The US Men’s National Team is back, and back with a little bit of a new look and a lot of style.
For the first match after the 2025 FIFA World Cup, Coach Mauricio Pochettino decided to bring on a slew new faces, with 13 players called up to the squad who had never appeared for the team before, including 8 teenagers. The big attention went specifically for Cavan Sullivan, the 16 year old starlet who has been outstanding with the Philadelphia Union over the last few months. And, with him slotting into
the starting eleven for this match, Sullivan became the fourth youngest player to make a start for the USMNT.
However, while the spotlight was on Sullivan, it was a different teenager who made the first mark for the US in this match. Within minutes of kickoff, 19 year old Justin Ellis found himself on the ball deep into Peru’s half of the field over on the left. Ellis did well to shield the ball, only for one of Peru’s defenders to knock him to the ground in an obvious foul. And, when Gio Reyna put in the following free kick into the box, it was again Ellis rising to the occasion, this time, getting a looping header to the back post to open the scoring.
It took a while for Peru to get into the game. In the ninth minute, the US was again attacking, with Sullivan and then Malik Tillman putting in blocked shots on a good counter attack. But Peru did manage to find their footing a little after the 10 minute mark. Peru managed to press the US to recover the ball at half field before advancing the ball quickly up the field and finding a free man at the top of the box, but the following shot went wide. Peru then won the ball back off the resulting corner and worked their way to a good cross to Gianluca Lapadula, who put in his own looping header to the back post to bring the game level.
From there, things seemed to settle down a bit. The US had all the control and most of the possession, with Peru mostly stiffled, but for a single shot that went straight into Matt Freese open arms. But, while they were able to get into the box and into threatening positions, the US was not able to generate a lot of actual shots to test Peru’s keeper. There were some flashes of promise, particularly from Cavan Sullivan, and a few more shots that either missed the mark or were shot straight at Peru’s keeper, but the rest of the first half wound up being a more tame affair then the first 15 minutes had hinted. Tyler Adams did have a promising shot from distance towards the end of stoppage time, but it was deflected off target by a Peruvian defender.
The second half started off much the same as the first half, with the exception of Pochettino’s decision to swap goalkeepers, with World Cup veteran Matt Freese coming off for the 20 year old Diego Kochen for his debut. Things got more interesting around the hour mark, with both sides making a bevy of substitutions. And, just moments after coming on, 17 year old Mathis Albert drew a penalty when a Peruvian player dragged him to the ground over on the left edge of Peru’s box. The Peruvians were furious that it was called as a penalty with the argument that the foul happened just outside the box (to be fair, they were kinda right about that), but the referee was tolerating none of it, with him deciding to hand out a yellow for all the trouble they gave him. Tilman took the responsibility for the penalty and he made no mistake, slotting it cleanly to his left, past the keeper. 2-1.
The penalty decision and goal seemed to deflate the Peruvians, but the US weren’t done. In particular, Sebastian Berhalter, who came on as a substitute, took it upon himself to leave a mark on the match. In the 72nd minute, Berhalter found himself on the left with lots of space out on the left and decided to put in a cross. And, my goodness, what a cross! It whipped right in front of goal, finding fellow-substitute Julian Hall crashing in towards the far post, who put it in the net.
But Berhalter wasn’t done. In the last minute before stoppage time, Berhalter lashed in a shot from well outside the box, a stunning cap to a very solid performance for the USMNT.
All told, it was a great performance for a team stuffed with new and young players.
The USMNT will be back on Tuesday, September 29, for a friendly against Chile in St. Louis. They have another friendly scheduled against Mexico on October 3, before closing the international window against Canada on the 6th.
What did you think of the performance? Who stood out for you, and who are you excited to see next time? Join the conversation in the comments below!
