Christian Pulisic was in the starting line-up again on Saturday night as the USA lost to Germany in a World Cup warm-up game.
Pulisic was named the starting XI by Mauricio Pochettino and played for 62 minutes, but his performance wasn’t exactly as dazzling as the other night against Senegal, when he got a goal and an assist in the 3-2 win.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
He managed only three successful dribbles out of 12 attempted and gave the ball away 23 times. The winger attempted three shots but all of them were blocked. In the 62nd minute, Pochettino recalled him to the bench to make way for Giovanni Reyna.
Nonetheless, reports from the States speak of a bright performance in which he again looked a bit more like the confident version we saw in 2025.
Positive ratings
Goal gave him a 7 out of 10: “No goal or assist, but so, so good. Made Germany uncomfortable all day, and suffered some hard fouls for it. Probably deserved a goal and, to be fair, he did have chances to get it, but none quite came off.”
ESPN gave him the same: “Pulisic was once again an ever-present threat. His ball into the box to Dest could have tied the game early. There were the darting runs down the middle, along with how he became even more problematic once he drifted to the right just to give Germany something else to consider.”
As a reminder, the USA open their home tournament with a game against Paraguay on Saturday 13 June at 03:00 CEST in San Francisco. We have also published the rest of the schedule for Milan’s call-ups.
And what’s funny is the eye test said he was good but Sofa and Fot said he had a stinker. And people go to Sofa after and say oh look he was horrible just like w Milan.
Chris, I’ve come to the conclusion with many of these rating sites that they are watching different games then I am.
Germany was very physical in that match and pushed and body checked and grabbed all game long. There was even a clothesline tackle that wasn’t punished by any yellow cards.
Pulisic never does well in those sorts of physical matches because he’s small and light and easy to knock off the ball.
That’s why he struggled a bit in the English Premiere League and did much better in Serie A, because the refs call those sorts of physical challenges as fouls much more often and so he doesn’t get knocked off the ball as much.
I watched the match and wasn’t impressed – he had a few threats but it was obvious the Germans had his number and once it was apparent the refs were not calling their fouls, they just knocked him off the ball, just like what happened in the EPL.
I was at the game, and I think he had a great game and makes everybody around him better
He was a force and provided a consistent threat. The team should have scored more.
For the past ten years, Pulisic has been dealing with European soccer fans who do not appreciate his quality. Thats ok with me because it benefits the USA and Pulisic in the long run. Within ten years the USA will be winning the World Cup and European fans will wake up and ask how did that happen??
Brain dead take😂🤡
Come on guys, I’ve been a USMNT fan for well over 30 years, and I’ve been a huge Pulisic fan since he first played for the USMNT at age 17.
He’s the ONLY REASON that I even follow AC Milan.
I don’t know what game you were watching, but the Sofascore stats confirm the game that I SAW on TV.
Pulisic lost the ball 22 times!
He had 14 dribbling efforts, only 3 of which were successful!
He completed only 63% of his passes!
He took only 3 shots on goal, all of which were blocked!
THAT is the game I saw on TV! He had a few flashes of appearing to be somewhat threatening but that was it
Germany played a super aggressive gegenpressing and were on top of Pulisic all game long and as I said, body checked and kicked and hit him to knock him off the ball.
The ref chose to not call these fouls, making the game look like it belonged in the English Championship, which plays a peculiar Mixed Martial Arts version of football.
I followed Pulisic at Chelsea also, and after his brilliant first season with Chelsea, the rest of the EPL figured out how to neutralize him – kick him in the legs to knock him off the ball, because the English refs would NOT call the fouls in his favor (they would always favor the English National Team players, whichever side of the foul, something I found particularly corrupt, and made me stop watching the EPL).
That’s why Serie A has been great for him. La Liga would suit him also. Non-stop fouling that doesn’t get called does not suit his game.
Why do you think Messi and Neymar never considered playing in the EPL? They didn’t have the body types to deal with the constant physical pounding that the EPL deals out every match. Ronaldo did, Salah did (Salah is short but he is built like a muscle bound fire hydrant), and they did well in the EPL.
He lost possession over 20 times in 63 minutes…
Can we stop overhyping our players when they do literally anything…?