STATE FARM STADIUM (Glendale, Ariz.) — The U.S. men’s soccer team’s winless streak against FIFA’s Top 10-ranked teams is over.
The USA beat No. 10 ranked Mexico, its fiercest rival, 3-0 in Saturday’s exhibition match here in front of a heavily pro El Tri crowd of more than 60,000 at the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
Eighteen-year-old forward Julian Hall scored for the third straight game, 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan added the second and Malik Tillman rounded out the scoring with just minutes left to play.
Here are my takeaways:
Last weekend against Peru, Cavan Sullivan became the second-youngest player to start in U.S. men’s national team history.
On Saturday, he notched an even more impressive milestone when he pounced on an errant pass by Jose Rangel and chipped the Mexico keeper to give the Americans a dos-a-cero lead — the youngest goalscorer in the 113-year history of the program.
Until losing back-to-back games to Mexico in 2024 and ’25, the U.S. had dominated its southern neighbor this decade, beating El Tri in three straight Concacaf Nations League Finals and the Gold Cup final in 2021. The pendulum swung back after Pochettino took over as coach, though that was hardly his fault, with an understrength U.S. squad falling in a so-called friendly in Guadalajara and in the 2025 Gold Cup final in Houston.
Mauricio Pochettino leading the USA. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
After beating the Peruvians and Chile decisively late last month, Pochettino cautioned on Friday that there would be downs as well as ups for this unusually young roster, the first one of the 2030 World Cup cycle.
But the kids didn’t get the memo, growing into the match against Mexico and taking the scoring chances they were presented with. That’s a hugely encouraging sign going forward.
It’s possible that the 18-year-old Red Bull New York striker wouldn’t even have been on U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino’s roster for Saturday’s contest.
World Cup starter Folarin Balogun and one of his backups, Haji Wright, were not called in this window. Hall might not have played nearly as much if Ricardo Pepi, who appeared in all five games during the Americans’ run to the round of 16, hadn’t gotten hurt after Pochettino named his roster back on Sept. 17.
Julian Hall keeps scoring. (Photo by Taylor Banner/USSF/Getty Images)
