Christian Pulisic during the Concacaf Nations League final against Mexico in June. (Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports)

At the start U.S. men’s national team training camp Monday for September’s World Cup qualifying the USMNT roster will have an average age of 24 years, 43 days.

Thirteen players will be 23 and younger as of the first day of training.

U.S. Soccer compiled information for this story.

The 26-player roster averages 18 caps overall and seven in official competition.

Six players have previous World Cup Qualifying experience: Christian Pulisic (13 caps), DeAndre Yedlin (10), Kellyn Acosta (6), Tim Ream (6), John Brooks (4) and Sebastian Lletget (1).

The remaining 20 players will have the opportunity to make their debut in World Cup Qualifying.
Players hail from clubs in 10 different countries: USA (9), England (6), Germany (3), France (2), Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey (1 each).

A total of 24 players were part of one of the USMNT’s two summer tournament rosters. Eighteen players helped the USA lift the inaugural Concacaf Nations League trophy in June, while eight players were part of the squad that won the USMNT’s seventh Gold Cup title earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Midfielders Kellyn Acosta and Sebastian Lletget were part of both summer tournament squads.

Having returned to the USMNT fold for the friendly against El Salvador last December, Acosta has appeared in all 13 matches in 2021 and 14 consecutive matches overall, which is the longest streak of appearances by a USMNT player since DaMarcus Beasley played in 16-straight matches in 2003-04.
Lletget sits second on the team with 12 appearances in 2021.

With seven goals from the 2018 cycle, 22-year-old forward Christian Pulisic enters the 2022 campaign tied with Michael Bradley for seventh on the USMNT’s all-time WCQ goal scoring list.

Pulisic also sits tied for fourth on the USMNT’s all-time World Cup qualifying assists list with six.
The WCQ opener at El Salvador will come five years to the day that a 17-year-old Pulisic became the youngest USMNT player to score in qualifying, tallying twice in a 6-0 win at St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Sept. 2, 2016 in Kingstown.

The 2016 match in St. Vincent also marked the World Cup Qualifying debut for midfielder Kellyn Acosta, who deputized at left back in the 6-0 win.

Ten players are on clubs that have qualified for the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Red Bull Salzburg), Tyler Adams (RB Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Jordan Pefok (BSC Young Boys), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Zack Steffen (Manchester City), Tim Weah (Lille).

Brenden Aaronson played a huge role in helping Red Bull Salzburg earn a Champions League place, scoring in both legs of the club’s qualifying playoff with Brøndby on Aug. 17 and 25.

Now based in England, forward Josh Sargent scored his first two goals and registered an assist in Norwich City’s 6-0 win against Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup play on Tuesday.

Defender Antonee Robinson also registered his first goal for Fulham, scoring in stoppage time to give the Cottagers a 2-0 win at Birmingham City in the Carabao Cup.

Eight players were part of the MLS All-Star roster that faced the Liga MX All Stars on Wednesday night in Los Angeles: George Bello, Sebastian Lletget, Ricardo Pepi, Miles Robinson, Cristian Roldan, James Sands, Matt Turner and Walker Zimmerman.

Matt Turner is the first USMNT goalkeeper to post wins in each of his first seven appearances. The 27-year-old has conceded just one goal – which came on a penalty kick – in that time. Turner has posted an 11-2-4 record for New England this season, helping the Revs to the top of the Supporters Shield standings.

Turner also saved two penalties and earned Man of the Match honors to help the MLS defeat their Liga MX counterparts in a shootout win in Wednesday’s All-Star Game. Meantime, Ricardo Pepi netted the game-winning penalty.

The eighteen-year-old Pepi earns his first USMNT call-up. A member of the U.S. squad at the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup along with George Bello and Gio Reyna, Pepi has registered nine goals and one assist in 20 appearances for FC Dallas this season.

Pepi also put home the game-winning penalty kick for MLS in Wednesday night’s All-Star Game against Liga MX.

Konrad de la Fuente returns to USMNT camp for the first time since making his debut on Nov. 12, 2020 against Wales. Having transferred to Olympique Marseille this summer, the winger has started each of the club’s first three Ligue 1 matches this season, registering an assist in his club debut on Aug. 8 at Montpellier.

With one more appearance, defender George Bello will be cap-tied to the USMNT. Should he appear in all three qualifiers, forward Konrad de la Fuente would also become cap-tied to the USMNT.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.