U.S. World Cup Team Training Base (IRVINE, Calif.) — Had it not been for the huge throng of reporters jockeying to ask Christian Pulisic even one question ahead of the biggest moment of what is already well on the way to being the most decorated soccer career of any American man in history, it might have seemed like a normal day.
Pulisic, the Stars and Stripes headliner since he was before he was old enough to drive, was calm. He playfully chided the assembled media members as they shouted their queries over each other and toward the now 27-year-old. “Jeez,” Pulisic joked. “Let me talk.”
Since he broke into the national team more than a decade ago, the pride of Hersey, Penn. has done his talking with his feet. He’s averaged more goals per game than all-time U.S. greats Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan, the joint top scorers in program history. Five years ago, while playing for English Premier League titans Chelsea, he became the first American to play in and win the UEFA Champions League.
Pulisic’s international teammates let him down in 2017, when the U.S. failed even to tie already-eliminated Trinidad and Tobago and missed the following year’s World Cup. (Of course, Pulisic scored the only goal for his country in the 2-1 loss.) And it was his strike against Iran that sent the USA to the knockout stage at his first World Cup four years in Qatar — and sent Pulisic to the hospital after colliding with Team Melli’s keeper in the process.
(Photo by Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
There aren’t many first left for the AC Milan standout. But he’ll get one on Friday, when the World Cup co-hosts — the U.S. is staging the biggest version ever with Canada and Mexico — open their Group D slate against Paraguay in Los Angeles — kick off their Group D slate against Paraguay.
“In some ways I feel a little bit more relaxed,” than in 2022, Pulisic told me and my colleagues before coach Maurico Pochettino rans the Americans through their final training session at Great Park, about an hour south of LA. “Been there before, and we’ve played in a match like this. So I think the experience has calmed me down a bit.”
Still, this time is different. For the first time since 1994, the U.S. will play as the home team. Though thousands of Paraguayan supporters will no doubt be in attendance, a mostly partisan crowd is expected inside the 70,000-seat stadium.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Winning on Friday could turn any pressure into confidence, into momentum. The hope is that it snowballs into something special. The U.S. has reached the quarterfinals just once since the inaugural 1930 World Cup.
Not that Pulisic is looking past Friday.
“We’re so highly focused on this big game,” he said. “You just want to do well, and you want to perform and get that first game — especially that weight — off your shoulders.”
“I want to help the team, of course. They expect a lot out of me. But with the guys I have around me, honestly, it makes it a lot easier for me.
“I’m gonna give the best I can..”
