ALLIANZ FIELD (St. Paul, Minn.) \u2014<\/strong> A fourth win and as many games for the U.S. men\u2019s national team to kick off the 2030 FIFA World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n The Americans beat rivals Canada, 1-0, on Tuesday in the Twin Cities on a first-half goal by 19-year-old striker Justin Ellis \u2014 a win that comes on the heels of convincing victories over the last 12 days against Peru, Chile and historic nemesis Mexico.<\/p>\n Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n 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)<\/span> <\/p>\n Back on Sept. 26 in Orlando, the 19-year-old Ellis scored the USA\u2019s 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\u2019s 3-0 win over Mexico; in the second half of the same match in Glendale, Arizona, 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan broke Albert\u2019s four-day old record to become the youngest scorer in more than a century of U.S. men\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n The theme continued on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Ellis earned his second start of this four-match set, and, despite being hobbled by a challenge by acting Canadian captain Stephen Eust\u00e1quio 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 of a foul-laden first 45 minutes.<\/p>\n U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino replaced Ellis with Hall for the start of the second half, but he wasn\u2019t the only teenager to start the game as Albert, who entered as a sub in the Americans’ first three outings of this camp, made his debut in the coach\u2019s 11. And towering 6-foot-7 center back Neil Pierre, 18, came in to help preserve the clean sheet.<\/p>\n Alex Freeman passes the ball against Canada in Tuesday’s friendly, which the USA won. (Photo by Stephen Maturen\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The assumption is that many of those on Pochettino\u2019s 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 \u2014 players who have long been mainstays for the Americans, in some cases for multiple World Cups.<\/p>\n Still, some will probably stay with the varsity. Hall is probably the likeliest candidate, though he\u2019s not alone. It\u2019s not just the teenagers, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diego Kochen\u2019s performance in goal vs. Mexico could win him another look. Same for older players like keeper Brian Schwake, who made four <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n USA coach Mauricio Pochettino reacts during the friendly against Canada. (Photo by David Berding\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY ALLIANZ FIELD (St. Paul, Minn.) \u2014 A fourth win and as many games for the U.S. men\u2019s national team to kick off the 2030 FIFA World Cup cycle. The Americans beat rivals Canada, 1-0, on Tuesday in the Twin Cities on a first-half goal by 19-year-old striker Justin Ellis \u2014 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}