Christian Pulisic

nasir6371 wrote:

Only one showed up for a world cup qualifier this week

Hapless_Hans wrote:Everyone who has followed his time at BVB 'rates' him. Fantastic young player.

CBarca wrote:The biggest problem is and has always been that football just doesn't have a culture here yet. It's building but at the youth level all of the most talented athletes go to other sports (basketball, American football, swimming, hockey etc). That matters. Will that change? Maybe... I'm not sure.

In the face of not having the best athletes, as we typically do, the focus should be on development of technique and skill, but the coaching is garbage from youth level to national.

breva wrote:MLS has 22 teams going to 24 in 2020. The U.S. has a modest talent base (players that have acceptable ball skills) for football. Probably less than Belgium whose league has 16 teams. What level of play do U.S. players encounter day in day out in the MLS?

European players join a club's academy and live football 24/7 from U13 on. They attend high school under the auspices of the academy and in Italy there is one additional year of pre-university education so they do the equivalent of the 1st year of university while at the academy if they are good enough. If they crash out say at age 19 and can't get a professional engagement, even in the lowest level paying league (I think Serie D these days, but maybe Eccellenza pays something too), they can decide go to university. In the U.S. a player plays on teams that their parents have to pay money for them to play (no where near 24/7) and then goes to university to play but it is not anywhere near 24/7 soccer there either.

Watching Argentina-Ecuador I think every player on the Argentine team except 2 Boca players play on decent clubs in Serie A, Premier League, La Liga (Port), La Liga or PSG. There may have been a Zenit player too.

Except for the guy that plays for Dortmund I don't think any player on the US team plays for a top European team. Heck even the Albanian team had 5 players from Serie A playing against Italy as well as a few Bundesliga players.

What I'm trying to say, the quality of the individual U.S. players is not above average compared to even mediocre (not terrible) teams from Europe and South America going to the WC.

Mr Nick09 wrote:guedes is better bro, have you not to seen him?

Christian Pulisic wrote:[..]
The first thing I want to say here, obviously, is that I’m not an expert. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who know a lot more about national soccer programs than I do — and I hope those are the people we’ll have in charge of American soccer over the next World Cup cycle. Me, I’m just a 19 year old, in my first full year with the national team. So any insight that I can offer is only based on what I’ve experienced and observed in my career so far.

The second thing I want to say here is that I’m not a prodigy — or a “wonderboy,” as some have put it. I was always, you know, a decent player growing up. And yes, I was born with a certain amount of so-called “natural ability.” But I also worked and sacrificed a lot to try to maximize what I was born with — which I think is important to point out. I think it’s important to make clear, you know, that the problem with American soccer … it isn’t talent. In fact, I’m sure there are kids who are going to be reading this article who are more talented at their age than I ever was.

And then the third thing I want to say here is that I love American soccer. Which maybe sounds obvious — but I think a lot of people have this weird idea of USMNT players who have come up in Europe. They’ll talk about how we’re somehow less passionate about U.S. Soccer, or less American about it. That we’re these ringers or something — these outsiders brought in as, like, a cheat code to beat European sides. And it couldn’t be further from the truth.

It really frustrates me when people say, “Oh, he’s barely American,” or, “He grew up in the Dortmund academy,” or anything like that. First of all, it’s not true: Until I was 16, I came up through the U.S. youth system. I did all of the camps, the academies, the residency programs, the travel teams, and everything else it had to offer. I’ll always be a part of that system, and I’ll always be indebted to it. Second of all, I think that’s just a dangerous attitude in general: Having a closed-minded view of what does or doesn’t constitute being an American. And I hope it’s an attitude that we can keep out of this conversation in the years to come.

When people ask me what has been the biggest game-changer of my career — when they ask me, you know, “What’s the one thing that has had the biggest impact on your game so far” — that isn’t the easiest question to answer. I’ve had a lot of good fortune over the years: from supportive parents, to amazing youth academies, to incredible teammates, and on down the line.

But one thing that I’m not sure people realize, when they talk about my game, is just how lucky I’ve been to have a Croatian passport — and just how much of a difference it’s made for me.

As a result of my dual citizenship, I’ve been able to play in Europe, training at the Dortmund academy, since I was 16. Without it? I would have had to wait until I was 18. And for a soccer player … man, ask anyone and they’ll tell you — those age 16–18 years are everything. From a developmental perspective, it’s almost like this sweet spot: It’s the age where a player’s growth and skill sort of intersect, in just the right way — and where, with the right direction, a player can make their biggest leap in development by far.

In the U.S. system, too often the best player on an under-17 team will be treated like a “star” — not having to work for the ball, being the focus of the offense at all times, etc. — at a time when they should be having to fight tooth and nail for their spot. In Europe, on the other hand, the average level of ability around you is just so much higher. It’s a pool of players where everyone has been “the best player,” and everyone is fighting for a spot — truly week in and week out. Which makes the intensity and humility that you need to bring to the field every day — both from a mental and physical perspective — just unlike anything that you can really experience in U.S. developmental soccer.

Without those experiences, there’s simply no way that I would be at anywhere close to the level that I am today.

"Yeah, I was. I was definitely a big fan (of United),Of course, right now I am under contract with Dortmund and I'm not looking around or doing anything like that so I'm very focused there. But, yeah, it's cool to hear all this stuff!"