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Major League Soccer

·27 July 2026

Major League Soccer

·27 July 2026

By Charles Boehm

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The MLS All-Star Game presented by Chime is usually very much about the present: celebrating the season’s best performances, while also showing due respect to star players who have operated at an elite level for many years.

At times, though, it also points to what is coming next. That was evident this week in the Queen City, where teenage sensations Zavier Gozo and Julian Hall shared space with the likes of Son Heung-Min and Thomas Müller before Wednesday night’s clash with the LIGA MX All-Stars at Bank of America Stadium (8 pm ET | Apple TV).

“Dreams are becoming a reality,” Hall told MLSsoccer.com after the All-Stars’ light training session at Charlotte FC’s Atrium Health Performance Park on Monday morning.

“I've dreamed of moments like this since I was a kid, and sharing the field and the environment with players of this status is just amazing. It's a great feeling to be here.”

Gozo of Real Salt Lake and Hall of Red Bull New York have been among the brightest performers in the first half of the season, and both earned their places by combining promise with end product. They lead their respective teams in goal contributions, with Hall on 9g/4a in 17 games and Gozo on 6g/5a in 16 games, underlining both their eye-catching ability and their considerable ceiling.

“Yeah, it's been crazy. I feel like it's been a little bit of a whirlwind,” said Gozo. “Having a bigger role to play this season, I think it's been an amazing season for me, and just having the confidence of my teammates and my coaches around me.”

Gozo first got his chance with RSL in 2025, producing 4g/3a in 25 MLS appearances (1,815 minutes), and then rose to a far bigger stage this year even as he adjusted to a new role as a wingback. Salt Lake handed him that assignment shortly before their season opener at Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and he immediately looked at home, using his elite athleticism to beat defenders and unsettle opposing back lines.

“It was a shock for me at first,” Gozo noted, “but yeah, I’ve definitely grown into the role and learned it.

“The 2025 season, it was kind of an adjustment year for me,” he said when asked how everything came together for him this year. “I had just started playing. I learned what I can do, what I can't do, and how to take advantage of my opponent. So I think just learning the game a little bit more, natural progression, and also just the confidence piece.”

Gozo’s rise was so striking that he became the subject of strong talk as a possible late addition to Mauricio Pochettino’s US men’s national team squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio and other well-known voices backing his case despite his having no senior international experience.

“How close I got, I feel like even surprised me,” revealed Gozo. “At the start when they're first talking, it's like, ‘people are talking, whatever.’ But then as it got closer, I was like, 'OK, maybe this could actually happen.' So I think I was more disappointed when I didn't make it than I thought I would be.

“It just gave me more motivation for the next four years and the Olympics and all these things, and made me realize how much I really want to play for the national team.”

Hall, meanwhile, has all the traits of a natural No. 9, with intelligent movement inside the penalty area and a sharp instinct for goal. He has been scoring regularly against professionals for years, signing an MLS homegrown deal with RBNY at the age of 15 in 2023 after holding his own in MLS NEXT Pro, and setting club records as the youngest scorer and assist-maker.

That is a reminder that although Hall is a fresh face to most of mainstream soccer, he spent years working in the shadows and waiting patiently before his breakthrough.

“I always believed in myself,” he said on Monday, “and I trusted the coaches and the Red Bulls with how they developed me to get to this point. And it's definitely worked out so far, but there's still a long way to go for me.”

Now both players have caught the eye of major European clubs, while their names have surged into the discussion about the next stage for the USMNT after the Yanks’ encouraging but ultimately unfinished Round-of-16 run on home soil this summer.

The pair recently received backing from USMNT great Landon Donovan, who named Gozo and Hall as leading candidates for a quick step up to the senior squad on ‘Unfiltered Soccer,’ the podcast he co-hosts with fellow USMNT and MLS veteran Tim Howard.

“I've always dreamed of playing in a World Cup, and I think sometimes that attention is good,” said Hall. “But I always have tunnel vision, and I'm always ready for the next challenge.”

What once looked like long-term ambition is quickly turning into immediate targets. Alongside the previously mentioned 2028 Olympic goal, Gozo is openly aiming for a call-up to the next US camp in late September, while also wanting to help RSL climb to the top of the MLS Western Conference table and make a deep run in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in the autumn.

Hall, too, has made the postseason with the Red Bulls a priority, with first-year head coach Michael Bradley’s side having alternated between exciting and sobering displays so far, much like many young teams.

“Every team goes into playoffs wanting to win a trophy, and that's going to be my goal until the season's over,” Hall said. “We have to find ways of being more consistent. The table kind of shows that: We're right smack in the middle there, and that's what we've been talking about, is how can we get that extra edge and find ways to win games."

Hall’s international future, however, remains unresolved. His mother Agnes was born in Poland and moved to New Jersey as a teenager; he honours her and their family background by wearing her family name, Zakrzewski, on his RBNY shirt. Earlier this year, Polish federation president Cezary Kulesza went in person to meet Agnes, presenting her with a national-team jersey carrying that same name on the back as part of a recruitment effort.

Even though he has already spent significant time with US youth national teams, Hall is clearly still open to all possibilities. Those World Cup dreams he mentioned? If he sees himself in a specific kit in them, he is not saying so.

“I'm on the field. I'll say I'm on the field,” he said with a shy smile. “That's what I dream of, is being on the field. … Time will tell. And I appreciate both of my nationalities, but World Cup, period, is my dream.

“My heart is really with both of them, and I appreciate both of my parents as well.”