Although he was not named to Jurgen Klinsmann’s U.S. Men’s National Team roster for upcoming World Cup qualifiers, Christian Pulisic may soon be joining the team anyway.
According to Pulisic’s club, Borussia Dortmund, the 17-year-old will join the USMNT camp. Dortmund previously said Pulisic would miss out on a chance to represent the Americans this international break due to illness, but clarified that he will be joining Klinsmann’s men if his illness subsides.
(UPDATE: ESPN FC confirmed that Pulisic will join the USMNT in Columbus, Ohio, if he is healthy.)
Pulisic has appeared in four German Bundesliga games for Dortmund in 2016, and also appeared in two UEFA Europa League contests. At the international level, the attacker started in all three games for the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team during last year’s Under-17 World Cup in Chile.
Four days after playing in Guatemala City, the U.S. will host Guatemala in Columbus.
What do you think of this development? Think Pulisic will play in either game for the USMNT?
Share your thoughts below.
I think what happened here is JK cut a friendly deal with BVB to take Pulisic for just one game – the one with the senior team on US soil.
I rather have Pulisic over Wondo and Dempsey.
This being an international window I doubt anyone turned down a U23 call, there would be no point very little would be going on at this point with many club players gone. Second the US playing bait and switch as some suggested would be pretty stupid as they’d get no help from clubs in the future. I think more likely is they wanted him because of FJs knock.
Regardless of it being an international window club teams are not required to release players for youth teams. Clubs have a lot of time and money tied up with these players and if it weren’t mandatory they wouldn’t release them for Sr. Team competitions.
Brooks is a major part of his clubs current & future plans, Yedlin & Pulisic are highly rated prospects getting real time with their clubs.
Considering the financial investment made by clubs in players and the limited return from insurance if they are injured during international matches it’s easy to see why they are cautious about releasing players for youth tournaments/games.
I don’t see the problem, if he is good enough than let him play. He practices and plays against grown men everyday at Dortmund. BVB probably said no to the U23s so JK said ok lets bring him to the senior team. If they are going to use him on the left like they do at BVB I would much rather have him than Zardes. They need some young talent in the senior team. I also hope to see some younger ones play in the copa America.
good comment, i was thinking the same thing. There is a MLS podcast where Herzog states that there is a good chance that JAB and Yedlin could be sent to the U-23’s for the final leg of the playoff vs Colombia via the leeway that is given by fifa during this International break to add and subtract players from rosters after the first set of games. If that is to be believed(don’t see why it wouldn’t be) you can make a case that Christian P could be apart of that addition as well.
So Jurgen can integrate him but he can’t integrate Villafana who plays a serious position of need? And he should’ve been called in to the u23s not the senior team
One is playing for the second best team in one of the best leagues in the world. The other is playing on the 6th best team in Mexico. Slight difference
Ok but Pulisic has only played a handful of games for Dortmund. I think he’ll win plenty of caps for the USMNT but I don’t know that he needs to be called in right now. Villafana plays a position where we are pretty lacking at the moment. I would have liked to see him called in for these games.
Can we at least wait until he scores a goal or something?
Pulisic has already done more than Julian Green had as of June 2014 (and still as of now) but that didn’t stop people from anointing him as a savior who should immediately start ahead of everyone.
Easy Slow I don’t remember people saying Green should be the starter in Brazil. There certainly were plenty of new posters at that time, so maybe it happened, but it wasn’t wide spread.
you’d have to think that with JK being who he is stature wise in Germany, he can pull strings to the level that other managers can’t when it comes to these types of things. I’m pretty sure Jurgen regularly checks in on all of his players in Germany and gets good feedback from their club coaches regarding their situations. Dortmund has been raving about him in the press and you have to think that Jurgen has gotten a detailed account about Pulisic’ progression. It doesnt hurt to bring him in, for all we know he’s the next Donovan(or better), capable of making an impact at a very early age on the international stage.
BVB have the option not to release him for a youth game(s), but they don’t have that option for a full national call-up.
DING DING! I think we have our winner here. And I’m going to go out on a limb and take this a step further:
I bet Sunderland with Yedlin and Hertha with Brooks weren’t willing to release them for the U-23 team. BUT, let them play the first game with the main them and then ship them to the second game with the U-23s? they can’t stop it. Same sort of thing with Pulisic: say its for the main USMNT team, then after they release him, send him to the U-23 team.
I don’t think club teams will take it kindly when they had to release a player for the senior team and then we turn around and allow them to play for the return leg of the U23, unless, of course, they agreed on forehand.
Villafana is not there, continuing to cry over it is just wasting air. Guys that deserve it sometimes don’t get called, guys who seem not to sometimes do. It happens everywhere and will happen with whomever is the next manager. Guys who closely follow MLS teams could cry over guys being left off game day rosters.
The bigger snub is Beckerman instead of Williams anyway. We know Danny Williams can make an important contribution to the national team; we still don’t know about Villafana since he’s never played for the national team.
It seems that the biggest gripe that people have with these call ups is less about who is called up(the top 2-3 players in each position are pretty close in ability)and more about the criteria that was laid out for call ups that is consistently being ignored. We all know that a manager can call up any player he sees fit because thats his perogative, but when you’re demostrative about the criteria for call ups in the media and its not supported in your actions it creates grounds for criticism, especially when results are not on the plus side. That, coupled with playing players out of position has been my biggest gripe with JK, but i continue to hold out hope that he can turn the program around.
Anyone know where they are practicing around Miami, and if their practices are open? Thanks.
the original tweet they sent yesterday implied it was a youth squad. i imagine that has not changed. so i would assume this is for the U-23s. right?
Good catch, I was going to note that as well.
But then there’s this. http://www.bvb.de/eng/News/Interviews/Pulisic-not-with-the-national-team-for-now
“Christian Pulisic had to cancel his trip to the US national team because of an infection. The 17 year old does however hope that he can join the national team at a slightly later stage. The US Team is playing against Guatemala.”
yeah, since i wrote that there have been multiple reports indicating he would join them in Columbus.
Get well, and lock your place in at BD. The national team can wait..the U23’s could use him if he is healthy.. one step at a time young fella
He is a 17 year old getting playing time with the second best team in Germany. LOCK HIM IN NOW!!
Lock him in? He isn’t going anywhere.
I think there was Twitter chatter that Croatia was trying to woo him, but I think it was dismissed pretty quickly by most. I’m sure there is some paranoia about it, nonetheless i.e. Miazga and Poland.
I don’t think he’s ever showed interest in anyone but the US but I am not one to let that impact a decision on when a guy should be called in. I don’t think you give a guy a cap just to cap-tie him. Miazga didn’t get a cap until he’d earned it.
yeah? Croatia is better than US.
If he wants to play for Croatia then just let him. I’m tired of every decision being made under this constant threat of duel passports. Julian Green’s going to lead us to World Cup win anyway.
Croatia may have better players than the US but their results have not been better – at least not since the 1998 World Cup. They’ve been worse.
He is ready. He is getting real minutes for BVB. This is not premature. Flipping Ventura Alvarado got a call up.
Blame that idiot form Fifa who made a mess.Croatia is better than US clearly.They play in World Cups, Euros US only in WC I don’t count Concacaf tournament.
Not sure how you blame them for not playing in a tournament they are not eligible for?
eurosnobbery at its best….Wars, how many last 16 round games has Croatia played in the last 4 WC’s or Euros for that matter and how many has the US played in?? Croatia is NOT better than the US, they havent gotten better tournament results when theyve made it and they currently aren’t ranked higher(though fifas rankings can be misleading)and if they are what are you basing that on?? Regarding Pulisic playing for Croatia, he’d have to file a one time switch because he’s represented the US at every youth level, also if i remember correctly he has stated his allegiances to the USMNT.
“eurosnobbery at its best….Croatia is NOT better than the US”
i completely disagree. if that is eurosnobbery, than your comment is americansnobbery. both Elo and FIFA rankings have Croatia higher than the US…by a decent amount no less.
players like Modrić, Kovačić, Mandžukić, or Rakitić would walk into our starting XI. and those are just the names everyone knows. if you look at their player pool, it is impressive. this isn’t to say they are drastically better or that they would beat us 10 times out of 10. as we saw at the WC14, they do have issues.
but again, to say someone is being a eurosnob because they rate Croatia higher than the US is a ridiculous statement.
To say Croatia is better merely for being a European team is Eurosnobbery. However, I do think in terms of player quality, Croatia’s front 6 would walk into our starting 11, EASILY. Don’t believe me, look at this front 6: FW: Mandžukić, Kalinić Midfield: Rakitić, Modrić, Perišić, Badelj, Brozović.
However, he won’t be competing with these guys because he is so young. He would have to look at their players btw 17-23, which I don’t know. While playing in the Euros would be great, but that is not a good enough reason to switch teams. Croatia is up and down in terms of team quality and this is probably their best generation in about 20 years.
but isnt that exactly what you are doing, saying that i should look at the names on their roster and they would walk into the team??? Who cares what names are on the roster, i’m focused on results and if you look at the results they pale in comparison to what the US has done thus they are not better! Not rocket science and we can agree to disagree all day. And i stand corrected on the US being ranked higher than Croatia, but since when does fifa rankings mean anything and we all know that Fifa doesnt think to highly of the US team on any level so you can take that for what its worth
what are you talking about? you make it sound like the US has done something. what “pales in comparison”?! what tournaments are you even comparing? while i would agree they under perform at the World Cup, they finished 3rd in the ’98 World Cup. they’ve also hit the quarter finals of the Euros twice. Croatia is, objectively speaking, a better squad than the US. but trying to compare what the US has accomplished in CONCACAF to what they have in UEFA is utter nonsense.
“we all know that Fifa doesnt think to highly of the US team on any level so you can take that for what its worth”
that has nothing to do with anything and is worth nothing. the rankings are the result of a math equation. there is no built in US-bias. there are faults in the math, which is why people disagree with the rankings, but FIFA’s “opinion” on the USSF is irrelevant. further, i mentioned Elo because i knew you would say that. Elo is much more trusted. guess who else has Croatia ahead of the US? ESPN’s SPI, an algorithm developed by 538, who, if you are not aware, are a bunch of stat nerds.
point remains, claiming Croatia is better than the US does not make someone a Eurosnob. if anything, it makes them objective (assuming they are a US fan).
Bryan I think he was calling Wars a eurosnob, whose only defense for Croatia being better was they played in the European Championship not the Gold Cup. He made no reference to results or computer rankings or star players purely that playing in Europe made you a better side. Are they better probably, but ELO rankings are 17 to 23 which might seem like a lot, but by score Croatia is closer to being below the US then they are to moving to 15th place so the difference is actually pretty small.
Johnny – trust me, i’m not backing up War’s reasoning for why they are better. obviously it made no sense.
what i am responding to is calling someone a Eurosnob (which he was being, to be fair) and following it up with a blanket statement that Croatia are not better than the US. why? because, objectively, they are. not only on paper, but in rankings. i didn’t say Ronniet brought that into it first, i did to illustrate the point that his statement was almost as ridiculous as War’s.
the distance between the two teams, which you bring up, was not the intention either. it was, simply put, that Croatia is a better team at the moment. nothing more, nothing less. and i’m certainly not trying to make that statement on a historical basis. Croatia is all over the place. i only brought up the ’98 World Cup to respond to the other silly statement that Croatia’s accomplishments “pale in comparison” to the US.
Bryan, I wasnt being biased towards US, i was speaking about the results of the last 4 WC’s where the US has produced better results, so maybe i should have said the US has shown better on that stage. The US can’t compete in the Euros, which i believe you mentioned, and nor can Croatia compete in Concacaf GC’s so it is down to the WC. My argument again has nothing to do with who is on what team but based on team results in a competition that both nations can compete in.
I may have been wrong to call you a eurosnob but when you suggest that Croatia has players playing in top teams in europe, and that they would walk right into the US team it does speak to eurosnobbery. In fact, alot of criteria comes into play when assembling a team and getting results and as we’ve learned from our program in the last 2 yrs the best players dont always play or make the roster. Croatia, in my opinion, havent done much to be considered better than the US, but i understand a big part of rankings and media impressions comes down to Croatia playing higher level competition while it is trying to qualify for Euros and the number crunching that is done by the geek squad you mentioned as a result of it, which directly affects the US’ position in rankings.
The US didnt do itself any favors with that showing in the GC this past summer, but I believe it is unfair to Concacaf and Oceania nations that dont have the opportunity to play in a mini WC like a Euros which boost their resumes. The rankings mean nothing when it boils down to it and i dont really see how you can say “objectively” Croatia is better than the US, what are you basing that on?? Because you say they have better players?? If that’s your position it’s pretty light and baseless because we all know in sport that the most talented team is not always the better team.
Ronniet – you cannot even compare WCs because they compete in different groups. the only comparison that needs to be made is in this moment. you cannot say, “My argument again has nothing to do with who is on what team but based on team results in a competition that both nations can compete in,” when your original statement (which is what I responded to) says that Croatia is not better than the US.
And you did not call me a Eurosnob, you called Wars one (which he was being). But, again, my issue is you say that and then follow it up with an almost equally ridiculous statement.
“that they would walk right into the US team it does speak to eurosnobbery.”
No, it doesn’t. It’s called reality. Being realistic is not being a Eurosnob.
“how you can say “objectively” Croatia is better than the US, what are you basing that on?? Because you say they have better players?? If that’s your position it’s pretty light and baseless…”
come on man. that’s absolutely ridiculous. look at the players on Croatia, they are objectively better than the players on the US. that isn’t even up for debate. so THAT’S what I am basing it on. Rankings were brought in to show that even in the math (which ignores context), they are ranked higher.
“because we all know in sport that the most talented team is not always the better team.”
that is a completely different argument. one that I alluded to in previous replies. when Real Madrid loses to Villarreal because on the day Villarreal was the better team, are you really going to argue that Madrid isn’t actually better overall? of course not.
at this point the original thought has been completely buried. which was that someone believing Croatia is a better team is not eurosnobbery (which i know wasn’t the real reason you called Wars that…it was his reasoning that was eurosnobbery). the truth is that while Croatia may under perform as a team too often, they are still, objectively speaking, more talented. on paper they are better than the US and even in the various rankings they are. how much better is beside the point.
anyway, no reason to keep going at this. i feel like i am coming off defensive of Croatia when I really don’t even care about them.
With Johnson limited in training CP might have gotten a late call up to play out wide on the left or least get him in a camp to see where he is at
So I take it there are no issues with being locked into the roster already named? I’d think there’s a deadline at some point?
I don’t think there is any deadline for either the U23 qualifier or WC qualifying other than the number of players that can dress for the game.
It seems the U23 team would be the place for him right now. Is there really a need for another midfielder/winger on the full squad?
wrong my friend cap him now before croatia will do that
Do Olympics not cap-tie you?
I believe no, and qualifying definitely not. That said I don’t think there is much chance of him playing for Croatia.
he will play for USMNT no U-23 and Croatia want him he is too good to pass.
It is possible BVB said no to sending him to the olympics. They have no obligation to release him for them. I don’t know how illness factors, but BVB are required to release him for senior national team