Christian Pulisic is reportedly set to be sidelined around 3-4 weeks with a torn right though muscle, an injury he suffered in the first half of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s draw with Chile on Tuesday.
“Christian Pulisic sadly is injured. He will definitely not play,” Dortmund coach Lucien Favre said ahead of Dortmund’s match against Wolfsburg on Saturday.
The 20-year-old scored in the fourth minute of the USMNT’s 1-1 draw with Chile, registering his 10th senior goal for the USMNT. Pulisic later suffered the leg injury, which forced him out in the 36th minute.
Pulisic’s injury came four days after fellow USMNT and Bundesliga midfielder Weston McKennie suffered a torn ankle ligament in a 1-0 friendly win over Ecuador.
The timetable of Pulisic’s injury means he will likely miss Dortmund’s crunch clash with Bayern Munich on April 6.
The USMNT returns to action in June for the Concacaf Gold Cup.
McKennie’s injury could be just bad luck; it could also be fitness, coming down clumsily is more likely when you are tired; endurance may be an issue for him.
Pulisic has had a history of minor injuries. When you look at him, he looks very lean so endurance is probably not the issue, but strength could be.
Both have spent so little time with the US that argues it is not the US training program, but how they are being handled by their club teams that is the issue.
I do know that not all athletes can be handled the same way in regards to conditioning, so it may not even be a common feature of the clubs’ fitness programs, but rather an inability to treat various athletes differently in what is essentially a team setting.
I think there was a period back in the day c. 1990 or so when Germany was a more popular destination than England. A lot of great players like McBride and Landon went there, didn’t get traction, came back. It flipped over to England when we got good enough to be worth it and survive work permitting. I think it has flipped back over to Germany. One thing I wonder if is being thought through is Germany is a longer trip than England. I wonder if we need to adapt and reduce how often we call German-based players. Not saying leave them off or reduce their roles or chances, I am just saying maybe don’t use them all the time. The model of the day still seems to be the Landon Routine Usage model even though Landon arguably ran himself into the ground and burned out early.
How come the players who shouldn’t get hurt, do and the ones who wouldn’t affect the team one bid with their absence don’t……damn, such is life ?
This is where losing a Jonathan Gonzales or potentially E. Alvarez (for possibly inept reasons) makes a difference in the relatively moderate to long term MNT future. Not saying like-for-like. I’m thinking
#Building Depth Matters (especially for a nation lacking quality reserves at nearly all positions).
Unfortunately I must point out that you are the moron behind his computer screen in this scenario. For starters, and as a general rule of thumb, personally, It’s safe and prudent to immediately dismiss anybody utilizing hashtags to emphasize their point, or agenda, in your case. You can apply a similar rule for those who have the gall, those who have the audacity and maybe even enjoy, starting their revelatory posts by using some form of, “sorry, but it just so happens that I, of all people, told you so.” You essentially checked both boxes and there is no doubt in my mind that you are in fact the consummate moron.
Now, that being said, anybody with an opinion that actually caries any legitimate weight of any kind would agree that if Efrain wants to play for us, well done to the lad. But more importantly, if he doesn’t want to represent the country that has shaped and provided the privileged the life he lives, then we don’t want him and we don’t need him. This is sports. This is professional life. Someone like you might validate his opinion by pinning the future of our program on a teenager who is just barely a professional and a totally, utterly unproven commodity in any meaningful barometer to our national team.
It’s important for that we disregard morons like you, and it’s even more important that we enjoy it. I certainly have, and our collective future is brighter for it.
I’ve basically made this argument from a foreign experimentation perspective but it applies equally to what you say. They put too much friendly time in on Steffen and Pulisic and their favorites. You know they can play. The effort should be going into finding a pool full of interesting players, and making distinctions among them in terms of how consistently they play well. So that if x gets hurt y and z are ready. Keeper used to be well stocked 3 deep. No more. And the team looked vulnerable minus one player. Like you’re saying, not enough depth. And to me not enough accountability to performance. The coaches just kind of get abstract ideas in their head of who is better and run with them tiil injury or unavailability trips them up, even if performance fails. I am also surprised there is low effort on dual nationals, which I think is a benefit we are foregoing for the sake of claimed harmony when the current group wasn’t exactly upset about it.
McKennie is just dumb luck, Pulisic, I think if they were wise they would start managing his minutes with us. We need him for a specific time period. I don’t think we need him for all the friendlies. If a player has a habit of getting dinged or tired maybe take that for granted and manage that issue.
Officially injury prone.
Way too many muscle injuries already for this player at way too young of an age. Extremely concerning…and he’s not the only one in the pool with these concerns.
Is it US training camps are badly conducted?
It seems like a minor strain which takes about 2 weeks. More serious strain could take 6 to 8 weeks. Our players need to drink more milk.
it all connects. we need a tough-tackling defensive midfielder like pablo maestroeni or kyle beckerman. someone who is not afraid to put his own body in harm’s way and make the mid-field route 1 a less attractive option for opposing teams, forcing them to go out wide.
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i did not see michael bradley make one tackle during the whole 90 minutes v ecuador. with mb as our d-mid, it’s like a big neon sign that says, “come this way”. right through the middle, route 1. no wonder guys got injured in that game with no one in the middle for the usa who can make tackles.
The reason you did not see Michael Bradley make a tackle is that he absolutely refuses to play defense after. I challenge anyone who thinks differently to watch a USMNT or TFC game and not ball watch but Bradley watch when the opponents have the ball. He will vigorously try and win a first ball but after that just ball watches and jogs in a circle. I saw time and again a man come in his zone play the ball and then move into a more dangerous position within in yards or even feet of Bradley without any concern. You want to know why it looks like good teams have an extra midfielder when he plays there— because they do. If he can’t bothered to even track an opponent why have him in there? It’s infuriating to watch. The first time I noticed it was when we were humiliated by Mexico in the 2010 Gold Cup. They’re midfield ran roughshod over us the whole game. Bradley never bothered to get close to any of their midfielders giving them time and space. We get away with it against crap opponents. We don’t against teams that can possess the ball.
You might like last minute tackles, I admit they can be exciting, but if your aim is to prevent the other team from scoring the breaking up plays before they become dangerous and an attacker can turn with the ball is much more valuable.
In the first half of the Chile game Bradley was the lone defensive mid for the US and he recieved zero help from Roldan or any of the other midfielders. Had he been challenging with hard tackles, some would be won and some lost, the lost ones would have left 3 attackers in on the 2 CBS with not even an easy outlet available, much less any help.
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What you want is the opposite of smart defensive play and is effective only in the 100 mph style played by high schools and colleges where coaches use (nearly) unlimited substitutions to defend by frenzied running around and kicking the ankles of anyone who might get close to the ball.
C’mon, you gotta be real vs Ecuador, Bradely was used as a sub for about 15 minutes and in that time Ecuador barely left their own PA.
Against Chile, you must have had your eyes closed, he intercepted multiple balls , had a few tackles and even got a yellow for one.
It is true that MB is not an ankle breaker, like J Jones, but he defends very well. In the first half vs Chile, he faced 3 midfielders with very little help from any other mid. He may have made a couple poor choices on which of the 3 facing him he should cover, but Chile did not make much of those choices.