Gio Reyna has been in their shoes.
Like his new USA teammates Cavan Sullivan and Neil Pierre, Reyna was once a blue-chip teenager participating in his first national team camp, as Albert and Mehmeti are ahead of four home exhibition games against Peru, Chile, Mexico and Canada — the Stars and Stripes’ first set of matches since the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Now the former prodigy is 23. He’s played for four clubs across Germany, England and France. He’s a two-time World Cup veteran with a wife and a baby on the way.
“I’m still very young, still have a lot to prove to myself and to other people,” Reyna told reporters this week from U.S. Soccer’s sprawling training facility outside of Atlanta.
Gio Reyna is now a two-time World Cup veteran. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Reyna is also a proven international player at this stage of his career, one who, along with the 12 other World Cup veterans on this unusually inexperienced 28-player roster, is suddenly responsible for helping guide the next generation of American stars.
It’s a big change for many of the U.S. mainstays.
Take Sebastian Berhalter, who played just seven times for his country this time last year and was still far from being a lock on coach Mauricio Pochettino’s 26-man World Cup squad. Berhalter went on to secure his spot, appearing in all five U.S. matches during the tournament and scoring in a 3-2 group stage loss to Türkiye.
In a locker room where the current average age is under 23 — more than four years younger than the World Cup group — Berhalter, 25, is a grizzled pro.
“I’ve only been part of the team for a year now, which is crazy, but it’s good,” Berhalter said of the elders’ newly expanded off-field role. “I think it’s something that we take in stride. For us, it’s about our individual performances and making sure we’re keeping the standard [high], and then also showing everyone around us what it takes” at soccer’s highest level.
Cavan Sullivan is the centerpiece of the next generation of USA players.(Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
With longtime national team starters Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie absent from this camp, the future is now. The 16-year-old Sullivan and 18-year-old Pierre, both of the Philadelphia Union in MLS, could log big minutes over the first two games. So could the six other teens called in, with the smart money on Pochettino going with his strongest lineups in the early October contests against Concacaf foes Canada and El Tri — teams he hasn’t beaten yet as the U.S. boss.
“Obviously [I’m] a little nervous coming in here — these players I kind of watched growing up a little bit, and in the World Cup,” said Pierre, who credited his formative six-month loan to Danish club Lyngby earlier this year with helping him hit the ground running when he returned to the Union in July. “But at the end of the day, I think everyone’s here to compete.
Neil Pierre is another USA player to watch. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
