When Christian PulisichThe captain of the national football team announced last spring that he would choose a vacation from the presentation of his country in Concacaf gold – The last major tournament in front of the world championship next summer – the blow was tough and often personal.
Last season, he played in his career for 3650 minutes for AC Milan and appeared in 118 games for the club and the country in the previous 22 months. According to him, he needed a break to relax and the body.
Nevertheless, the decision to make this break was attacked as a selfish, selfish and act of betrayal.
“Not wanting to play in a golden cup, it will be angry with me” Landon DonovanAccording to the time, the leader of the national program in the field of programs and the leader for purposes.
“I just can’t understand what rejects the privilege to represent my country,” added Alexy LalasFormer defender of the national team.
Four months later, however, it seems that Pulishic made the right decision. Seven weeks after the new season, having rested and the busy Pulisic leads the Italian series and with four goals to go with two gears. He scored six times in all competitions, the best beginning of the season during his 11-year career.
This is good for the United States for eight months, embarrassed by the World Cup, which he will accept. And the performance also reassured most of the criticism.
“He performs, and he plays under high pressure,” – USMNT Mauricio Pochettino coach He said at the conference last week. “He needs to play every week and every game in a place like Milan.”
“Christian is a great player,” he added. “I think we can say that he is the most important player for the national team.”
Christian Pulis A.K. Milan controls the ball against Napoli on September 28.
(Marco Luzzani / Getty images)
In fact, you could say that the last part is long before this time, since Pulisic leads the active players of the national team at speeches (80), goals (32) and programs (19). If he continues to score at this pace, he will pass both Donovan and Clint Dampsi to become a leading scorer in the history of the United States.
And at the age of 27, he was almost halfway to the Cobie Jones record of 164 playing games.
Therefore, although his commitment to the national team was interrogated last summer, he paid his contributions – sometimes blood and bruises. For example, in the last world championship, Pulishic was in the hospital after he scored a fearless goal in the first half against Iran, who sent the United States to a knockout.
But it was obvious that something was not last spring, when he played poorly in the losses of the Litargic League of Nations in Canada and Panama. There is a pressure on an attempt to carry a national team And One of the largest clubs in Italy, through an incredibly crowded crunch, made him flee for pairs. Thus, after consulting with technical, medical and high -performance staff of American football, he decided to relax and recover over the past summer in front of the World Cup.
And although it was angry with experts – and it seemed also upset by Pochettino – it is difficult to argue with the results.
Although Pulishic was missed during the Golden Cup, his absence gave other players a chance to shine – and the United States made the finale without it. Then, in the two September comrades, the revived and renewed Pulishic was brilliant, especially in victory with a score of 2: 0 over Japan, in which Pochettino switched to form with a score of 3-4-3.
Pochettino can be the coach of the national team, but there is no doubt about his leader. Therefore, he will need to repeat these September speeches in the friendly matches of this month with the qualifying qualifying championships of the world Ecuador (Friday) and Australia (October 14) in order to maintain the preparation of Americans for the next summer.
“This is a player who acts and is a player who is really important to us. We cannot hide, and we cannot lie, ”said Pochettino. “He needs to save this level. Now this is the most important thing. ”
Pulis had the courage to do what was right for himself last summer, just as Donovan did when he took his very criticized football vacation in 2013. It was worth Donovan, the captain of the captain with the galaxy and his place in the national team of Jurgen Klinsmann.
Nevertheless, he scored eight goals and received eight programs in 10 matches with the national team when he returned in 2013 and installed career maximums for programs (14) and the protocol (2716) in the MLS next year.
The rest clearly made it well. This obviously did the same for Pulisic.
⚽ You read the last part of the Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you by the scenes and illuminates unique stories. Listen to Baxter in the episode of this week Podcast “Corner of the Galaxy”Field
