🇺🇸 An unbiased view of Christian Pulisic
🇺🇸 An unbiased view of Christian Pulisic
...or Raul, or Phonzie or Leon ... Will never happen.
Of course you saw the Olimpico. Apparently, Christian Pulisic didn’t mean to send the corner kick that baffled Simon Mignolet over the goalkeeper’s line. He did, though, and it was glorious.
“There was a bit of luck today, but it counts as a goal and I’m really pleased,” he said in Italian after. “It was a good goal, but not something I’ve practiced.”
We all saw the opening strike. But did you see that little run on the second goal to pull the defender away and create the space that allowed his teammate to score? Did you see the dribble on the wing he pulled off to start a scoring chance? The little things?
While Pulisic’s next club match was postponed because of rains and flooding in Bologna, it’ll be the same the next game. I’ll be locked in on the 26-year-old American, wondering if everyone is seeing what I’m seeing while I perhaps miss out on the intricacies of his Milan teammates Theo Hernandez or Rafael Leão.
It’s an example of the hyper-focus on one player that international fans often experience.
Clubs long have worked to capitalize on one fandom spilling over into another. It’s a central tenet of strategies for leagues looking to grow in North American markets. When Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa joined little-known Portuguese side AVS this summer, it took the club’s Twitter following from less than 1,000 to the 3,700 it sits at today. It also grew 38% on Instagram, where it’s now about 25,000.
The same fixation I have watching a Pulisic in a match happens for me with Raul Jimenez, Leon Bailey, Alphonso Davies and other Concacaf stars. It draws on that internal desire to feel validated. My guy, our guy is really doing it on the biggest stage!
Some of this is down to my background. Working at Goal, I spent years praying nearly as fervently as Chicharito does before matches that he would find the back of the net, giving me an easy opening to weekly Mexicans Abroad pieces. Before that, I’d fire up highly sketchy streams of action from Scandinavia, Asia or Eastern Europe hoping to get a real picture of a certain player eligible for a Concacaf national team. It created that same tunnel vision I can’t turn off when I’m watching Pulisic with Milan.
Typically, though, the bias isn’t for business reasons. It’s deeply personal.
In this region, most fans count down the days until international matches rather than in others where they count down the days until they’re over. Watching your national team players abroad - legionarios as they’re often termed in Latin America - is the most interesting part of weeks like this one that include UEFA Champions League and Europa League action.
That now has manifested itself in every touch videos, giving us quick summaries of any moment the player we’re tracking was on the ball, usually complete with a spiffy soundtrack.
Most of us in this Getting CONCACAFed community put our hyperfocus on players like Pulisic, Raul, Davies or Bailey, but many fans around the world lock in on only the best players. There’s a reason Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo get ratings no matter where they go or what competition they’re playing in.
It has led MLS to launch a TikTok exclusive for Friday’s Inter Miami playoff match, when fans using the vertical video app will be able to watch the entire match not through his eyes but through eyes solely fixed on the Argentine ‘astro’.
I’ll probably tune in to the traditional broadcast, but who am I to yuck anyone’s yum? I create my own ‘player cam’ on my Concacaf favorites, the players who it brings me the most joy to see not just succeed on a large scale but to do the small things right and make those plays that perhaps only a few viewers notice.
Hi Jon,
I enjoyed this piece as it presented a very different way of watching to what I’m used to. For background, I grew up in England immersed in all the rivalries and tribalism and now live in Canada, keenly following the Canadian teams (no idea who I’d cheer for if they played each other). I’ve always found it hard to get on board with national team fandom’s focus on individuals and their careers and this helps put that in perspective. It’s certainly cool to follow the fortunes of Canadians abroad, but I can’t say I’d be cheering on Manchester United if Jonathan David suddenly signed for them. I also find at a macro-level there’s sometimes a tendency to focus ahead on the next move rather than enjoying where a player is now. David is a case in point. I get that many Canadians want to see him move up the career ladder, but maybe we should enjoy his success at Lille. When it comes to internationals, a happy, in-form player is often better than someone struggling to get into their club side.