Christian Pulisic is back in the U.S. men’s national team fold for the first time this summer.
Pulisic was included in Mauricio Pochettino’s 24-player roster for this month’s friendlies against South Korea and Japan. The 26-year-old AC Milan star received ample criticism earlier this year after missing on the USMNT’s involvement at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Former USMNT players Landon Donovan, Alexi Lalas and others questioned Pulisic’s commitment to the program after he asked to only feature in June’s pair of home friendlies before departing camp ahead of the Gold Cup schedule. Pulisic later admitted that Pochettino and his coaching staff did not want to have two separate rosters for the slate of matches, which led to the Pennsylvania native to receive a needed break from action.
Since his return to club action with AC Milan, Pulisic has scored two goals in three matches, with both coming in victories for the Rossoneri. He’s trained throughout the week in Harrison, New Jersey, as Pulisic prepares for his first USMNT cap since March’s Nations League window.
Pochettino was asked about Pulisic’s return to the squad this week, reaffirming the star attacker’s important presence.
“For me, it’s in the past, these type of things that happen..we all make mistakes, sometimes because we read the situation in a different way,” said Pochettino in his prematch press conference Friday. “Christian is happy to be here, of course he’s an important player for us and the mood is good.”
Pulisic has earned 78 caps for the USMNT to date while his 32 international goals are ranked fifth on the program’s all-time goalscoring ranks.
Damage already done first hand but Chris Richards reminding Poch who the best defender is. South Korea with one shot entire 2nd half. Bkackmon was way out of his depth.
I wouldn’t read too much into Richard’s not starting. Clearly looked to be managing minutes of the European players. Adams, Weah, Sargent, and Dest came off at 60 minutes (maybe too late for Tim). I wouldn’t be surprised if Pulisic doesn’t play at all Tuesday after going 90 today.
He shouldn’t. Each team loses a guy to pulled hamstring.
To be totally honest I wouldn’t mind seeing a two striker formation. Quite frankly I am tired of this slow backwards passing tiki taka. Get the ball over the top and two strikers occupying the two CB’s. Let Pulisic run off of two strikers
What a poop show that game was. Zero dynamic movement. A lot of standing, recieving, passing back. Can’t hunt the ball defensively in packs zero switch of play to the other side. Please give me a CM who can bring the lines on the dribble or a pass. That was just all bad. What two official goals on target? Looking forward to getting Mckennie and Musah back in. Heck at this point I hope ronsee Reyna in October. I like Luna but Reyna is better. Need more speed. They look like they are playing a scrimmage every time they take the pitch.
What!? Speed? Gio?
Bruh… Luna was find. Everyone else looked in quicksand. DL was nearly the only guy passing and dribbling forward. Shame too! If there was at least one forward interested in getting behind we might have created chances.
Flo comes on and the attack looks completely different (running channels, running behind, running diagonally). My gosh what a difference.
Diego was out of position in the press a lot. I mean so really was everyone so maybe once one domino falls they all look bad in the press. It was clearly Diego’s job to drop in and advance the ball so a lot of the “Diego was everywhere” was he just had a job that made him look more active. He was fine when many others were awful that’s about it. What troubles me is this having no plan against a compact low block. This has been an issue since the Berhalter days.
zendejas with a yellow but that’s one of the first times i have seen a defender anticipate/ triangulate and go to where the ball will be in the future instead of naively chase the play.
to me part of this is team speed. korea comes downfield like a house afire. i know we walk it up anyway, but weah (about to come off with a muscle pull), dest, and sometimes luna are the only ones with speed.
some US fans diss speed but you need to show up with something effective/dangerous. we are soft on team defense. and then if this is about skill we’re the second most skilled team and also slower. while making some compromises like ream that are depending on us outskilling and outscoring someone.
or you could be an aerial team that scores on headers. something.
you can’t just be kind of average or semi skilled but slow. how are we trying to win games?
balogun comes on and immediately we get positive chances. this is a strong hint what is missing.
Definitely, formation change and Son coming off didn’t hurt either.
No one disses speed. There’s a difference between just wanting to play long balls to Jonathan Lewis or Robbie Findley and wanting to play quickly. There’s a huge difference between how we’ve seen the US mostly play since Qatar and how possession teams like Columbus and San Diego play. It’s not overall speed it’s speed of thought and decisiveness. The US just seems to be stuck in mental mud they receive the ball and no one is sure what to do. It’s not that they can’t run it’s that they look like they don’t understand where they’re supposed to run. No one wants to watch a slow team, but that doesn’t mean they have to watch basketball on grass either.
Jesse Marsch playing 3D chess, got Poch to call in Tristan Blackmon.
———————
Heard Banks hurt his foot, hopes to be available for Tuesday.
ooooooooooooo JR lettin’m fly baby
Team doesn’t know how to make attacking runs cause they always expect the ball to go backwards.
they don’t even know how to just float in a zone hole either, which is what korea is doing.
Exactly. Korean front was constantly doing the Raumdeuter thing. Find space in the blind zone of defenders and negotiating space with each other to keep maximum pressure on defense. It was lovely and intriguing to watch the game within the game. I wish this is what Gio did playing underneath a striker to constantly force someone to step or drop.
luna is about the only one who showed up and played. the rest seemed to think they were playing 5v2 in warmups for a 4pm pacific start.
to get particularly punchy, luna stands out because he does not seem to be playing the system. same reason reyna sticks out when on his game. turn and actually run at someone. close as this gets to danger.
Dest showed up ready to play
This is what is wrong….
“I hate, being predictable,” Pochettino said. “But you need these types of talents, talented players that can do different things from respecting the organization, but having the possibility to also create the chaos in the opponent because he’s creating the chaos in the other team, but with organization. I don’t know if I can explain, but I try.”
WTF? 🤬
Please end the experiment after Tuesday and bring in someone who is pragmatic and can quickly relate to what we currently have. It’s too late to tinker or try to understand what we have.
Bj Callahan, “hold my beer I’m on my way!”
Really wish Poch would have stuck with the 3-4-2-1. This team even during Berhalters reign is not a 4-3-3 nor a 4-2-3-1 team.
there is no positive sustained evolution. there were things working this summer. they disappear this window. there were things working panama last year. they are on a milk carton. this keeps defaulting back to tepid perimeter berhalter ball.
hey 2tone, your wish Poch commanded lol
all that interchanging in the midfield and up the right side left guys all over the field. the Koreans just waiting to turn us over and pounce with all the space once we turnover
it’s another look form Poch seems to me, maybe with different players, idk…….
Son must have forgotten his deodorant, nobody wants to get close to him
haha, and did Sargent even touch the ball one time? seriously, I can’t remember, not that it’s all his fault
and we suck once we turn them over, we never click quickly boom boom and we’re in behind
Exactly. Zero quick transitions.
I think he had a throw in
Sargent 17 touches only one in the box in 62 minutes, Balogun 22 touches, 11 in the box in 33 minutes. Not surprisingly based on that Sarge 0 shots, Balo 3.
Quite frankly Berhalter cannot cover ground like Mckennie or Musah can. Big reason there are wide gaps.
Tyler also has next to no positional awareness. He leaves his mark all the time sometimes it works and he puts out fires, but good teams often let him run out position and pass behind him to the man he left open. His leaving his mark against Mexico created the first El Tri goal.
ok, so when walking soccer gets a world cup we already have a unit ready.
like one team playing and the other team standing around in a zone, no off ball movement on offense, no marking on defense.
Weah has been meh. Can’t hold on to the ball. Offense has had three or four good movements. Sargent back to his jogging around self again.
CB’s not good. Blackmon has no idea what he is doing defensively. Out of sych with Ream and Dest. Constantly getting beaten. Song has split our CB’s multiple times. Yikes folks.
spot on 2tone, Son literally unmarked al game, whether in between the CBs or in the space above them, at least 5 yards of space at all times
Blackmon getting schooled. Definitely his baptism by fire. Son running behind defense way too easy. Blackmon identified by South Korea quickly as weak link. Was wondering why Richards was on bench. Guess to give Blackmon his chance. The movement has been static in the middle on offense. Wide open areas and no one running into them. Just side to side jogging by berhalter and Adams. Luna per usual showing how to hustle. Love his energy. And again USA soccer overpricing a friendly game in a region with a lot of South Korean fans. Every New Jersey game looks like an away game.
spot on ac, like spot flipping on man
Defensively just poor massive disconnect. Wide gaps between midfield and defense. Outside backs are dropped to far.
Tired of the same old story. It’s getting old. The coaching staff has them under prepared it’s obvious.
I am excited to watch this game, I think the USMNT is going to come out firing
Gio assists six minutes into his BM debut in a friendly vs Schalke. Got the ball in his half and played a ball on the ground between the CBs to his attacker running in behind. It was a club friendly in an international window so it was very friendly but still nice to see Gio doing Old Gio like things. Hopefully this means he’ll be available after the break.
Good to hear. Thanks for the update. I’ve always thought the potential was there and maybe he just needed to get his head screwed on right or he just needed the right situation. .
nice
It was a club friendly played in front of a few hundred people on a practice field on a Friday afternoon. There was really no tackling going on, but it was encouraging.
gotcha, thank you for the update all the same JR, we appreciate your eyes on so many things and sharing it here
U20s beat Morocco 4-1. Gozo, Wydner, Corcoran, Zambrano. U17s lost 2-1 to Netherlands, Sullivan off an Albert rebound.
U20’s looking strong.
Really had to dig to find much on the match. Cremaschi was listed on the team sheet for the match. He did not start, but that seems to indicate he’s in camp. It could just be they used the list they had previously released. For IV, Cole Campbell did start. I found video the U17 goal but no highlights from U20s that I’ve found.
If there is one u20 player that may just get added to the WC roster it may be Gozo just because the USMNT lacks wing options.
Cole Campbell is better but he’s got to find game time. Gozo has improved a lot in the last 9 months but still really raw. Kochen probably has the best chance to make the roster but as the 3rd keeper.
Hard to say Cole Campbell is better. Both are raw. Kochen would have to go on loan in January to make the team.
2tone, its really not. Go find highlights of Campbell. Their skill levels are not that close. I’ve watched Gozo multiple times this season.
i see campbell’s game as similar to dest when he is “on” slaloming a defense out on the chalk. sprinter speed with pretty good skill and finishing.
we don’t seem to grasp we could be getting him a game or two a window as a showcase to get him the heck out of dortmund.
————Balo————
Weah—-Luna—Puli
——-Luca—Adams—
Arf-Ream-Rich-Dest
Dest pushes up in possession for the 3-2-4-1. Luna and Weah will drop into midfield to make 4-4-2 in defense.