Swanson: Christian Pulisic is the spark the U.S. will need in the World Cup's knockout stages

4 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred Christian Pulisic is back. Back like Captain America, revived and ready to go after being put on ice for a spell, needed to save the day. Forget everything else about Thursday’s match against Turkey at SoFi Stadium and marinate on that. Never mind the United States’ 3-2 loss in their final World Cup Group D match; the result was inconsequential. The Americans knew they were going through to the round of 32, and more, they’d already won the group. No pressure is a privilege, well-earned. Never mind how the match ended, with a gutpunch of a goal from Kaan Ayhan in the final moments of stoppage time. With a knockout-round berth already secure, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino overhauls his lineup, but the changes didn’t work in a 3-2 loss to Turkey. Never mind the nutmegs (pulled on Pulisic and goalkeeper Matt Turner) on that game-winning goal. But do mind the closing gap between the soccer’s elite teams and the hard-charging Americans, who will head into the knockout stage Wednesday against Bosnia-Herzegovina with their most dynamic and dangerous player in the lineup again. Pulisic said he was kicked in the calf in the opening match, a 4-1 victory over Paraguay on June 12, when he was subbed out at halftime. Then the United States took care of Australia 2-0 on June 19 without Pulisic to secure their place in knockout play. So the United States didn’t need him against Turkey. But it will need him in the knockout stage. And he needed some run Thursday. Like a sports car needs to warm its engine. So, no, he wasn’t kept on the shelf out of harm’s way; he played. “The most important [thing] for him,” Coach Mauricio Pochettino said, “[was] to get the feelings again.” After some instruction from Pochettino, who draped his arm around Pulisic’s shoulders on the sideline, the 27-year-old came on for Tim Weah in the 58th minute. U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, right, talks with forward Christian Pulisic before entering the game during the second half. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) The two embraced as Pulisic’s appearance drew loud cheers from the 70,000 mostly American fans who spent the first half of the match urging nine new U.S. starters against a Turkey team that was the aggressor, first and fastest to their spots, bullying the U.S. team that thought it had captured momentum with Auston Trusty’s goal three minutes into the match. But as soon as Pulisic appeared on the scene, that United States’ B team became a B+ team. He stretched the field like a knockdown shooter might stretch a basketball court, opening space for his teammates to play, using all of the field and forcing Turkey to track his movements, to try to stay with him. With the pressure on, no one on this U.S. squad can put pressure on opponents like him. He immediately changed the complexion of the match, creating three attempts at the goal within five minutes. He netted no goals, but twice came tantalizingly close — hitting the post and leaving a left-footed shot from above the penalty just a few inches left of the frame. “You saw, when he came in, the impact he had,” said Sebastian Berhalter, whose banger in the 49th minute tied the match. “He’s our guy.” “You could see,” Antonee Robinson said, “how happy the fans were when he came on. We know the quality we get with Christian, so if he’s feeling well, he’s going to help us.” “It was amazing,” Pulisic told FOX. “I felt healthy. I felt good, so it was really nice to be back with the team and get some minutes. I felt good with the ball.” Better, certainly, than he had been feeling coming home to prepare for and play in the World Cup. Pulisic arrived having lost his starting spot with Italy’s AC Milan and having been booed off the field after going scoreless in his final 17 games with the club. He’d gone more than five months without a goal for club or country, a career-worst 21-game drought — which he snapped with a splendid score in a May 31 friendly against Senegal. U.S. soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino and his players overcame doubt and learned how to believe in each other, spurring a historic World Cup run. Early in the United States’ raucous opener, also at SoFi, Pulisic was part of the American’ first goal of the World Cup; he got the ball to Weston McKennie, who directed a pass toward Folarin Balogun — a sequence that became an own goal off Paraguay. The United States would like more of that, please. “We still have big games ahead of us,” Pulisic said. “We did the job, now it’s time to regroup, recover and get ready for the next one.” If they do that, we all will forget everything about Thursday’s match — everything except Pulisic’s part in it.

Swanson: Christian Pulisic is the spark the U.S. will need in the World Cup's knockout stages

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Swanson: Christian Pulisic is the spark the U.S. will need in the World Cup's knockout stages

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