BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM (Charlotte, N.C.) <\/strong>\u2014 <\/strong>It finally happened. And now, Christian Pulisic hopes everyone will stop talking about it.<\/p>\n In the 20th minute of the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s 3-2 win over Senegal on Saturday afternoon, Christian Pulisic triumphantly ended his five-month scoring drought. Ricardo Pepi chased a ball deep down the right side of the pitch, slipped a perfectly timed pass to Pulisic streaking up the middle of the field, and then he went around goalkeeper Mory Diaw with the outside of his right foot before nailing his shot into the back of the net to give his team a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n Moments before that, Pulisic had the assist on Sergi\u00f1o Dest’s opening goal.<\/p>\n Pulisic has now had a goal and an assist in eight national team games, tying Clint Dempsey for second most all-time in U.S. Soccer history behind Landon Donovoan who has 13.<\/p>\n “I have played really well in recent months, but all everyone seems to care about is goals,” said Pulisic, who has not scored for club or country since last December. “Hopefully we can stop talking about it. We\u2019ve got big games ahead and I\u2019ve got to be ready.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Up until Saturday, Pulisic had endured the longest goalless streak of his career. His most recent one came for club AC Milan on Dec 28 in a 3-0 win vs. Verona. But his last time scoring for the national team? That was back on Nov. 18, 2024 in a 4-2 victory over Jamaica during a Concacaf Nations League match.<\/p>\n The fact that Pulisic had gone cold in front of goal was becoming a major storyline facing the USA entering the World Cup. If this American squad is going to make any kind of run at this summer\u2019s tournament \u2013 which begins June 11 with the final on July 19 \u2013 Pulisic needs to be dangerous around the box and finish his chances.<\/p>\n “Any player goes through high and low moments in their career, and I think the outside world may have been worried and questioning what he\u2019s going to look like and is he going to be in form and everything,” said Weston McKennie, who grew up playing with Pulisic and is a longtime close friend. “But I think Christian has shown countless times on club level and on country level that he shows up in the moments that we need him the most.<\/p>\n “We believe in him and he wouldn\u2019t be here if he wasn\u2019t the player that he is and the person that he is. It\u2019s amazing for all of us to witness it and to see him break that spell.”<\/p>\n (Photo by Omar Vega\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Pulisic, who only played in the first half, seemed determined to make an impact early in the game. It was obvious how much it meant after he scored when he sprinted to the right corner flag while pumping both his arms and his fists. He slid onto his knees and screamed into the roaring crowd of 57,741 fans, letting all the emotions out.<\/p>\n Earlier in the week, while the team was training at the sparkling new U.S. Soccer National Training Center outside of Atlanta, manager Mauricio Pochettino told reporters that Pulisic was going to score in the World Cup and that these next few weeks would be about building up his confidence.<\/p>\n Then Pulisic said Friday before the team left for Charlotte that he\u2019s experienced slumps like this in his career before. For example, he went 16 matches without scoring for Chelsea during the 2022-23 Premier League season. So he wasn\u2019t concerned. He stays the course and trains and prepares the same way he always does.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s difficult times and then sometimes, one will bounce off your knee and go in and then it seems like everything goes in after that,” Pulisic said matter-of-factly. “It\u2019s just the way things work, and I feel pretty confident.”<\/p>\n Pochettino wasn\u2019t surprised by Pulisic\u2019s performance Saturday because of how he\u2019s been training in camp this past week. His demeanor has seemed simultaneously relaxed yet energized. And a result vs. Senegal only helps keep that momentum going.<\/p>\n “The performance of Christian was really, really good,” Pochettino said during his post-game press conference. “I think he still has potential to improve, but my thing is, this is the way he\u2019s been training from Day 1. I felt [that goal] was what he needed. And how he played in those 45 minutes was the habit that he created in the last week, every day training with this attitude, with this commitment, with this energy.<\/p>\n “[Scoring] is important for a player preparing for the World Cup. I\u2019m so happy for him.”<\/p>\n Now the team travels back to Atlanta where it will train before flying to Chicago to play one final tune-up match vs. Germany on Saturday, June 6. Then, it\u2019s off to the World Cup. The U.S. faces Paraguay in Los Angeles on June 12, Australia in Seattle on June 19, and then the Group D finale against T\u00fcrkiye in LA on June 25.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM (Charlotte, N.C.) \u2014 It finally happened. And now, Christian Pulisic hopes everyone will stop talking about it. In the 20th minute of the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s 3-2 win over Senegal on Saturday afternoon, Christian Pulisic triumphantly ended his five-month scoring drought. Ricardo Pepi chased a ball […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}