The United States men’s national team made its debut at a major tournament with a new captain against Bolivia on Sunday Christian Pulisic. The 25-year-old takes over responsibility for Tyler Adams who was the captain at the 2022 world cup in Qatar and responded with a strong performance in a 2-0 win. It took just three minutes for him to find the back of the net in Dallas with a curling effort as he takes on the leadership role, especially as Adams has dealt with injuries over the past season and a half.
But the goal isn’t the only place where Pulisic took a leading role on the pitch. He was chewing out the referees as Bolivia tried to slow the game down and went to console Ricardo Pepi when the young striker missed a chance towards the end of the match. These are moments that show growth from Pulisic, which manager Gregg Berhalter acknowledged.
“He’s a selfless leader. He goes out there and competes and works, works really hard and that helps the team and then you contribute to the fact that he’s very skilled and can play attacking and create chances on the attacking side.” Berhalter said of Pulisic’s performance. “It’s a great combination, and what you see is that he supports his teammates, he supports boys, he pushes boys. For me it was an excellent performance tonight. He got coach’s man of the match and that was very deserved. “
Pulisic wasn’t always an outspoken leader, but having now completed his 69th cap for the national team, the growth is visible. He takes responsibility for the team’s performance after matches and also ensures that he sets a good example on the pitch. A Champions League winner coming off a strong season for Milan, Pulsic is in the form of his life at the best time for the USMNT.
To win a tournament like the Copa America, game-changing talents need to be at their best and step up when it matters, and Pulisic is doing just that. While it only means so much against Bolivia early in the tournament, you can only play against the teams in front of you. Pulisic will be judged on what he does against Panama, Uruguay and further. This is a great building block and the USMNT can be played through Pulisic to good effect.
There are areas that need cleaning up, but that’s what watching film and training between games is for. The USMNT will have time to work on that, but they won despite not being at their best due to the performance of their captain, which is a good sign.
