For better or for worse, the September international window is over, and it’s nothing but club soccer for the US men’s national team player pool from here until Gregg Berhalter makes his final roster decisions in the final days before the 2022 World Cup begins in November.
“What I told them was, these next weeks, use them to prepare, go back to your clubs, play your games, get strong, get fit,” said the coach of his message to the USMNT after last month’s twin bill of dour friendly performances, “and come to Qatar with an open mindset and the idea that we want to compete there.”
Those words are likely to be ringing in the players’ ears for the next few weeks. Here’s a sampling of their weekend fortunes.
Regular consumers of USMNT content will know quite well no Yank draws more discourse with his every move than Pulisic. His thus-far meager minutes with Chelsea this year will continue to be a subject of feverish scrutiny in the run-up to Qatar, and he logged a modest six minutes off the bench at Crystal Palace on Saturday after starting for the national team in last Tuesday’s 0-0 draw vs. Saudi Arabia.
But he sure did make the most of these!
With the game tied at 1-1, CP10 embarked on a quick, slashing dribble from the left touchline on the stroke of full time before slotting a short pass to Conor Gallagher, who evaded a defender with a nasty little shimmy and laced a dipping drive past Vicente Guaita to bank a 2-1 CFC victory. (Chris Richards did not make Palace’s gameday squad as the center back recovers from the knock that kept him out of the USMNT’s September camp.)
Pulisic’s longtime YNT and MNT colleague notched his first helper of the 2022-23 club campaign as well, dropping a perfect cross onto the head of Dusan Vlahovic to effectively clinch the full three points for Juventus in what would be a 3-0 Serie A away win over Bologna.
He made this delivery look easy, though it’s not.
