The U.S. men’s national team’s third goal in its Copa America opener against Bolivia, the one that could have given Christian Pulisic 10 or 15 minutes of rest, proved elusive.
When substitute striker Ricardo Pepi saw two opportunities at close range in the 90th minuteth minute, no one but him hardly cared. The USMNT was going to win and Pulisic, their star and captain, was going all the way. This was the only genuine disappointment on a night that produced a 2-0 win and the obligatory three points against the 84th-ranked team in the world.
Pulisic has two more challenging games than this one in the next nine days. The first will be on Thursday against No. 43 Panama in Atlanta, and then Group C play will close on Monday against No. 14 Uruguay in Kansas City. The Americans will need him at his best in those games.
Because Pulisic’s best is better than any current USMNT player. And possibly better than anyone who has represented this country.
Goal by Christian Pulisic, assist vs. Bolivia in the Copa América 2024
Pulisic participated in each of the first-half goals that led to this victory at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. He scored the first in the third minute, fooling Bolivia by taking a short corner kick and then heading to the left edge of the box to unleash a strident, bending shot into the top right corner of the net. Pulisic said the play was designed by set-piece coach Gianni Vio, whom he recognized in the middle of the celebration.
Bolivia’s plan to stack their defense in the box and get a draw or a win with a counter-attacking goal was ruined within 270 seconds. And their hope of getting something out of the game was dashed just before half-time when Pulisic drove the ball through the center of the defense and found Folarin Balogun near the spot from where the first goal had been scored. Balogun’s goal was not the missile that had come from Pulisic, but he counted just the same and put the opponent in a position from which they were unlikely to win.
“It was huge for us to start like that, and start the game like that, get the early goal,” Pulisic told TUDN. “We should bring some momentum to the next game, because we have tough games ahead of us.”
Christian Pulisic’s record with USMNT
Pulisic’s goal was the 30th of his career. It came when Pulisic was 25 years and 279 days old, moving him into a tie for fifth place on the USMNT’s career scoring list, with U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Brian McBride, and his number 69 of Pulisic’s international career.
A co-leader in national team goals, Landon Donovan was 25 years and 21 days old when his hat-trick in a friendly against Ecuador in March 2007 took him to the 30-goal mark. Donovan, however, didn’t get there until his 87th cap.
Pulisic’s assist on Balogun’s goal moved him to No. 7 on the USMNT’s career list. It’s unlikely he’ll ever catch Donovan in that category (Landon is No. 1 with 58 assists and No. 2 Michael Bradley with 23), but Christian became the first to record assists in five different competitions. And performances like Sunday’s make the case for him as the national team’s best player increasingly stronger.
Christian Pulisic’s career with USMNT and club level
If the discussion were about the most successful male player in the country, I might end this column when this sentence finds its point. Pulisic has been an essential player in winning the UEFA Champions League, scoring the decisive goal in Chelsea’s semi-final against Real Madrid in 2021 and then setting up the series decider with a flawless pass. He has also played in the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan.
He won the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, with Dortmund. In 2023-24 in Milan, his first year in Italy, the statistics service Opta named him a member of the Serie A Team of the Season.
However, in this context, with the USMNT beginning its last major tournament before the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, what is more pertinent is whether Pulisic has surpassed Donovan as the national team’s best.
Both players experienced momentous moments in the World Cup. Donovan’s was more dramatic: the magical goal he scored in added time against Algeria in 2010 to propel the Americans from World Cup elimination to group winners. Pulisic’s involved more personal sacrifice: his goal against Iran in 2022 to knock the United States out of their group required him to take a hit from the goalkeeper in the most sensitive area.
Donovan’s advantage in the discussion is how much busier he was with the national team. He became the youngest American to reach 100 caps. Pulisic has missed more time due to injury, but the biggest difference is that the US played 16 more games in Donovan’s first nine seasons than in Pulisic’s, largely because the COVID-19 pandemic limited the USMNT to three games in 2020.
If we give Pulisic a full season there, how many more goals would he have? If we’d given him a typical World Cup qualifying process, not one riddled with a frigid winter and packed into three-game windows out of necessity, how much more dominant could he have been? He scored five goals in 10 qualifying games, and coach Gregg Berhalter had no choice but to rotate his lineups with so many games in such a short time.
Donovan set a notable standard with his play for the USMNT. And he participated in three World Cups with the United States; Pulisic only has one to date and will need one or two more to come close to Donovan’s standard of achievement.
However, no one has achieved more in fewer opportunities than Pulisic. It may not be long before this is not even a debate.