ALLIANZ FIELD (St. Paul, Minn.) — A fourth win and as many games for the U.S. men’s national team to kick off the 2030 FIFA World Cup cycle.
The Stars and Stripes beat rivals Canada, 1-0, on Tuesday in the Twin Cities on a first-half goal by 19-year-old striker Justin Ellis — a win that comes on the heels of convincing victories over the last 12 days against Peru, Chile and historic nemesis Mexico.
Here are my takeaways, plus post-game reaction from the players, USA coach Mauricio Pochettino and Canada’s American boss Jesse Marsch.
1. The Teenagers Are A Force
Teenager Justin Ellis celebrates after scoring the USMNT’s only goal in a win against Canada in Tuesday’s friendly. (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Back on Sept. 26 in Orlando, the 19-year-old Ellis scored the USA’s first goal less than four minutes into what turned into a 4-1 rout of Peru. Julian Hall (18) and Mathis Albert (17) scored three days later in St. Louis in a 4-2 victory over Chile. Hall hit the target again in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Mexico; in the second half of the same match in Glendale, Arizona, 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan broke Albert’s four-day old record to become the youngest scorer in more than a century of U.S. men’s soccer.
That theme continued on Tuesday.
Ellis earned his second start of this four-match set, and, despite being hobbled by a challenge by acting Canadian captain Stephen Eustáquio midway through the first half, limped back onto the field and promptly got on the end of a cross by Alex Freeman, his former teammate with Orlando City SC. It was the hosts only shot during a foul-laden first 45 minutes.
Pochettino replaced Ellis with Hall for the start of the second half; Ellis left the stadium to have what a team spokesperson called a right lower leg contusion. He wasn’t the only teenager to start the game, though, as Albert, who entered as a sub in each of the Americans’ first three outings this camp, made his first appearance in the coach’s 11. And towering 6-foot-7 center back Neil Pierre, 18, came in to help preserve the clean sheet.
“They need to be ready to take the opportunity,” Pochettino said of the youngsters in general before mentioning the two strikers in paricular. “To assess and to see Julian and Justin was always the plan for us.”
2. U.S. Snaps Winless Streak Against Its Northern Neighbors
Alex Freeman passes the ball against Canada in Tuesday’s friendly, which the USA won. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Three days after halting a two-match losing streak against El Tri, the Stars and Stripes broke another run of futility against another cross-border rival.
“I give credit to the way the U.S. defended,” said Marsch, a former USA midfielder and assistant coach. “They bent, but they didn’t break.”
Besides a shootout win in the 2023 Gold Cup quarterfinals — a result that FIFA officially considers a tie — the U.S. had gone six tries without besting Canada and lost the last two meetings between the sides before Tuesday.
So this triumph was a welcome one for U.S. fans and a potentially important psychological one for the American players — especially given the makeup of Pochettino’s relatively inexperienced September/October roster.
That could be important if these sides meet again next year in either the Concacaf Nations League in March or the Gold Cup next summer. Or both.
3. What’s Next For The Kids?
Goalkeeper Diego Kochen before the international friendly match between USA and Canada. (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images)
With the competitive games of this World Cup cycle beginning next month (more on that below), it will be fascinating to see which of the youngsters stick with the senior team and which ones return to either the U.S. under-20 or -23 national teams, the latter of which will double as the 2028 U.S. Olympic squad when the Los Angeles games kick off two summers from now.
The assumption is that many of those on Pochettino’s roster for the 2026 World Cup who were either injured, returning from injury, settling in with new clubs or are known quantities come back into the fold. That long list includes Folarin Balogun, Weston McKennie, Ricardo Pepi, Christian Pulisic and Tim Weah — players who have long been mainstays for the Americans, in some cases for multiple World Cups.
Still, some will probably stay with the varsity. Hall is probably the likeliest candidate, though he’s not alone. It’s not just the teenagers, either.
Diego Kochen’s performance in goal vs. Mexico could win him another look. Same for older players like keeper Brian Schwake, who made four saves on the way to posting a clean sheet Tuesday in his first start, and fellow 25-year-old George Campbell, who started his second match of the window and third overall.
“They seemed pretty comfortable from the beginning” of camp, veteran defender Chris Richards said of the new guard. “It’s been it’s been a lot of fun getting to know everybody — and not just on the field, but off the field.”
4. Haiti Looms In Next Month’s Nations League Quarterfinals
USA coach Mauricio Pochettino reacts during the friendly against Canada. (Photo by David Berding/USSF/Getty Images)
The U.S. won the first three editions of the semi-annual Concacaf competition, hoisting the trophy in 2021, 2023 and 2024. It strolled past Jamaica over two legs to return to the final four just a month after Pochettino took over the program, winning a competitive game in Kingston for just the second time ever.
An upset by Panama ended the trophy streak in the semis in March of last year, and this same Canada squad added insult to injury by beating the Americans in the third place match at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
Pochettino & Co. would like to put that right in the same venue next March, when the Nations League finals return to Southern California. But they’ll need to get past a World Cup participant to get there, as Haiti was confirmed earlier Tuesday as the USA’s opponent in next month’s quarterfinals.
Even with Haiti’s home leg of the two-match, total-goals-wins series to be played in a neutral country because of severe security concerns in the Caribbean nations, beating Les Grenadiers isn’t a forgone conclusion. Although the U.S. hasn’t lost to the Haitians since 1973, their five most recent meetings have either ended even or with a one-goal American win. The Americans could learn where the opening match will be held as soon as Wednesday. The back end of the home-and-home is scheduled for Nov. 17 in Cincinnati.
“It’s going to be a tough opponent,” said U.S. captain Tyler Adams, who was a member of the U.S. team that defeated the Haitians 2-1 in the group stage of last year’s Gold Cup. “That was a really, really tough game, one of those typical scrappy Concacaf games. So we need to be up for it.”
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This story originally appeared on Fox Sports
