Just how young is the group called up to the US men’s national team by Mauricio Pochettino for the autumn international window, which the Yanks kick off Saturday with a friendly vs. Peru (4:30 pm ET | TNT, HBO Max) at Orlando City’s Inter.co Stadium?
Young enough that OCSC product Alex Freeman, who turned 22 last month, is a veteran compared to the eight teenagers and 13 uncapped newcomers getting their first taste of this level, most of them via standout performances in MLS.
“I think I've come into more of a leadership role maybe I'm not used to,” Freeman said Friday morning as he fielded reporters’ questions alongside Orlando’s new homegrown starlet Justin Ellis, who inherited Freeman’s old spot in the Lions’ locker room after the fullback joined Spanish side Villarreal over the winter.
“But it’s something that just happened because of the way that this camp is structured.”
Fresh faces
Such is the coaching staff’s resolve to evaluate youngsters like Cavan Sullivan, Peyton Miller and Adri Mehmeti that several of the team’s most familiar faces, like Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, whose “quality is already established,” in Pochettino’s words, aren’t even here.
“It makes me feel a little bit old,” admitted New York City FC academy alum Gio Reyna, now a relatively grizzled 23-year-old, with a sheepish grin on Monday. “But it's nice to have a lot of them here. Looking forward to getting to know them better on and off the field … try to help them, show them what we’ve built and what we're striving to build.
“All of them are very talented, so we're just here to help, have them be themselves and just enjoy their time with the team.”
MLS to USMNT
It’s not a changing of the guard underway so much as an expansion of the player pool, a key facet of Pochettino’s mission to guide the USMNT to a place in the global elite which proved so elusive for his predecessors.
It’s too soon to say whether Mehmeti will blossom into an even bigger star than his Red Bull New York predecessor Tyler Adams, for example. But all recognize the value of the steady improvement of the developmental system that nurtured both.
“He's come through the Red Bull pipeline, and I was always hearing talk about him, and I watched him,” said Adams when speaking to media next to Mehmeti on Wednesday.
“He's played with my brother in MLS NEXT Pro, and then he made the step to the first team. And I've only heard good things about him, and seeing how diligent he is in doing his work, turning into a really really good professional, he's going to be able to take the steps necessary.
“As a product of MLS and a kid that came through MLS, you have to respect the league and the level that they’re playing at, at such a young age, because you’re competing against grown men. And Adri had a similar pathway that I did, playing with Red Bull II first, going after a championship, winning a championship in that league – that breeds what you want to see in the youth American pipeline.”
New sensations
Pochettino’s dramatic injection of fresh blood is a new sensation for the USMNT’s established core, many of whom arrived in a ‘Play Your Kids’ movement themselves in the program’s full reboot after the crushing failure to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
‘Poch’ himself says he’s already feeling the effects just by being around the young’uns for a few days.
“It's amazing to have on board those players, first of all, because they have talent and they are showing the real talent, because they have an amazing capacity and quality,” said the Argentine manager, who re-signed with U.S. Soccer through the 2030 cycle following this summer’s emotional World Cup campaign on home soil. “And then the energy was amazing.
“After you talk with them, it's like you feel younger – no, it's true! It's true. It's contagious, the energy,” he added with a laugh. “That is very nice to feel. That is a long time that I didn't feel in this way, talking and working with a group of players. That is amazing for us, for the present, and for the future.
"Now it's up to us, our responsibility to keep supporting, helping them to be more mature and of course improving their game. But we are so excited.”
Chance to shine
The head coach was cagey when asked on Friday whether the likes of Sullivan are ready to start a match at senior international level.
He did, however, suggest that all 28 members of the squad will get a fair chance – provided they prove their preparedness – to earn minutes in the four friendlies scheduled across this extra-long window, even as he admitted he’d prefer not to be playing quite so many games in a compact time period.
A vital message to the kids, delivered by both coaches and veterans: Be yourself, and when it’s your turn, play your game.
“Obviously a little nervous coming in here with these players I've watched growing up and in the World Cup,” said 18-year-old Philadelphia Union center Neil Pierre.
“The expectation they gave me was enjoy, compete, and it's an honor to represent the crest, so do everything and show everything that was the reason why you're coming here.”
