Historical past Made By Cavan Sullivan: 4 Takeaways From USA’s Win Over Mexico

STATE FARM STADIUM (Glendale, Ariz.) — The U.S. men’s soccer team trounced Mexico, its fiercest rival and FIFA’s No. 10 ranked nation, 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 a few minutes remaining. 

Here are my takeaways, plus post-game reaction from U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino and his players.

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.

“He’s a talented player with enormous quality, but with a very good balance in possession and out of possession,” Pochettino said. “He’s a fighter. He’s a warrior. It’s difficult to find this type of player.

“Happy for him, happy for the team,” the coach added. “I like what he said [on TNT’s broadcast] after the sport, that an important factor was the end result. He is studying every single day. That may be a good factor.”

Till dropping back-to-back video 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 ultimate in 2021. The pendulum swung again after Pochettino took over as coach, although that was hardly his fault, with an understrength U.S. squad falling in a so-called pleasant in Guadalajara and within the 2025 Gold Cup ultimate in Houston.

Mauricio Pochettino main the USA. (Photograph by Robin Alam/ISI Images/ISI Images by way of Getty Pictures)

After beating the Peruvians and Chile decisively late final month, Pochettino cautioned on Friday that there could be downs in addition to ups for this unusually younger roster, the primary one of many 2030 World Cup cycle.

However the youngsters didn’t get the memo, rising into the match towards Mexico and taking the scoring possibilities they had been introduced with. That’s a massively encouraging signal going ahead.

“Mexico is a superb crew,” Pochettino stated. “They compelled us to play backwards. We by no means linked, we had been dropping all of the duels. After which we began to develop after 15-20 minutes.”

“We needed to adapt in numerous methods,” U.S. captain Tyler Adams stated. “At halftime we type of regrouped…I believed it was a whole crew efficiency in lots of totally different aspects of the sport. We had some challenges to defend. I believe we defended all proper for a lot of the half, after which clearly scored some good targets.”

It’s potential that the 18-year-old Crimson Bull New York striker wouldn’t even have been on Pochettino’s roster for Saturday’s contest.

World Cup starter Folarin Balogun and certainly one of his backups, Haji Wright, weren’t known as on this window. Corridor won’t have performed almost as a lot if Ricardo Pepi, who appeared in all 5 video games in the course of the Individuals’ run to the spherical of 16, hadn’t gotten harm after Pochettino named his roster again on Sept. 17.

Julian Corridor retains scoring. (Photograph by Taylor Banner/USSF/Getty Pictures)

Irrespective of. Corridor has taken each alternative he’s been given since making his senior worldwide debut in final week’s 4-1 win over Peru, scoring it that recreation shortly after coming into as a second half substitute after which discovering the web once more in his first begin, a 4-2 victory towards Chile.

These targets had been sufficient for Poch to maintain the Manhattan-born Corridor in his lineup for Saturday’s showdown with Mexico, the highest-profile match among the many 4 the No. 16-ranked U.S. crew will play this window. And Corridor rose to the problem once more, giving the house crew a 1-0 lead following one of many solely prolonged spells of possession the USA had throughout a primary half during which El Tri had the ball for greater than 60 p.c of the time.

“I imply, three targets in three video games shouldn’t be unhealthy for a striker, particularly in your first three video games within the nationwide crew,” stated Gio Reyna, whose cross led to Corridor’s tap-in. “He kind of has that eye for aim.”

Like a lot of the remainder of the children who Pochettino handed minutes to this month, Corridor will in all probability return to both the U.S. under-20 nationwide crew or the 2028 Olympics-bound U-23s when the extra skilled forwards within the participant pool inevitably return. However for a rustic that by no means appears to have sufficient pure goalscorers, he’s positively given Poch and his employees one thing to consider forward of subsequent month’s Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals.

“It is a improbable drawback for us,” the coach informed me once I requested if the performances of Corridor and the opposite children would possibly alter thier plans.  

As soon as its strongest place by far, the U.S. has had a satan of a time producing elite goalkeepers in recent times. However the 20-year-old Kochen is the nation’s finest backstop prospect in years, and the truth that Poch began him in a hostile atmosphere in Glendale says lots in regards to the Barcelona product’s potential.

That expertise was on full show within the 58th minute when, with the U.S. clinging to a 1-0 lead and Mexico knocking on the door, he made an all-world cease on El Tri attacker Roberto Alvarado on the best way to a clear sheet:

“It is one of many best moments of my whole life,” a beaming Kochen informed me about an hour after the ultimate whistle blew. “I am tremendous grateful that the coach trusted me with this.” 

It stays to be seen if Kochen will hold his place going ahead, persist with the senior crew in an understudy function, or if he, like others, will return to the youth ranks. Given his competitors, his age, and his standing because the American keeper with the best ceiling, don’t be shocked if it’s the primary one.

The Individuals have one other fast turnaround following Saturday’s victory, with simply two days between the Mexican match and one other rivalry recreation on Tuesday towards Canada and its American coach, Jesse Marsch. 

“We now have Canada in three days,” stated Reyna, the one U.S. participant to begin all three video games throughout this camp. “First time I began three video games within the week in in all probability 4 or 5 years, so I am just a little bit drained now. However I will be good for Canada.”

Whereas the U.S. holds the all-time collection lead with a report of 17 wins to 12 losses (together with two attracts), it has gained simply as soon as within the final six conferences between the groups, together with the newest in 2025. Can the Crimson, White and Blue break one other streak of futility towards one other neighbor in Minnesota?