A quick glimpse at the U.S. men's national team's 2022 World Cup roster shows one thing: this whole process began long before Qatar. It started at the youth level, where many of American soccer's top stars earned their first real tastes of the international game at youth World Cups.
Half of the team's roster for the 2022 tournament in Qatar had previously played in a youth World Cup of some sort. Ten of those players had done so at the Under-17 level. So, as this year's U17 World Cup gets set to kick off, it's safe to assume that we'll be watching a few future USMNT stars.
There may or may not be a Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna or Tyler Adams in this bunch. However, that can all change very quickly. Reyna, Joe Scally and Ricardo Pepi all played at the U17 level just four years ago, and all three are key USMNT players in the here and now.
The U.S. faces a tough road, as they'll take on South Korea, Burkina Faso and France in the group stage. A difficult group, for sure, one that Gonzalo Segares' side may struggle with. For them to survive that group, they'll need some stars to step up, and GOAL has you covered with a look at several of the USMNT's big prospects set to play in Indonesia this fall..