🇺🇸 Christian Pulisic is the face of the USMNT - but there are other faces, too
On the USA's leader & Mexico losing its captain
Christian Pulisic wasn’t too thrilled to be there, but he wasn’t annoyed either. At this point, sitting around a table and talking to a bunch of reporters is part of the job - and not even a particularly hard one.
Sure, he would’ve rather been watching Friday afternoon’s marquee Euro match, but if he had to do press, he’d do press. If he had to do a photo shoot for a big billboard or campaign, he’d do that. Anything to grow the game in the United States.
Pulisic is the face of the U.S. men’s national team. At age 25, with nearly a decade of experience as a senior international, he is the player casual fans are most likely to recognize, to root for.
It’s been hard-earned. There were the lows of the 2018 World Cup qualification cycle, constant attention during down moments with Chelsea and more than a few uncomfortable media roundtables along the way.
This year feels like a high. He enters the summer after his best club season, scoring a dozen goals in more than 2,500 Serie A minutes with AC Milan and adding three more goals in European competitions.
But, critically, unlike other national teams or past versions of the U.S., Pulisic is the face - but there are lots of other faces.
“I don’t take it for granted, my place in this team. I feel like I’ve given so much to this team and, truly, no one wants it more than me - I promise you that,” Pulisic said. “The whole ‘face’ thing, I feel like I get asked about it a lot, especially now with the team that we have, I don’t need to be the superstar for us to win games. It’s not like that.”
When Pulisic is having an off night, he doesn’t need to put too much pressure on his shoulders or try to force things into happening on the field. There are other players approaching his level who are able to step up. The ability to offload some of that responsibility during the 90 minutes frees him up to create those moments with much more ease.
It helps time management elsewhere too. Fans in the U.S. recognize Pulisic but are beginning to recognize more and more U.S. players who are regularly showing up on their TV screens when they watch the UEFA Champions League or other top competitions in Europe.
“At the end of the day, we’re just all soccer players that want to play a sport,” said midfielder Weston McKennie, one of those faces. “Being in America right now and wanting to grow the game here, we still have a lot to do. It’s kind of crappy - if fans listen to this, don’t take it too literal - but you come home and are playing a South American team and show up to the stadium and see nothing but yellow jerseys.
“Any type of marketing, anything to make fans really get to know us and build a connection to us, I think is important.”
Bolivia is too small a nation with too little soccer success to create a hostile environment tonight at AT&T Stadium, but as the U.S. goes through the tournament it may find itself in those situations.
🇧🇴 Why hasn't Bolivia been ... better?
Pulisic’s star power is a huge jolt for the U.S. So, too, is the midfield presence of McKennie and Tyler Adams. And the forward play from Flo Balogun.
National teams constructed on one player alone, built around a star with no supporting cast, rarely reached the elite levels. The U.S. is no longer that type of team - or even one built around just two or three top players with the rest at times making up the numbers.
Pulisic is the guy, but the U.S. now has a national team in which it’s OK if the superstar is just a guy.
What Mexico loses when it loses Edson
Reporting from Houston
Mexico manager Jaime Lozano didn’t have to think too hard when selecting his captain. Edson Alvarez is clearly the player El Tri looks to as the tone-setter. Already a veteran of two World Cups, the 26-year-old West Ham United midfielder is one of the few Mexico players battling week in, week out in the sport’s most elite levels.
So seeing him go down with an apparent hamstring injury in the first half of El Tri’s 1-0 victory against Jamaica was a difficult moment for the squad.
“He’s very important. I think any manager who has had Edson would tell you the same: He’s a leader, he understands the game really well. It’s contagious. He’s our captain. He’s someone who is so important, in the locker room too. You listen to him speak and he communicates a clear idea, he speaks easily and not everyone has that.
“It was a really tough blow for us - the staff, the teammates in the match who had to get out of it, but we hope that in two days we have the results and he can be there.”
Lozano felt the injury put his team in a malaise, one he tried to lift with an intense halftime session that went long when he showed one too many video clips. The sluggishness continued from Mexico until Jamaica forward Michail Antonio put the ball in the net after a tremendous move and cross from Dexter Lembikisa out wide.
Rather than claw back from behind, El Tri was given a reprieve when the Video Assistant Referee correctly informed the officiating crew that the play was offside. That moment jolted Mexico into action.
“We came out poorly in the second half, and it’s something we’ve got to improve. We can’t gift the opponent anything,” Lozano said. “It woke us up, put us on alert and made us go for a goal. I think one of the best moments of the match we had was after that annulled goal that made us realize if we didn’t put the gas pedal down the game would get even more complicated.”
How Mexico gets its mentality right will be a huge piece of whether or not this tournament goes down as a success.
In Luis Romo, Mexico has a replacement for Alvarez in terms of playing style. The Monterrey midfielder can do similar things to Alvarez on the field when it comes to putting strength into the center of the field, dropping between the center backs if the situation calls for it and, at times, putting in a good pass.
He did well coming in for El Tri against the Reggae Boyz, but the responsibility is now likely to fall to him to be the guy in midfield for Mexico. While Lozano said a scan will show more in two days, there are doubts Alvarez will play again in this tournament.
Romo will either perform to the level needed or he won’t, but there are many more questions about Mexico’s leadership without Alvarez. In a team already without veterans like goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa and winger Hirving Lozano because of roster decisions, where is the leadership if Alvarez isn’t able to get on the field?
In addition to the tactical plan, it will be one more thing Lozano and his coaching staff need to figure out before Wednesday’s match against Venezuela.
Tonight’s matches
USA v. Bolivia - 6p ET
Uruguay v. Panama - 9p ET
Saturday’s scores
Ecuador 1-2 Venezuela - A huge result for the Vinotinto in a game totally altered by the early red card to Enner Valencia. Ecuador went into the tournament as the favorite in Group B, but just like that it looks like it could be a struggle to advance.
Mexico 1-0 Jamaica