Cavan Sullivan: The Future of USMNT Under Mauricio Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino can see the future of the USMNT every time he turns on a game. It looks a lot like a 16-year-old taking on grown professionals and refusing to blink.

It looks a lot like Cavan Sullivan.

Three goals in three games, still a teenager, still in high school by most timelines. Sullivan isn’t padding numbers in youth tournaments; he’s doing it against men, and that changes the conversation. It’s why plenty inside American soccer already think he’s ready for the next step, whatever that proves to be.

Tim Howard is firmly in that camp.

“In the next four years, there are going to be 115 players that play for the national team,” Howard said on the Unfiltered Podcast. “Who’s better than this kid? Who’s better than this kid that doesn’t deserve an opportunity? I’m not saying he plays every game, but he should be in the conversation to be playing every game.”

Howard’s point cut through the noise. The U.S. can’t pretend to be a conveyor belt like the traditional giants.

“For all the naysayers out there, I’m not saying to gift this kid something he hasn’t earned on a silver platter,” he added. “I’m saying we are not Brazil, Argentina, Holland, Spain, England, Germany. We don’t produce these players.”

Sullivan doesn’t sound intimidated by any of it. He sounds impatient.

“Thinking about that Belgium game, I think I could come into that game on the right side and make a difference,” he told Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union podcast. “You have to believe in yourself. You have to think you can help your team win. Obviously it’s not my team yet, but I’m always dreaming and hoping for call-ups.”

He’s not the only teenager thinking that way.

Gozo’s fire, Pochettino’s line

Zavier Gozo has already felt how close the door can swing. While Sullivan is still waiting for his first real brush with the senior setup, Gozo was on the edge of the World Cup squad, named to the USMNT’s preliminary list while still at Real Salt Lake.

Then came the decision. Pochettino decided a World Cup debut was a step too far for an uncapped winger. Gozo stayed home, then moved to Crystal Palace, and the snub hasn’t left his mind.

“I do think I deserved to be there. I’m going to be honest,” he told The Late Run. “But obviously it’s the coach’s choice. Maybe he didn’t think I was ready, or whatever it is, but it just put a fire under me to make the next World Cup and show why I should be there.”

That’s the tension Pochettino lives in now. How do you know when a kid is ready? How do you know when the dream helps and when it burns?

There’s no formula, he insists. No age threshold, no magic number of club minutes. It’s case by case.

Physically, he’s not losing sleep. These are teenagers, not veterans with miles in their legs.

“I know the mindset of the coaches,” he said. “Sometimes the coaches say, ‘Oh, I have a 17-year-old guy that plays in the MLS, but when the national team calls, we say no because they need to rest’. If you’re 17, and you need to rest? Yeah, we have a big problem.”

So his real concern lies elsewhere.

Talent is not enough

For Pochettino, the decisive factor is mental. Maturity, every day, in every setting.

He looks at how a player trains, how they talk, how they treat the people around them. Talent gets you into the conversation. What you do with it keeps you there.

“I think respect is the most important thing, and they need to be respectful,” he said. “And of course, we want players with talent. We want players who feel brave, feel confident, but not feel things they don't show. I think you are only entitled to talk a little bit out of order if you are Messi.

“If you win eight Ballon d'Ors, okay, you can talk with a certain arrogance, but even then, … if you are young and you start to talk that you can play here, you can play there, or you can play. I say, I don't believe that this is the right way to build your career in the best way, no. And that is why we need to be careful.”

So the staff watches the small details. Who keeps working after training. Who keeps improving instead of coasting. Who understands that breaking into the national team is a beginning, not a finish line.

Position matters as well. Some roles are wide open; others are clogged with depth. There is no blanket policy.

Take goalkeeper. The U.S. has options, but only one shirt.

“I think we are going to give some [opportunities] to some new players, not only in that position, but in different positions,” Pochettino explained. “We’ll have the possibility to add a new player and to give them the possibility. I think for us now it’s about not only thinking about today, but also to think about the future and 2030.”

Olympics, Gold Cup, and the long game

The 2030 World Cup looms in Pochettino’s mind, but it’s not the only target. The calendar is loaded: Olympic Games, another Gold Cup, potentially a Copa America. Each tournament forces a decision: which kids get thrown into the fire, and which veterans stay on to guide them?

That means constant dialogue with Steve Cherundolo, who leads the U.S. U-23s. The idea is clear: give certain youngsters senior caps now so they hit the Olympics with real experience, not just promise.

That doesn’t mean the USMNT will suddenly become a U-23 showcase. Pochettino still leans heavily on his core veterans. The kids will come, but on a schedule, not in a wave.

The lesson comes from recent history. After the disaster of 2018, the program tore things down and rebuilt around a young core. It worked. A new generation emerged as pillars of the team. But it also left a lingering question: what wisdom disappeared when the old guard was pushed aside?

That conversation flared again around the 2025 Gold Cup, when Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah skipped the tournament to rest. Former players questioned their commitment, loudly. Underneath that criticism sat a deeper worry: had the program moved on from experience too quickly, leaving a leadership gap?

This time, the reset will look different. Some veterans will go. Others will stay. No bonfire, no mass exile.

“I'd say it's a continuation of the last two cycles I've been a part of, just because I just know that's how it works,” USMNT star Chris Richards told GOAL. “It's not like you just completely sack off the team that was at the World Cup and move on from there.”

Palace, perspective, and the mix Pochettino wants

For Richards, the shift feels more tangible now that he shares a club with Gozo at Crystal Palace. One is an established international. The other is chasing his first cap. Training together, traveling together, he sees what the badge means to someone still on the outside.

That perspective has refreshed him. It’s also exactly what Pochettino wants.

“We cannot bring a whole squad of young players, no, because they need to have some guys with experience already competing,” the coach said. “Yes, we are going to do a mix. Our idea is we are going to do a mix between experienced players… I think experienced players and young players can fit together and start to work and see how the young kids start to manage the pressure to play in the first team in some really nice games.”

So he studies everything. Not just the goals and assists, but the interviews and interactions.

“It's important not only to see them or watch the games, the performance, but also what they are talking about in the media, how they behave with the opponent, how they behave with their teammates,” he said. “I think it's so important. We want to be a very good team. We want to build something different and be competitive.”

He notes who arrives early to training, who lingers afterward, who treats the staff with the same respect as the captain. To him, those habits reveal whether a player truly meets the standard he’s setting.

His message to every Sullivan, every Gozo, every teenager dreaming of that first call: all of it counts, and he’s watching.

The calls that change everything

At club level, Pochettino could ease players in. He saw them every day. He knew when to push and when to protect. With the national team, he doesn’t get that luxury. Camps are short. Windows are spread out. A player he sees in September might be unrecognizable by March.

He knows that a teenager not quite ready for the next roster could be indispensable by the one after that. Timing will define careers.

The next set of calls is only weeks away. The decisions will echo for years. The 2030 cycle will be shaped by who gets fast-tracked, who waits, and which veterans are trusted to carry the standard a little longer.

Young stars are banging on the door. Established names still have something to give. Pochettino stands in the middle, weighing talent against temperament, potential against pressure.

“We need to create a group of players that are really being professional and competing in the way that we expect,” he said. “They all need to compete with the talented players and young players that we have ahead.”

The future is coming, loudly and early. The real question now is not whether the next generation is good enough, but when Pochettino decides they’re ready to own the shirt.