Sullivan Shines at USMNT Camp: The Future of American Soccer
Say hello to the 16-year-old walking straight into the glare.
Sullivan arrives at his first USMNT camp with the kind of buzz that usually swallows kids whole. The difference this time? The numbers finally match the noise. Goals. Assists. Impact. Not just clips on social media, but end product that forced his way into the conversation.
Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t pick influencers. He picks footballers. Right now, Sullivan is exactly that.
“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 isn’t about deciding whether he’s ready to dominate international football. It’s about putting him in the deep end and seeing how he swims. He might light up camp the way he has every other level. He might struggle. Either outcome is fine.
The point is the reps. The pressure. The mistakes. The lessons.
If the long game is a 20-year-old star in 2030, you don’t wait until 2029 to start the process. You start now. You hand him the chance, then step back and see what he does with the spotlight that already seems to follow him everywhere.
Pulisic’s absence and a lingering shadow
Christian Pulisic is missing, and the reason is brutally simple: he’s just back from injury and only recently 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.
Still, his absence stings for reasons that go beyond this camp.
The narratives from a disappointing World Cup haven’t gone anywhere, and Pulisic has no way to confront them right now. Some fans still question his drive, his edge, his visible fire. This window could have been a small step toward changing that perception. Instead, he watches from afar.
For a player with a point to prove, this pause hurts. The proving 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.”
The message is clear: this is about building something new, not relitigating Qatar.
Musah’s long road back
While one established star sits out, another familiar face finally walks back through the door.
After more than 18 months away from the USMNT, Yunus Musah returns. He didn’t just drift out of the picture; his club career stalled. Milan brought more questions than answers. A loan to Atalanta offered little joy. Confidence leaked away.
Now he’s back at Milan and contributing. That shift has changed everything – for him and for Pochettino.
Musah is only 23, yet in this particular group he already feels like one of the older heads. His trajectory hasn’t been smooth, but development rarely is. What matters is that it’s brought him back to where he always wanted to be: in the national team fold again.
“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 is his second chance to make a first impression on the new regime. If he grabs it, this camp could be the reset his international career badly needed.
World Cup core trimmed, competition sharpened
Of the 28 players called in, 13 were part of this summer’s World Cup squad. The spine is intact: Tyler Adams, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Sergino Dest, Matt Freese. The absences, too, are largely understood. Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun are all sidelined with injuries. Tim Ream, at 38, sits out as questions swirl about whether his international chapter is closed, even though neither he nor Pochettino has declared it over.
For the non-starters from that World Cup, the reality is harsher.
- Matt Turner
- Max Arfsten
- Mark McKenzie
- Joe Scally
- Cristian Roldan
- Brenden Aaronson
- Tim Weah
- Alejandro Zendejas
– all veterans of the tournament, all left at home this time. When a coach widens the pool, it’s players 15 through 26 on a World Cup roster who suddenly find their spots under threat.
That fight has already started.
“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.”
Reputations still matter. They just don’t guarantee anything anymore.
Albert, Dortmund, and a bet on upside
Then there’s Albert, the boldest selection of the lot.
If he plays 93 minutes in this camp, he will have logged more senior minutes for his country than for his club. That alone tells you how raw he is. Pochettino called him anyway. That’s not a token gesture. It’s a statement.
Unlike Sullivan, Neil Pierre or Adri Mehmeti, Albert hasn’t yet built a body of work in senior football to justify his place on pure performance. The key detail is where he’s learning his trade. He’s 17, in and around the first team at Dortmund, and the club clearly rates him. Dortmund don’t hand out that kind of proximity by accident.
So he arrives as the least experienced player in camp, yet arguably the one with the highest ceiling. Pochettino wants to see that potential up close, test his level, and let him soak in what a senior international environment feels like.
For Albert, this isn’t just a reward. It’s a starting line.
For the USMNT, it’s a reminder of what this camp really is: not a victory lap for World Cup veterans, but an early glimpse at the group that will be asked to carry the next four years.
