Christian Pulisic didn’t start Chelsea’s UEFA Champions League match against Ajax, but he had a big hand in finishing it.
Pulisic provided the assist on Michy Batshuayi’s 86th minute winner as Chelsea took down Ajax 1-0 on Wednesday. It was his first action in the Champions League this season.
https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1187078916151885827
The American came on as a substitute in the 66th minute and had a profound impact on the match. He completed 11 of his 12 passes, including the assist. His footwork on the goal was impressive. He dribbled around Ajax and fellow USMNT teammate Sergino Dest to get to the touchline before sending a pass through the Dutch-American’s legs to pick out Batshuayi at the top of the six yard box.
U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Gregg Berhalter and general manager Earnie Stewart were there to witness it as well.
📍🏟 #USMNT Head Coach Gregg Berhalter and @ussoccer Sporting Director Earnie Stewart on site at Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam for today's #UCL clash between @AFCAjax and @ChelseaFC. 🇺🇸⚽️ pic.twitter.com/BY7s5pAMyp
— U.S. Soccer MNT (@USMNT) October 23, 2019
Pulisic now has five assists in 501 minutes of action in all competitions with Chelsea this season. He recently earned Chelsea manager Frank Lampard’s praise despite not starting a game since the club’s 7-1 blowout win over Grimsby Town in the League Cup. The positive words came after he came off the bench to help set up a game winning goal against Newcastle.
Chelsea have two wins in three Champions League matches. They are next in action in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon against Burnley on the road. Their European campaign continues on November 5 against this same Ajax side at Stamford Bridge.
CP has the players around him at Chelsea plus a manager who understands the game. At home he has MLS soccer boys and a manager that doesn’t understand the game.
pretty sure canada had more mls players than we did. i’ll concede on the manager point, though 🙂
Now this a real assist! Go Pulisic!
Was awesome to watch, he terrorized Ajax from the moment he entered the game. I’m not sure we’ll ever see him play that way with the USMNT, he needs skilled players to combine with and help set him up, and we just don’t have that right now.
Agree 100%….Other then possibly Altidore, don’t see much in the national team players selected that understand the constant movement or give-and-go play
100% agree AC…maybe I’d say Morris too though.. Sargent will get there though. Already showing signs…his movement needs to improve though.
Lletget is another who looks to play that way and likes to combine and can. But playing this ‘style’ means everybody has to do it, well, all the time until the whistle blows. it’s no small ask
except Altidore? [insert sad and confused shaking head emoji here]
Classic Puli, changed the match, control in tight spaces with pace getting defenders backpedaling then finding his striker.
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Johnny mentioned it earlier on another post but according to some news coming out of the Netherlands Dest is set to make his international future decision in the coming week. Not a good sign that’s being reported by the Dutch media scooping it instead of us, i think. Hoping Earnie and GB put on the full court press while there were in Amsterdam for the game and wrapped it up, but I have a bad feeling he’s going the other way.
https://sports.yahoo.com/dest-reportedly-announce-international-decision-002514552.html
thank God that Frank Lampard coaches Pulisic 90% of the time and Berhalter 10% of the time . Lampard builds him up and Berhalter tears him down,
Dutch soccer fans have to be rolling in the floor laughing as Folks who Were minnows in Dutch football are now at the top of American soccer.
So Lampard is an ignorant a-hole when he doesn’t play Pulisic, but is a coaching wizard when plays him? I choose to believe that Lampard is somewhere in the middle, still figuring out how to coach, and that Pulisic making the most of his recent opportunities is due in large part to finally settling in at a big club. These things just take time.
At Christian’s lowest point Lampard went out of his way to express confidence in him.This is a business and results and money matter but developing young players with talent is part of it.
Uh yeah… Gotta roll with Frenchie here… I’m not sure framing this as a Lampard/Berhalter issue makes sense.
He was really impressive….Almost had a goal on a give and go with Batshuayi…It looked like classic Pulisic dribbling in this game…He wasn’t tentative at all
Lampard put him on Dest’s side, right? and CP dogged that flank and Dest in articular on that goal. CP looked like a shark smelling blood as soon as he entered. Nice
Pulisic > Corona and Corona flayed Dest all night even if you disregard the meg that led to Mexico’s goal. I’m sure CP was dying to have a chance at him. It’ll be fun in the round of 16 in 2022 when that happens again – wink wink…