USMNT Camp Preview: Spotlight on Sullivan and Pulisic's Absence

The latest USMNT camp opens with a familiar storyline in American soccer: the arrival of the next big thing, the absence of the current star, and the return of a once-fading talent. It feels like a reset. Pochettino insists it is.

The 16-year-old in the spotlight

Say hello to the kid everyone has been talking about for years. Now he finally has the numbers to match the noise.

At just 16, Sullivan walks into his first senior USMNT camp with the kind of buzz that usually swallows players whole. This season, though, he’s backed it up. Goals. Assists. Real end product, not just clips on social media.

Pochettino made it clear: this isn’t a call-up for clicks.

“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.”

The message is simple: he’s here on merit, but he’s still a project.

Whether Sullivan is “ready” almost misses the point. He may light up camp the way he’s lit up every other level. He may struggle. It doesn’t really change the value of the experience. What matters is that he gets to test himself, to stretch, to fail if needed.

Stack enough of these chances and you don’t just build a player, you build a star who’s prepared for 2030, not overwhelmed by it. If the long-term vision is a 20-year-old headlining a World Cup, then starting the education now is hardly premature.

Now it’s on him. The spotlight has already found him. It usually does.

Pulisic’s absence and a narrative that won’t go away

The biggest name missing from this camp is the one who still defines so many debates around the USMNT.

Christian Pulisic is just back from injury and only recently played his first minutes of the season. Dragging him across the Atlantic for four games in two weeks would have been reckless, both for his club form and his long-term fitness.

From a pure health standpoint, leaving him out makes sense. From a narrative standpoint, it stings.

The conversations that followed a disappointing World Cup haven’t really faded, largely because Pulisic hasn’t had the stage to address them. There are fans who still question his edge, his fire, his willingness to grab games and cycles by the throat. This camp could have been the first step in reshaping that story. It won’t be.

He can’t rewrite anything in a handful of friendlies more than three-and-a-half years from the next World Cup, but he could have started. Now that restart is pushed back again.

Unfortunate for him. A new reality for everyone.

Pochettino framed it as part of a broader shift.

“I think now is a completely different approach than was in the past,” he 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: this camp isn’t about reputations. It’s about a cycle that has only just begun.

Musah’s road back

If Sullivan represents the future and Pulisic the unresolved present, Musah is the reminder that careers rarely move in straight lines.

After more than a year-and-a-half away from the national team, Musah is back. He had to fight for it.

The last few seasons dragged. He stalled at Milan and found little joy on loan at Atalanta. Minutes were sparse, momentum vanished. Now he’s back at Milan and actually contributing, and that has changed the way he looks and the way Pochettino looks at him.

Musah is only 23, but in this particular group he already feels like a senior figure. He’s still young enough to grow, old enough to know how fragile form and status can be.

“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 a second chance, not a guarantee. Musah still has to convince a coach who barely knows him in a competitive setting. But this camp can be the fresh start he’s been chasing, a way to drag his USMNT career back onto the main track.

World Cup core, but not a closed club

Look down the 28-man list and you see the spine of the World Cup team still in place. Tyler Adams, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Sergino Dest, Matt Freese — the foundation is familiar.

The absences are familiar too. Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Folarin Balogun are all sidelined with injuries. Tim Ream, at 38, is a different kind of question. Pochettino hasn’t closed the door on him, and Ream says he’s still available, but age and timing suggest this cycle may move on without him.

For those who weren’t nailed-on starters at the World Cup, the squeeze has already started. Matt Turner, Max Arfsten, Mark McKenzie, Joe Scally, Cristian Roldan, Brenden Aaronson, Tim Weah, Alejandro Zendejas — all part of that World Cup journey, all watching this camp from home.

Pochettino stressed that none of these decisions are permanent. The pool is open. Performances can change everything. But when you widen the group, it’s usually players 15 through 26 from the last tournament who feel the pressure first. That battle for roster spots has already begun.

“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.”

Fresh start. Same stakes.

The wild card: Albert’s leap of faith

Then there’s Albert, the boldest selection on the sheet.

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 aggressively Pochettino is willing to bet on upside.

Unlike Sullivan, Neil Pierre or Adri Mehmeti, Albert hasn’t really built his case on a body of first-team performances. The difference is the badge on his training gear. He’s at Dortmund, in and around the first team at 17, and that matters.

Dortmund do not hand out that kind of proximity to just anyone. If they’re high on him, there’s usually a reason.

So yes, Albert is the most inexperienced player in this group. He might also be the one with the highest ceiling. That’s why he’s here. Pochettino wants to see him up close, to expose him to the tempo, the demands, the standards.

For now, this is a learning trip. It could become something much bigger — for club and country — if he shows that Dortmund’s faith, and now the USMNT’s, is well placed.

This camp isn’t about one player, one position, or one lingering World Cup hangover. It’s about a manager willing to tear up the old depth chart, throw teenagers into the mix, and challenge established names from a distance.

The question now is simple: who grabs this chance and turns a September camp into the start of a very different four-year story?