CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Christian Pulisic sank to his knees in the north corner of Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium, bellowing a scream that was part exultation, part exorcism. He’d just scored his first goal of the calendar year, shortly after a pinpoint assist, and he let out five months’ worth of frustration all at once. He embraced Ricardo Pepi and Sergiño Dest, his head slumped in relief. The drought, at last, was over.
The USMNT can take plenty of positives from Sunday’s 3-2 friendly victory over Senegal in Charlotte, but the key takeaway is this: Pulisic, at long last, is back among the world of the scoring, thanks to this brilliant slice around Senegal goalkeeper Mory Diaw:
Prior to Sunday afternoon, Pulisic’s last goal in any match came on Dec. 28 in an AC Milan victory over Hellas Verona. His last goal for the United States was all the way back on Nov. 19, 2024 against Jamaica in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Nations League.
He could score for neither club nor country, as the poetic line goes. Nineteen AC Milan games, plus eight USMNT games, all without a goal, are the kinds of combined dry stretches that provoke irritation, then frustration, then desperation … at least in the stands, if not on the pitch.
“I’ve played well in recent months,” Pulisic insisted after the match, “but all people seem to care about is goals, so hopefully now people can stop talking about it.”
With all due respect to Pulisic, who’s clearly more than a little tired of fielding drought-related questions, the talk is understandable; the World Cup is a results-oriented business, and “goals” trump “playing well” every time. The face of the American World Cup effort, leading a roster that’s as in-form and in stride as any in United States World Cup history, could only spin a half-year scoring drought so many ways. And fortunately, he no longer needs to.
“Obviously, just a friendly, we’ve got big games ahead and I’ve got to be ready,” he said after the match, looking visibly relieved and satisfied. Of the goal celebration, he took a moment in the spotlight before looking forward: “I felt great. It was exciting. Ready for a big summer ahead.”
“We believe in him, and we wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t the player that he is, and the person that he is,” Weston McKinnie said. “Obviously, it’s amazing for all of us to witness it, and to see him break that spell. But we move forward and count on him in a lot of things, and so I think (he will) come through when we need it.”
The goal snips a dangling, irritating narrative thread that had run through the entire USNMT lead-up to the World Cup. Speaking to reporters on Thursday at the USMNT’s Georgia headquarters, coach Mauricio Pochettino declared Pulisic a “special player,” one who inspires and warrants confidence.
“I mean, it’s a pleasure that we are going to try these three weeks to recover his confidence,” Pochettino added, “and we really trust in him and we have the confidence that he’s going to perform.”
Pulisic didn’t need three weeks. As it turned out, he needed just three days, and a match against a lively if somewhat disorganized top-15 squad in Senegal.
“That’s a strong team, in my opinion, I think it’s a really good team,” Pulisic said of the Lions of Teranga. “So I think we can feel good about it. But there’s still a lot of work in front of us.”
The United States’ ability to thrive in the World Cup remains open to debate, but the nation’s ability to build brands remains unmatched. Pulisic, who hails from Hershey, Pennsylvania, is already the centerpiece of multiple campaigns — Michelob Ultra, Gatorade, Visa and Hershey’s chocolate, among others —- and his face and form will adorn countless ads, billboards, building wraps and hype videos for the next six weeks. You’re going to see him more than your own relatives from now until mid-July, thanks to the Hype Industrial Complex that fuels this World Cup.
Hype is easy to build, though. Reputation? That’s a much tougher ask. As Pulisic’s goal drought grew, as the USMNT matches in March and the AC Milan games throughout the spring rolled on without a Pulisic goal, you could almost sense the growing desperation, the increasing possibility that America’s greatest World Cup hope might not be up for the moment.
And that could still happen. A goal in a friendly like Sunday’s is good for the stat sheet and good for the soul, but not much else. Pulisic still needs to prove himself once the United States begins group play on June 12 … and several knowledgeable observers have no doubt he will.
“He’s going to score in the World Cup,” Pochettino said Thursday. “Yes, I really trust on that.” And now, with some incontrovertible, spectacular evidence, so can everyone else.
“Any player goes through high and low moments in their career,” McKinnie said. “Obviously the outside world may have been worried and been questioning what he looked like (this summer), but Christian has showed countless times, on club level and on country level, that he shows up in the moments that we need him the most.”