A youthful United States side beat Chile 4-2 in a friendly in St. Louis on Tuesday night, and one of its goal scorers made a bit of history in the process.
With the U.S. leading 3-2, Borussia Dortmund teenager Mathis Albert put the game away with the Americans' final goal of the night and became the youngest goal scorer in program history, besting a mark set by Christian Pulisic.
Albert's goal came at 17 years, 131 days old, while Pulisic, who was a rising star with Dortmund at the time, scored his first at the age of 17 years, 253 days to become the youngest U.S. scorer in the modern era (since 1988).
The U.S. side that started the game against Chile had the youngest average age -- at 23 years, 25 days -- of any XI since Mauricio Pochettino took over as coach in September 2024. One of those players -- Julian Hall -- scored the second goal for the U.S. and became the youngest to find the back of the net in his first two games at senior level for the Americans.
"It's been amazing to share the field with some amazing players, and they put me in the right spot, and I'm just doing as much as I can to put them away," Hall said after his second-half header leveled the score at 2-2.
Hall, 18, who plays for the New York Red Bulls, also scored in Saturday's 4-1 win over Peru. His coach at the Red Bulls is former U.S. star midfielder Michael Bradley, and Hall said Bradley's influence has been immense.
"It's been amazing," Hall said of Bradley. "We have a lot of young guys on our team, and including Adri [Mehmeti], who's here, as well, and he's helped us so much in our development. And you know, he's a big reason as to why me and him are here right now. So, he's been amazing.
"He gave us amazing advice before we got here -- and, yeah, he's been awesome."
Albert's goal against Chile came in second-half stoppage time when he redirected a pass in off the crossbar and it narrowly bounced down over the goal line.
The Americans have two friendlies left in the September/October international window: against Mexico on Saturday and Canada on Oct. 6.
Pulisic was not called into the current U.S. squad for these friendlies, with Pochettino electing to give a host of younger players -- including 17-year-old Cavan Sullivan of the Philadelphia Union -- a chance in the first games since the Americans lost to Belgium in the round of 16 at the World Cup this summer.
In all, 11 players -- including Sullivan and seven other teenagers -- made their first appearances for the U.S. in the game against Peru.
"As everyone knows, we have a lot of new young guys here making their debuts and everyone's out there playing like this is their 100th cap almost," Hall added. "It's been awesome to share the field with those guys. I grew up playing against a lot of these guys, and they've been amazing."
