USMNT win 4-1: the menu for this fall and the road to 2030

No Premier League this weekend, which around here is like showing up on a Tuesday and finding the kitchen closed. Don't worry though, there's still plenty on tap.

Here's what we're pouring over today:

• 🇺🇸 The USMNT beat Peru 4-1 with eleven debutants. What it actually means, and every date that matters between now and the 2030 World Cup

• 🌍 Spain win a thriller against England

• 🐐 Messi's free kick record and the part of the MLS season nobody explains

Pull up a stool.

🥃 TOP SHELF

The kids are alright

Imagine a manager walking into your local and handing eleven strangers a new job behind the bar, all starting together on the same shift.

Saturday night in Orlando, that’s exactly what Mauricio Pochettino did. He handed eleven debutants their first games for their country and then watched them clean the floor with Peru in a 4-1 win.

"Eleven?? That’s a whole new team."

All in one game too. Eight of them were teenagers. Justin Ellis headed the US in front inside four minutes - the fastest US debut goal in the modern era. Peru leveled. Then the substitutes took over and the US pulled away with 3 unanswered goals.

Cavan Sullivan, the 16-year-old we flagged on Friday, played 62 minutes and picked up an early yellow card for his trouble. "At 16 years old, performing, fighting and playing with personality," was Pochettino's read on it.

It was a friendly. Friendlies are the preseason of soccer, no points, no silverware (see Sound Like a Regular below), nothing on the line but a coach's curiosity. So don't order the parade bunting yet.

But it tells you what this is. The US just finished a home World Cup, going out in the Round of 16 to Belgium, and Pochettino is already clearing out the furniture.

So what actually happens next?

Immediately: three more friendlies in this window. Chile tomorrow, then Mexico on October 3 and Canada on October 6 in St. Paul, Minnesota. All at home, all free hits.

Then it gets real. The first competitive games of the new era are the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals in November, played over two legs, with the US hosting the return at Cincinnati's TQL Stadium on November 17. Opponent still to be decided.

“Cool. And the Nations League is?…”

Quick translation for anyone new: the Nations League is Concacaf's own mini-tournament for North and Central American and Caribbean nations, invented so these teams play meaningful games instead of endless friendlies.

Think of it as a regional cup competition squeezed into the international breaks. The US have won it three times, and the 2027 finals are at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles next March.

And the bigger picture?

Pochettino re-signed in August on a deal through 2030. That matters more than any single result this fall, because it means the experiments have a protected runway. The real road map is:

1. the 2027 Nations League,

2. the 2027 Gold Cup,

3. the 2029 Gold Cup,

4. and then qualifying for the 2030 World Cup in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

That last one is the twist. The US walked into the 2026 tournament automatically as co-hosts. For 2030 they have to earn the ticket like everybody else, and Concacaf qualifying has embarrassed them before.

There is also a home Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, which is largely an under-23 competition. Pochettino will not be coaching that one.

The takeaway for now

So here's the honest frame. Saturday was not a breakthrough. It was a general manager emptying the roster and seeing who can handle a big room. Some of those teenagers will be starters in 2030. Most will not.

The fun part is that you get to watch the sorting happen in real time, starting Tuesday.

🗣️ SOUND LIKE A REGULAR

"silverware"

/ˈsɪlvəwɛː/ 🔊

noun · soccer

Definition: Any competitive trophy. The collective word for everything a country or club can actually win, and the only measure some fans accept when judging whether a period of time was successful.

Origin: From the literal material. Major cups have been struck in silver for well over a century, so the metal became shorthand for the prize, and then for success itself.

USED IN A SENTENCE

“Poch has us playing some nice soccer, but will he ever win us some actual silverware?”

🗞️ THE WEEKLY TAP-IN…

The pick of the weekend’s international results

No Premier League again this weekend, so the internationals had the bar to themselves. Here’s the pick of the bunch:

• England 2-3 Spain (Saturday): Lamine Yamal punished an England error inside two minutes, then Anthony Gordon and captain Harry Kane turned it around before half time. Kane slipped taking a penalty at 2-1 and hit the bar, and was punished when Spain came back through Álex Baena and Mikel Oyarzabal. The world champions are now 39 games unbeaten. Muy bueno.

• Germany 0-1 Greece (Sunday): Jürgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager now running Germany, lost for the first time in the job. Germany had 77% possession but couldn’t stop Greece from scoring through a deflected shot in the 74th minute. It was Greece’s first win in Germany in their history.

• Israel 0-3 Republic of Ireland (Sunday): Ireland wore black armbands and did not take part in the usual prematch handshakes before winning comfortably. They meet again later this week. Expect more controversy.

Elsewhere: Norway 1-2 Portugal, where Erling Haaland scored and Cristiano Ronaldo watched all 90 minutes from the bench. Denmark 2-0 Wales, Serbia 1-2 Netherlands, Slovenia 0-0 Scotland, and San Marino, a country the size of a decent-sized town, lost 7-0 to Finland.

Belgium host France tonight. England are in Czechia on Tuesday.

Messi's free kick and the part of the MLS season nobody explains

Lionel Messi curled in an outrageous free kick (watch here) at Columbus on Sunday, but Inter Miami lost anyway, beaten 2-1 by a Jamal Thiaré goal deep into stoppage time.

That's four free-kick goals in his last seven games, and it leaves him on 76 for his career. Two more and he equals Marcelinho Carioca's all-time record of 78.

Now the bigger picture, because this is the stretch where MLS gets confusing if nobody explains it.

What stage of the season is MLS actually at

MLS does not work like European leagues. In England, the team with the most points at the end wins the league and that's that. In MLS, finishing top of the regular season gets you the Supporters' Shield and a nice trophy, but the actual championship is decided by playoffs.

Think NBA regular season versus NBA Finals. The 34-game season sorts the seeding. The top nine teams in each conference then go into the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in November, with MLS Cup in December.

So the next few weeks are about survival, not glory. Teams are jockeying for playoff position ahead of Decision Day, the final matchday where every game in a conference kicks off at once.

Miami sit third in the East on 46 points and are in a rough patch at exactly the wrong moment. Nashville have been the runaway team.

For Messi personally, there's a bigger date. He retired from international soccer after the World Cup, and Argentina have given him a farewell match against Benin on October 6.

The man who talked two Hollywood stars into buying Wrexham has left

Humphrey Ker has stepped down from the Wrexham board and as a trustee of the club's foundation.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, the story will. Ker is an actor and comedian who was working with Rob Mac, then known as Rob McElhenney, and told him to watch a documentary called Sunderland 'Til I Die.

That recommendation turned into an idea, the idea turned into a takeover, and in 2021 Mac and Ryan Reynolds bought a fifth-tier Welsh club. Three promotions later, Wrexham are in the Championship, one division below the Premier League.

Ker became executive director and a regular on Welcome to Wrexham. He stepped back from day-to-day work in 2024 and said the club has grown and restructured to the point where it has become harder for him to contribute the way he wants.

Mac and Reynolds said his kindness, humor and height would be missed. He is six foot seven, so at least one of those is measurable.

🧃 HAVE A BEER ORANGE JUICE WITH…

Cavan Sullivan

Club and country: Philadelphia Union and USA

What to watch for this week: He turns 17 today, two days after becoming the youngest player to appear for the US since Freddy Adu in 2006, at 16 years and 362 days. Seven goals and 12 assists in 26 league games this season.

Fun fact: When he debuted for Philadelphia at 14 years and 293 days, he became the youngest player to appear in any major North American professional sports league. Not just soccer. Any of them. He moves to Manchester City when he turns 18 next year, a deal signed when he was 14.

Toast: Fresh orange juice. He's 17 today and I'm not losing my license over a wonderkid. Squeezed to order, served in a proper glass, no umbrella.

Follow him here: @cavansullivan

🔥 HOUSE SPECIALS

⚽ Goal of the week: Sebastian Berhalter only scores bangers. He scored the USA’s fourth goal vs Peru.

🎉 Fanzone: Wrexham's owners have bought The Turf, the pub beside the Racecourse Ground where the club was founded in 1864, to keep it in safe hands.

📅 On this day: September 28, 2004, an 18-year-old Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on his Manchester United debut, a 6-2 Champions League win over Fenerbahçe. Teenagers, eh.

🐣 Underdog corner: Gotta be Greece beating Germany for the first time ever, in Germany, with 27% of the ball and one deflected shot.

👕 Wardrobe watch: Peru side Alianza Lima have released their traditional purple third kit, worn every October for more than 55 years to mark Peru's Señor de los Milagros festival.

📊 Most clicked from Friday: Bayern Munich wore their wildest Oktoberfest kit yet for one night only, and the club shop will sell you matching Bayern lederhosen.

And as always, thank you for stopping by the Tap-Inn. Sláinte.