United States men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino said that while he is happy about the potential of young players in the U.S. pool, “we need to be careful” amid the buzz around Philadelphia Union’s Cavan Sullivan and Red Bull New York‘s Julian Hall.
The U.S. has scheduled a quartet of friendlies starting at the end of the month, starting with a match against Peru on Sept. 26, Chile on Sept. 29, Mexico on Oct. 3, and then Canada on Oct. 6. The roster will be announced on Sept. 17, with players beginning to arrive in Atlanta three days later.
As such there is much anticipation about what young players might get called up, including Sullivan and Hall.
Upon signing on for another World Cup cycle last month, Pochettino said he would be “starting from zero” in terms of building his team.
Speaking to reporters via video conference from London, Pochettino stressed he is trying to look at the potential of young players in a balanced way, and not let expectations get ahead of a player’s development.
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“I think we are very happy about to have all these potential good players being young, and with a possibility to perform and to play,” Pochettino said.
“Only we need to be careful. We need to be careful because when you are young, of course you need to be confident, you need to have the trust in yourself, and believe that you can perform and you can do well. But the thing is it’s a limit. The balance is the most important.
“And one of our responsibilities is to protect this guy because sometime if you play well and you are 17, 16 or 18 and you play well and people started to know to talk about that you are Messi or you are a big star in the world because you do some few good things. If after you are confused and you don’t manage well, that can be dangerous for your career.
“And that is what we don’t want. [We want] the young guys with potential being top players to provide the platform for them to evolve and to be professional, to build their career in the best way, improving every day, being humble, being careful when they talk in the media, when they talk with the teammate, when they talk with the opponent. I think respect is the most important thing and they need to be respectful. And of course we want players with talent.”
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Pochettino said that one goal for this cycle to further eradicate some bad habits that currently exist in the program.
Part of this the alignment of youth and professional clubs with the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The USSF recently announced a takeover of U.S. Youth Soccer.
“I think it’s important when we talk about habits, it’s about talking about everything, because after the player behave on the field because of this type of decision, they came from the top, he said.
“And we need to be aligned all together in our principles and all the concept that we need to improve if we want to be competitive in every single moment in our [path] until to the first team. I think we are all focused in trying to add our knowledge.”
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But Pochettino added that the bad habits also include players deciding not to take part competitive tournaments like the Gold Cup.
This a reference to players like Christian Pulisic who opted to sit out the 2025 Gold Cup in order to recover from a long club season.
“We were talking [about] the habit. Before it was difficult to make the roster for the World Cup one year before, because the mindset was different and say, ‘Oh, if I play, I have not holidays, I cannot arrive fresh for the World Cup,” Pochettino said.
“Already, with the time, you know now that is bulls— — sorry — and I think it’s to change this type of idea that are not right and that our experience to build mindset with the coaches, with the people in the organization, in the clubs, and of course us, and then the player that in the way that we will plan and we will do the things is the best for them, for the player, and it’s going to be the best for soccer in the USA.”
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Pochettino added that despite the USMNT playing four games during the window, he will bring in his standard number of 26 players, including four goalkeepers.
Anything more than that would mean some players wouldn’t get minutes.
“In this period of the season, we need to be careful with the player that we are going to call,” he said.
“We need the players that we’ll call that [they] be available to train, but also to play. And I think we consider it at the moment ,and to call 26 players with four keepers. And I think more than this is I think it’s an issue because after to train, to share the minutes, I think the player that we are going to have, we want to see, we want to give the possibility to play … with the possibility to compete. That is the idea for the next camp.”
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Pochettino indicated that some players who have just switched clubs, like the Middlesbrough duo of defender Max Arfsten and midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, might not be called in in order to give them more time to settle into their new surroundings.
But he indicated there would be a balance between youth and experience.
“I think we cannot bring the whole squad [with] young players because they need to have some guys with experience already competing,” Pochettino said.
“But yes, we are going to do a mix … I think experienced player with young player that can fit together and start to work on how the young kid start to manage the pressure to play in the first team.”
