In the midst of a dominating 6-0 Borussia Dortmund victory over Legia Warsaw, Christian Pulisic marked his first UEFA Champions League start with a big milestone.
Pulisic wrapped up a strong 90 minute performance in his UCL debut by notching his first assist on a beautiful cross from the left wing, which was tapped home by Gonzalo Castro in the 76th minute. It was a fitting conclusion to a historic match for the young American star. He became Dortmund’s youngest ever UCL starter, just four days ahead of his 18th birthday, but played with poise well above his years throughout the rout.
Pulisic did his hype justice in his first action since the U.S. Men’s National Team’s recent World Cup qualifiers. He has not featured in Bundesliga play yet for Dortmund, but is seeking to earn his place in the starting eleven after opting to stay with the club during the summer transfer window.
Here’s a look at Pulisic’s assist:
He doesnt love to pass on the ground, He has been taught to pass on the ground because crossing the ball in the air is statistically the least efficient way to score ( sorry all you england fans). Look at how passionately these coaches tell players what to do. They teach.The usa coach is not too good at that. Neither are the english coaches (except Howe). Just remember how poorly coached all those USA prospects were at Stoke. NEVER send your kid to play in England.
Hopefully the banning of headers at the lower levels will change that, not that too many U9 teams were lofting high balls into the box.
He loves that pass on the ground across the box. Had so many against T & T
He loves that ball. He fired about 6-10 similar type balls in his 2 recent matches with the Nats. it’s hard to stop.
The only American to win a Champions League
medal also played for Dortmund. Anyone know who he is?
The and only Jovan Kirovski.
Jovan Kirovski although I don’t think he played very much.
Kirovski played 27 minutes and only dressed for one game of the knockout rounds. But hey that’s more CL minutes than most of us have.
I remember seeing Kirovski play in the Club World Cup also for Dortmund. IIRC, Hercules Gomez also played the the CWC for Pachuca.
Don’t forget Beasley as well as a CL starter…
I knew I was forgetting someone, Tim Howard had some for ManU as well, so that put us with at least one American starting almost every year for the last fifteen. Still not sure how many match days where we had two starting and one on the bench that might be a record.
Has anyone mentioned Beasley? After all, he had perhaps the most important role in any Champions League run from any American, well, ever.
Edu had a few with Beasley with Rangers.
He should/could have notched around 4-5 assists. He was making distribution look easy.
He looked untroubled by making his first CL start on the road but, Legia looked pretty bad. Ball pressure was almost nowhere to be seen for much of the match. Would have liked to see him out there with Kagawa instead of Gotze, I think they work really well together.
Fabian starts more often than not.
When was the last time an American started in a UCL match?
I may be wrong, but I believe it was Sacha Kljestan with Anderlecht.
Fabian Johnson as noted below. Julian Green started once last year. Ethan Horvath started three matches last season, although in qualifying, they didn’t make the group stage. Sacha Kljestan made 16 starts from 2010-15 you also had Jermain Jones 2013/14. Oguchi Onyewu made some as well for Malaga and Standard Liege. Mix Diskerud made a start in 2009 for Stabaek in qualifying rounds. Its pretty rare, but the US has had at least one person make UCL starts for most of the last seven or eight years.
I’m pretty sure Michael Parkhurst played one year, maybe two. I remember one group stage game I saw where he played against Chelsea and had such a good game that he was chosen for the best XI in the CL that week. That was maybe 5 or 6 years ago.
hopefully this list will help put a stop to commenters overvaluing a “champions league player” — or even worse, europa league (i’m thinking specifically of kljestan). simply playing on a team in the champions league doesn’t mean much without context; it could just mean you play on a mediocre team in an awful league.
to clarify: my comment wasn’t meant to be a slight on kljestan, who is a good player in great form. i was simply expressing my annoyance at commenters who would act like kljestan was a no-brainer callup just because he played on a champions league team.
The kid can ball.