Westfield, while Red Bull New York duo Adri Mehmeti and Julian Hall also made the cut. The vast majority of the USMNT's uncapped players are 21 or under, and the average age of the uncapped players is 19 years and six months.
Pochettino elected to balance out the squad with 13 members of this summer's World Cup team, including midfielder Tyler Adams and forward Ricardo Pepi. Key players like forwards Christian Pulisic, who dealt with an injury-plagued World Cup, and Folarin Balogun, who has not played since this summer's competition amid his own fitness issues and a failed move to Everton, and Weston McKennie, will miss out as the USMNT coaching staff prioritizes fresh faces. The experienced contingent in camp, though, will both assist in keeping the team competitive in the short-term as well as introducing a promising new generation to the demands of the senior national team.
Rounding out the roster are two players who return after long absences from the national team: midfielder Yunus Musah and defender George Campbell. Musah was a starter at the 2022 World Cup under Pochettino's predecessor Gregg Berhalter but was shuffled out of the fold in the build-up to the 2026 tournament, while Campbell earned his one and only cap thus far in a friendly against Venezuela in Jan. 2025.
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USMNT roster for fall friendlies
Goalkeepers (4): Chris Brady (Chicago Fire), Matt Freese (New York City FC), Diego Kochen (Lyngby Boldklub), Brian Schwake (Nashville SC)
Defenders (10): George Campbell (West Bromwich Albion FC), Sergino Dest (PSV Eindhoven), Alex Freeman (Villarreal), Peyton Miller (New England Revolution), Neil Pierre (Philadelphia Union), Chris Richards (Crystal Palace), Antonee Robinson (Fulham), Miles
Robinson (FC Cincinnati), Auston Trusty (Celtic), Frankie Westfield (Philadelphia Union)
Midfielders (9): Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Mathis Albert (Borussia Dortmund), Sebastian Berhalter (Middlesbrough), Zavier Gozo (Crystal Palace), Adri Mehmeti (Red Bull New York), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Brooklyn Raines (New England Revolution), Gio Reyna (RC Strasbourg Alsace), Malik Tillman (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards (5): Cole Campbell (SV Elversberg); Justin Ellis (Orlando City SC), Julian Hall (Red Bull New York), Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven), Cavan Sullivan (Philadelphia Union)
USMNT's fall friendlies
All times U.S./Eastern)
- Sept. 26: USMNT vs. Peru (4:30 p.m., TNT)
- Sept. 29: USMNT vs. Chile (8 p.m., TNT)
- Oct. 3: USMNT vs. Mexico (10 p.m., TNT)
- Oct. 6: USMNT vs. Canada (8 p.m., TNT)
Player development with Olympics, World Cup in mind
Pochettino plans to use this weeks-long international window as a chance to learn more about a crop of young players he said have already earned the opportunity to join the senior national team, all in the hopes of building a strong working relationship with them.
"I think [the coaching staff] already proved that we can be next to a young guy with massive talent and to push them and to provide the tools to reach their talent and to evolve with time," Pochettino said. "[This], for me, is a great opportunity to meet these guys, to see them, to analyze, to see the things to improve and the way that they can evolve, because [they] are not all the same. They [all] have different characters, different personalities, different backgrounds, different fears, are brave in different ways. They need to make the mistakes, but we need to be there to try to fix that, to provide different arguments, different tools for them to keep improving."
While Pochettino's job is ultimately to lead the USMNT to a successful World Cup outing in 2030, he referenced the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles multiple times on Thursday. He reiterated U.S. Soccer's ambition to win gold in the men's soccer event, a U-23 competition in which the U.S. has never medaled, the vast majority of the uncapped players age-eligible. U-23 head coach Steve Cherundolo will join Pochettino and his coaching staff for this fall's camp but even with that in mind, he did not rule out the possibility that the young players could earn a spot in the senior team's rotation quickly.
"When you compare him with a 30-year-old or 26- or 28-year-old center back that maybe is playing in another country or in maybe maybe in MLS, I don't see the difference because one [has] more experience than another or like this," Pochettino said in reference to 18-year-old Neil Pierre. "Both can make a mistake. Both can be good … Soccer is about today, and that is in the way that we want to build that process and that cycle."
He also cited Lamine Yamal as an example of fostering young talents appropriately, even if their youth remains a defining feature of their professional personalities.
"From now, if these guys are here and perform in the way that we expect, they are going to have the opportunity, maybe, to keep playing," Pochettino said. "I don't know. If you see Lamine Yamal in Spain, won the World Cup [when he was] 18 years old [and] is now already two years – or more than two years – playing in Barcelona and you say 'No, but he's young, we need more experience.' Why? He is the best. If some players that [are] the same age – 17, 16, 18, 19 – are good and we are performing and perform well, why are [we] going to [say] no?"
Yunus Musah benefits from 'open door' policy
Pochettino's tenure with the USMNT has been defined by an open door policy, the head coach previously demonstrating an eagerness to expand the player pool despite the time crunch of having less than two years to prepare for this summer's World Cup. He's doubling down on the approach with four years to go until the next one but not only in his inclusion of uncapped players – Musah's return signals that the coaching staff is willing to welcome a wide range of players if they are in strong form.
Musah was a starter at the 2022 World Cup and was a mainstay in the player pool for another two years, so much so that he scored the first goal of Pochettino's tenure in Oct. 2024. The midfielder later dropped off of Pochettino's radar after struggling to find minutes and form at the club level, but things are finally trending upwards for the 23-year-old. He has four starts in five games to start the season with AC Milan, earning a reward from Pochettino in accordance.
"I think Yunus is like everyone. The doors are open for everyone. Now it's a new start. It's a new cycle," Pochettino said. "We are looking and seeing and chasing and and watching and all are going to have the opportunity if we feel that they deserve the the opportunity … Yunus is still young. He wasn't involved in the last World Cup but now, after see[ing] from the beginning of the season that he is performing in the way that we expect because some players can play all the games but they are not performing in the way that we expect but that is why we call again and I think it's really open like [it is] for the rest of the players."
Veterans need to be 'role models' for newcomers
Pochettino has split his roster almost evenly between uncapped players and those with experience, 13 players who competed at this summer's World Cup making the cut while Musah and Campbell have a variety of experience with the national team. The demands on them, in many ways, have not changed.
"My expectation is they need to be natural and they need to do what they need to do," Pochettino said. "I don't expect the senior players to act in a different way. They need to be natural. They need to do what they feel. Our guid[ance] is going to be there. It's going to be all the principles [that we] settled and the discipline and everything that we expect from them."
The veterans, though, will adopt a new set of responsibilities for the next few weeks – assisting the coaching staff in the national team's generational shift, all while proving their own worth as potential mainstays for the 2030 cycle.
"The senior players need to act in a natural way because they need to be focused to perform, too," Pochettino said. "In the same time, of course, when you are an experienced player, you can have conversations but they need to know that the young players are going to see everything in the way that you move, the walk, talk, behave and on the field and off the field. That is why I think it's a very important period for us also to observe if [those] senior players are role models for the young. If someone is not behaved well and behav[ing] in the way that we are not expecting, that is is going to have some consequence but I think it's about to be more natural … I hope that we can see a very good mix about energy, experience, capacity to be brave, to show all the qualities that I think this country deserve in every single moment, not only on the field in the competition but also creating the right habits to build that that way to compete in the best way."
