USMNT teens ready to prove they belong as vets fight to keep their roles

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga.— By any objective measure, Sebastian Berhalter is young.

He’s 25 years old, young enough that if he had a career outside of soccer, it would be in its early stages. His career has hit its stride only over the past year, during which he broke into the United States men’s national team, played in the World Cup and earned a move to England’s Middlesbrough. But here among the squad Mauricio Pochettino called in for the national team’s first camp after the World Cup, Berhalter is old.Practically ancient, in fact.

You could call this Camp Cavan — as in Sullivan, the 16-year-old headliner — but with 12 players on the 28-man roster too young to buy alcohol, that might come off as a tad exclusionary. The glut of teenagers meant that, when Berhalter and Gio Reyna sat for a news conference Monday morning, they did so as two of the older, veteran players in the group.That may sound strange no matter how many times one rereads it. “I think older guy is actually a good way to put it,” Berhalter said.

“I’ve only been part of the team for a year now, and it feels like I’m an older guy, which is crazy.It’s good.

I think that’s something that I take in stride.” Reyna, 23 years old with a career’s worth of narrative already in the books, was met with the particular oddity of watching striker Justin Ellis tell reporters in Orlando, Fla., that Reyna was his favorite player growing up. Ellis, at 19, is only four years younger than Reyna but young enough to have been in middle school when Reyna was a highly touted prospect making his debut with Borussia Dortmund and with the national team.The two met for the first time after Ellis — who hopes to make his national team debut against Peru on Saturday in Orlando, where he has a goal and nine assists for Orlando City SC this season — arrived at his first senior U.S.

camp. “He’s a great kid,” Reyna said.“It’s nice to get to know him so far.

It makes me feel a little b...