Christian Pulisic insists USMNT ‘ready for this moment’ ahead of World Cup knockout game
· Yahoo Sports
The U.S. Men’s National Team is mere hours away from taking on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the FIFA World Cup Round of 32, with Christian Pulisic prepared to play a major part for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
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The AC Milan star returned to action off the bench in their 3-2 group stage closing defeat to Türkiye, having been forced to sit out the previous 2-0 win against Australia due to a calf injury.
Thankfully for Pochettino and Co., Pulisic got through the last-minute loss courtesy of Kaan Ayhan in one piece, and he is now confident that both he and the USMNT are prepared for this next stage.
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“I felt great in the game, the last game against Türkiye,” he said on Tuesday, via ESPN. “So feeling good this week and yeah, I'm definitely ready to go for [Wednesday].”
While the defeat may have left some concerned regarding the impact it could have had on the team’s momentum - a topic Pochettino bristled at when pressed on the matter post-game - the simple fact of the matter is the result was inconsequential.
The USMNT entered the game having already won Group D, while Türkiye had already been knocked out, giving Pochettino the opportunity to make nine changes and give some of his backups valuable minutes whilst resting key starters.
Now the USMNT heads into the knockout game with mostly fresh legs - barring Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, and Cristian Roldan, who are all questionable - something which could be key should the match go into extra time and potentially penalties, as was the case for two Round of 32 games on Monday.
On those occasions, four-time champions Germany found themselves sent packing by Paraguay, whilst three-time runners-up the Netherlands saw their campaign cut short by Morocco. Addressing penalty shootouts, Pulisic commented, “It's an extremely hard thing to do for sure ... so the people that go up and shoot takes a lot of courage and it's not easy.
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“Goalkeepers get better and better every single year. Yeah, I think everyone has their individual style and you just go with what you feel most confident.”
As for Monday’s games, Pulisic admitted they had been watching, commenting, “I think that's the beauty of the World Cup. There's gonna be upsets. There's gonna be really, I mean, all the games yesterday were fantastic. So we're expecting nothing different tomorrow.
“We have to go and perform extremely well at the highest level. And it's gonna be not easy by any means. So yeah, I don't know, does it give us hope? I mean, there's still so many good teams in the tournament that can cause problems. And we just wanna be one of them.”
Should the USMNT be forced to take on the dreaded penalty shootout come Wednesday at Levi’ Stadium in Santa Clara, California, Pulisic was confident that there would be more than enough takers.
“The guys who feel the most confident to go up and shoot will want to go shoot. I think that's normal,” the 27-year-old said. “There'll be some players that maybe don't want to as much and don't feel as good. I don't think it's necessarily a big problem.
Pulisic is not concerned about the USMNT finding willing penalty takers -Credit:Liza Rosales/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images“Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, we haven't been in many shootouts with these guys, but I feel it's a pretty brave, courageous team. I feel like guys will give it a go.”
What’s more, the USMNT has the benefit of experience on its side as 13 of the 26 players on the roster also made the cut four years ago in Qatar.
“We're ready for this moment,” he stated. “I think we've had some good performances this World Cup, and having that experience last time definitely can allow us to go into this just a little bit of a clear mind, and just more prepared for sure.”