For American fans of soccer, a game matching Chelsea FC and Real Madrid C.F. in the Champions League semifinals is going to be a huge deal regardless of which players take the field wearing blue uniforms and which are adorned in Real’s classic all-white attire. For fans of American soccer, though, it matters very much whether one of the 11 names included in the Blues’ lineup wears jersey No. 10.
It is not a given that Christian Pulisic will open for Chelsea in Tuesday’s 3 p.m. game in Spain, although he would loom as an egregious omission after he was the player chosen to represent the club in Monday’s pre-match news conference.
“I think the key is going to be having a really good start to the match and showing our energy right from the start and showing that we’re ready for this competition,” Pulisic told reporters. “They’re obviously going to be calm and experienced, but we have to be in that same way.”
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Pulisic, 22, could be in Chelsea’s lineup against Real — as he was for the clinching game against Porto in the quarterfinal round, going 90 minutes in a 2-0 victory, and for Saturday’s London derby victory against West Ham as the Blues endeavor to qualify for the 2021-22 version of Champions League.
He could begin the game on the bench and enter as a substitute, as he did in the first leg of the Porto series, or in both legs of the round of 16 matchup with Atletico Madrid.
It safely can be assumed that more people will watch the Chelsea-Real game than ever have seen Pulisic play soccer. Remember, as if you could forget, he did not get the opportunity to compete at the 2018 World Cup because of its failure in qualification. He started in the 2020 FA Cup final, an enormous game in England and elsewhere but not on the level of Champions League.
“I think it’s key to try to enjoy the moment. You know, Champions League semifinals don’t come around every day,” Pulisic said. “It’s an amazing time for us. I mean, personally, I’ve been looking forward to this game for weeks.
“Obviously, it’s a big moment. There are nerves. There’s a lot of preparation involved.”
Should Pulisic start, he would become the first American since DaMarcus Beasley in 2005 to open a Champions League semifinal. This seems less monumental than it might have before Tyler Adams of RB Leipzig, in 2020, became the first U.S. player in 15 years to even appear in the semis.
It would be plenty consequential, though, because Pulisic could carry the confidence gained through such an assignment into a busy, substantial summer for the U.S. men’s national team. In a sense, it’s an opportunity to return a favor.
Pulisic’s past nine months have included more significant injuries than goals. He missed two games with a calf strain, seven with a hamstring issue, one game in quarantine and another four when his hamstring problem recurred. When he was pulled from a Premier League game earlier this month, there was every reason to believe that his body had betrayed him again.
It was a false alarm, of sorts.
“I feel very confident in my body and my fitness level at the moment,” Pulisic said. “I’ve played a string of games. I’ve never thought of myself as a player who was injury-prone or anything. Obviously, I’ve had a tough time in the last year. It’s just about taking care of my body and putting myself in the best position to be available for every single game. And I feel good about that right now.”
Chelsea’s season, Pulisic’s season, has been complicated by the addition of attacking players Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, brought in from Germany’s Bundesliga after last season. There was not the typical amount of time to adjust to those personnel moves because of the pandemic-shortened preseason.
And there also was the matter of a coaching change. Chelsea hired former Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel in late January to replace Frank Lampard, under whom Pulisic has played so well last season.
It was widely assumed that this change would work out fine for Pulisic, given that the two had been together at the start of the player’s pro career in Germany. Instead, whether it was lingering injury issues or just Tuchel wishing to see something more or different from Pulisic, he struggled to get playing time.
Then Pulisic left in late March for two friendlies with the USMNT, a couple of victories in which he performed exceedingly well and scored his 15th international goal. Upon his return, starts and playing time became more routine.
“I think there were massive benefits,” Chris Wittyngham of the “Chelsea Mike’d Up” podcast told Sporting News. “It’s kind of interesting, because generally, the international break is seen as: Oh, well, we just hope he goes over and doesn’t get hurt. But I think thing you can underestimate how important to Christian Pulisic — he’s alone in London. I don’t think he’s had the chance, since he joined, to experience the city, to really get acclimatized, have friends, establish a life. I imagine during the times of lockdown, it can be kind of dreary, almost.
“Getting the chance to play with the U.S., go and play for a team where, unquestionably, he is the focal point of the attack — he is the creative player, has a free reign at times to express himself as Christian Pulisic. And I do think when watching Chelsea when Christian Pulisic is expressing himself and when he is playing as one of 11. And it’s the former in which he’s playing at his best. Getting a couple of reps of that with the U.S., he was able to translate that a bit better to Chelsea.”
When the Premier League completed its 2019-20 season with “Project Restart,” a run of about nine games per team from mid-June to late July, Pulisic performed spectacularly as Chelsea accumulated 18 points and assured the necessary finish to qualify for this year’s Champions League.
“In the restart, he was arguably the best player in the Premier League,” Grant Wahl, the most widely followed American soccer journalist, told Sporting News. “He was not just creating chances, he was also finishing them in a way that we hadn’t seen before. He was doing it against teams like Liverpool and causing Jurgen Klopp to basically shrug his shoulders and kind of tip his hat after one of the goals.
“You felt like Pulisic was really taking things to the next level.”
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Wahl is currently hosting a soccer podcast called “Futbol with Grant Wahl.” Three years ago, he authored a book on the sport called “Masters of Modern Soccer,” in which Pulisic was one of the featured subjects while still a teenager.
“He has this ability, when he’s playing that way — and he and I talked about this in the book chapter — when Pulisic gets the ball, he’s very clear that he wants to advance it to create some sort of danger with it,” Wahl said. “It’s not enough for him to just pass it sideways or backward. He also has the ability to, with his first touch, to create a better situation for himself and more dangerous one. We’ve seen that a couple of times recently on goals he’s scored. His first touch is just so good.”
It was apparent in the victory over West Ham, when he accepted a drop-off from teammate Timo Werner and, after a single touch forward, found left back Ben Chilwell breaking into a dangerous position to the left of the box. Chilwell played the ball back through the line between the West Ham defense and Werner and Pulisic as they continued their runs. The pass found Werner and became the game’s only goal.
“He never gets too animated on the pitch. He kind of leaves that up to other guys,” Kevin Egan, who will cover the game for CNN International, told Sporting News. “But technically, and with his pace, and his soccer IQ is incredible — if he can get back to his best, there won’t even be a question if he starts. He’d be the first name on the team sheet. There’s a reason Chelsea gave him the No. 10.”
The No. 10 jersey is revered in soccer, worn by such players as Pele, Maradona, Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane, who will manage Real Madrid in Tuesday’s game. Although often associated with the attacking midfielder position — which many modern formations no longer feature or emphasize — at Chelsea the 10 jersey has been worn by such players as Joe Cole, Willian and Eden Hazard, all of whom typically played wing positions.
Hazard is the player to whom Pulisic often is compared, albeit with the perpetual disclaimer that he has yet to reach that level consistently. It’s possible that they both could be on the field in this game, with Hazard having departed for Real Madrid in 2019 and created a vacancy that Pulisic has attempted to fill.
“There’s still so many defensive doubts about Real Madrid,” Egan said. “They have to try and win the game. They have to take the game to Chelsea. And there’s always openings.
“Any game that I’ve seen from Real Madrid this season when they play at home, if you’ve got any pace up front, it can cause them a lot of problems because they do push their fullbacks forward. I just see this as a massive chance for him to surprise a lot of people.”
The game will not be played at Real’s famed Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Real is using the time without fans to complete a renovation project and staging its home games at Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, part of the club’s training complex. Technically, it doesn’t matter that di Stefano only holds 6,000, but it does remove some of the grandeur.
The game itself can compensate, and that will be particularly true here if Pulisic is a factor.
“Every match, I feel that we’re able to play at a very high level,” Tuchel said. “If it’s not possible to play our nicest match, we are able to not let the opponents play their best match, which is also the definition of performance.
“We have a strong bond within the squad … ready to work together, to suffer together and, when it’s needed, to respond to the questions: If it’s necessary to fight, to fight, if it’s necessary to run, to run. If it’s the moment to show your skills and escape pressure with passing or be dominant, we have moments in every match where we can do this. The level is so high if you arrive in semifinal in Champion League.”
