American soccer lives and dies on the hamstrings of one man. Christian Pulisic is back, supposedly. After sitting out the Australia match to nurse a cranky calf he tweaked during the Paraguay blowout, the AC Milan winger teased us with a second-half cameo against Turkey. He looked sharp. The rest of the B-team? Not so much. Turkey snatched a late 3-2 win, but the real story wasn’t the scoreboard. It was whether the golden boy’s legs will hold up for Wednesday’s do-or-die clash against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He hasn’t played a full 90 minutes since mid-March. Let that sink in. That is a lifetime in professional sports, a gaping void of match fitness that should make any USMNT fan sweat. Yet, the man himself insists the tank is full. “I’m feeling good,” Pulisic told reporters, flashing that million-dollar smile that masks a history of muscle pulls. He claims he can go 90 minutes. Heck, he even threw out 120. We’ll see. Talk is cheap when you’re staring down the knockout rounds of a World Cup.
The US needs him. Desperately. Pulisic hasn’t found the back of the net since a pre-tournament friendly against Senegal back in May, ending a dry spell but starting another one when it actually matters. He has been dangerous, sure. He has rattled defenders and created chances. But close doesn’t win knockout games.
If you’re tracking the odometer, the numbers are grim but rising. He managed 67 minutes against Senegal, 62 against Germany, a brief 45-minute shift against Paraguay before the calf barked, and a quick run against Turkey. It is a slow, agonizing ramp-up. On Wednesday, the training wheels have to come off.
