In the 26 games in which Christian Pulisic scores, the U.S. men’s national team has lost just twice with an astounding 21 wins to go with four draws.<\/p>\n
Let that sink in as the World Cup co-hosts open Group D play against Paraguay on Friday night in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
At just 27 years old, Pulisic has already made 84 appearances for the U.S. men’s national team. He has averaged more goals per game than U.S. greats Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan. Yet heading into Friday’s opener, Pulisic, who ranks No. 79 on our Top 100 Players in the 2026 World Cup List, only has one goal for the USA since November 2024.<\/p>\n
The U.S. men’s national team is 21-4-2 when Christian Pulisic scores a goal. (Omar Vega\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n If “Captain America” finds the back of the net against Paraguay, history suggests the United States will be in good shape.<\/p>\n In fact, a goal would put Pulisic in exclusive company. He would join Dempsey, Donovan and former U.S. standout Brian McBride as the only Americans to score in multiple World Cups.<\/p>\n In other words, if the U.S. wants to open tournament play with a victory, it needs its captain to deliver.<\/p>\n “Set him up for success and it all rolls downhill after that,” FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd said of Pulisic during a recent airing of “The Herd.” “We’ve got other top players. Weston McKennie has been around. Sergi\u00f1o Dest is very good. Tyler Adams is a tough guy. But it will all begin and end with Christian Pulisic.”<\/p>\n Former U.S. men’s national team coach Bruce Arena agreed, emphasizing the importance of getting the Americans’ top scorer involved early and leaving Los Angeles with three points.<\/p>\n “Obviously, the starting point is to get three points tonight,” Arena told Cowherd when asked what to expect from the U.S. during the World Cup. “If they do that, then they position themselves to win the group.”<\/p>\n A victory would put the United States in a strong position atop a Group D field that also includes Australia and T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n Arena noted that winning the group could lead to a favorable Round of 32 matchup and potentially open a path to a deeper tournament run.<\/p>\n “There are a lot of positives ahead, but it is critically important that we win tonight and position ourselves to win the group,” Arena said.<\/p>\n The U.S. is 5-2-2 all-time against Paraguay, including a 2-1 victory in the teams’ most recent meeting last November. This marks the second World Cup matchup between the two sides, with the Americans winning the first meeting, 3-0.<\/p>\n All eyes will be on Mauricio Pochettino’s squad Friday night, especially Pulisic, whose importance to the Americans’ success cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n “If he has a goal or an assist, we are exceptional,” Cowherd added. “If he doesn’t score, we are slightly above average.<\/p>\n “It’s about players, not plays. That’s all competition. This is easily our most talented squad. It will all come down to keeping Pulisic healthy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY In the 26 games in which Christian Pulisic scores, the U.S. men’s national team has lost just twice with an astounding 21 wins to go with four draws. Let that sink in as the World Cup co-hosts open Group D play against Paraguay on Friday night in Los Angeles. At just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4647","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\/4647","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=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}