At 22, forward Christian Pulisic culminated a dream week that began with his Chelsea triumph in the Champions League and ended it by lifting his first trophy with the United States by scoring the decisive goal.
Pulisic sentenced a crazy final of the Concacaf Nations League against archrival Mexico by forcing and converting a penalty in extra time that made it 3-2.
The American captain was knocked down by Carlos Salcedo in a maximum penalty that unleashed minutes of high tension at Empower Field in Denver (Colorado), with great protests from the fans and the Mexican team and the expulsion of coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino.
In a stadium turned into a pressure cooker, Pulisic transformed the penalty with a whiplash to the squad and celebrated exultantly by taking off his shirt and running towards the stands, from where a multitude of bottles and objects thrown by the majority Mexican fans rained down.
It’s just the perfect way to end the year, honestly. I am so proud of this group. We needed everyone today and it was a phenomenal performance, ”said the so-called ‘Captain America’ on the same lawn at Empower Field.
Just eight days earlier, the highly mobile, well-defined forward had become the first American to win the UEFA Champions League.
From Porto, with almost no time to celebrate with his teammates, he rushed to Denver to join the national team and start Thursday’s Nations League semifinals against Honduras.
The goal of the final, his seventeenth with the Stars and Stripes jersey in 37 games, compensates for the disappointments of the defeat against Mexico in the 2019 Gold Cup and enters the list of American executioners of the Tri, where he still shines with own light the retired Landon Donovan.
– Lighthouse of a new generation –
Born in 1998 in Hershey (Pennsylvania), Pulisic is the “veteran” of a generation of promises who are already emerging in major European clubs, such as Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie (22 years old), FC Barcelona side Sergiño Dest (20 ) and Borussia Dortmund forward Gio Reyna (18).
Of all the batch, Pulisic is the one who has the most experience in Europe, where he landed at the age of 16 to join the lower categories of Borussia Dortmund.
In the German club he played four seasons in which he became one of the emerging figures of continental football, which led Chelsea to pay 58 million dollars for his services in 2019, in one of the great signings of the year.
In his first campaign in London he shone with nine goals and six assists in 25 games but in the next he dropped to four targets and two passes in 27 games.
After the arrival of coach Thomas Tuchel, the presence of Pulisic in the starting eleven was waning but he did not stop having valuable contributions such as the goal and the assistance he gave in the semifinal tie of the ‘Champions’ against Real Madrid.
On May 29, the American kicked off the final against Manchester City, jumping onto the pitch for the last half hour of his team’s 1-0 win.
With a break at last in sight, as coach Gregg Berhalter has no plans to call him up for the Gold Cup, Pulisic will be able to return to London with his batteries charged to convince Tuchel that he is much more than a luxurious substitute. AFP (HN)