NEW YORK — Christian Pulisic is out and 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan is in.
Mauricio Pochettino picked 13 newcomers Thursday for the first roster of his second term as U.S. men’s soccer coach, dropping the team’s top star and picking a forward who could become the youngest player for the national team in 20 years.
“It’s a completely different approach than it was in the past,” Pochettino said from New York during an online news conference. “The World Cup is in four years. We need to work with different objectives and goals.”
U.S. midfielder Yunus Musah, a 2022 World Cup veteran who hasn’t played for the Americans since March 2025, also was among 28 players selected for exhibiton matches against Peru (Sept. 26 in Orlando, Florida), Chile (Sept. 29 in St. Louis), Mexico (Oct. 3 in Glendale, Arizona) and Canada (Oct. 6 in St. Paul, Minnesota).
A two-time World Cup veteran who turns 28 on Friday, Pulisic failed to score during this summer’s tournament co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. He missed one of the Americans’ five matches because of a calf injury and left two others early.