The third United States Men's National team goal in their Copa America opener against Bolivia — the one that might have bought 10 or 15 minutes of rest for Christian Pulisic — proved to be elusive.
By the time reserve striker Ricardo Pepi was denied on two point-blank chances in the 90th minute, it hardly mattered to anyone but him. The USMNT were going to win, and Pulisic — their star and captain — was going the distance. This was the only genuine disappointment on a night that produced a 2-0 victory and the three points that were mandatory against the No. 84-ranked team in the world.
Pulisic has two more challenging games than this coming in the next nine days. The first comes Thursday against No. 43 Panama in Atlanta, and then Group C play will close 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’s ever represented this country.
Christian Pulisic goal, assist vs. Bolivia at Copa America 2024
Pulisic figured in each of the first-half goals that earned this victory at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium. He scored the first in the third minute, tricking Bolivia by taking a corner kick short and then driving toward the left edge of the box to launch a screaming, bending shot into the upper righthand corner of the net. Pulisic said the play was the design of set-piece coach Gianni Vio, whom he acknowledged in the midst of the celebration.
Bolivia's plan to stack its defense in the box and either earn a draw or steal a victory with a counterattack goal was spoiled inside 270 seconds. And its hope to get anything at all out of the game was wrecked just before halftime, when Pulisic drove the ball through the center of the defense and found Folarin Balogun near the spot from which the first goal had been scored. Balogun's goal wasn't quite the rocket that had come from Pulisic, but it counted the same and placed the opposition in a position from which it was unlikely to win.
"It was huge for us to start like this — and to start like this in the game, to get the early goal," Pulisic told TUDN. "We should bring some momentum into the next game, because we have some tough games ahead of us."
Christian Pulisic record with USMNT
Pulisic's goal was the 30th of his career. It came with Pulisic aged 25 years, 279 days, moving him him into a fifth-place tie on the USMNT career scoring list, with U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame Brian McBride, and in the 69 appearance of Pulisic's international career.
One co-leader in national team goals, Landon Donovan, was 25 years, 21 days old when his hat trick in a March 2007 friendly against Ecuador pushed him to the 30-goal mark. Donovan, though, did not arrive there until his 87 cap.
Pulisic's assist on the Balogun goal placed him at No. 7 on the USMNT career list. He is unlikely ever to reach Donovan in that category — Landon is No. 1 with 58 assists, and No. 2 Michael Bradley is at 23 — but Christian became the first to record assists in five difference competitions. And performances like Sunday's make his case as the national team's greatest player increasingly robust.
Christian Pulisic career with USMNT and at club level
If the argument were about the nation's most accomplished men's player, I could finish this column by the time this sentence finds its period. Pulisic has been an essential player for a UEFA Champions League winner, scoring the decisive goal in Chelsea's semifinal against Real Madrid in 2021 and later setting up the series clincher with a pristine pass. He has played Champions League with Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan, as well.
He won the DFB-Pokal, Germany's cup tournament, with Dortmund. In 2023-24 at Milan, his first year in Italy, he was named to the Serie A Team of the Season by the stat service Opta.
In this context, though, with the USMNT commencing its last major tournament in advance of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, what is more germane is whether Pulisic has passed Donovan as the national team's best.
Both players had their seminal World Cup moments. 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 advance the U.S. out of their group required he 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 ever to reach 100 caps. Pulisic has missed more time to injury, but the greatest difference is the US played 16 more games in Donovan's first nine seasons than in Pulisic's, largely because the COVID-19 pandemic restricted the USMNT to three games in 2020.
Give Pulisic a full season there, and how many more goals would he have? Give him a typical World Cup qualifying process, not one strung through an icy winter and stacked into three-game windows by necessity, and how much more dominant might he have been? He scored five times in 10 qualifiers, with coach Gregg Berhalter having no choice but to rotate his lineups with so many games in such a short time frame.
Donovan set a remarkable standard with his play for the USMNT. And he appeared in three World Cups for the U.S.; Pulisic only has one to date, and will need one or two more to approach Donovan's standard for achievement.
No one, though, has achieved more in fewer opportunities than Pulisic. It might not be long before this isn't even a debate.
