Pulisic mulls over Germany defeat: “These are games which we want to win”
The USNMT captain spoke after the 1-3 defeat to Germany in Connecticut. “We made little mistakes here and there. Defensively, we can better”.
After Gregg Berhalter’s return to the USMNT coaching post was finalized, one of the pillars of his project continues to be Christian Pulisic, who scored one of the goals of the weekend. The captain’s stunning 26th minute-strike wasn’t enough to hand his team victory in Saturday’s friendly against Germany - a couple of lapses at the back in the second half cost the Stars and Stripes the match, as Berhalter acknowledged in his post-match analysis.
Pulisic agreed with the coach that on this occasion, Germany were the better side but the USMNT need to look back at the mistakes made and learn from them .
Talking to TNT’s pitchside reporter after the game, the USMNT’s football and spiritual leader said: “Of course it hurts. We had a good start to the game, I felt like we hurt them in a lot of moments. But you know, little mistakes here and there, defensively we can be a little better and obviously we have to give them credit - they have some unbelievable players, they played a strong game,” he admitted.
Saturday’s game was the USMNT’s first test against European opposition since the defeat to the Netherlands at last year’s World Cup finals in Qatar. With the United States hosting the next edition of the tournament, Pulisic hopes the team can step up a level or two over the next couple of years. “These are games which we want to start finding ways to win,” he said, with reference to the Round of 16 defeat to the Netherlands which effectively ended the team’s World Cup campaign.
Stunning strike
On a brighter note, Pulisic spoke about his own involvement in the game. He played 74 minutes, had a goal disallowed for offside on five minutes and opened the scoring with a fantastic strike into the top corner - his 27th goal for the national team. “A great goal. I don’t know if I was offside as well in the other one. There were a few calls today that weren’t great. It’s nice to score, but it doesn’t really mean much because obviously we want to win these games”. Regarding the target that was invalidated, the shots shown are not really conclusive.
What’s next for the USMNT?
Despite the setback, the USMNT captain is optimistic and hopeful of a better in the team’s next game, against Ghana in Nashville on Tuesday, as he ended, “I think we did some good things, we have to take the positives, obviously learn from some of our mistakes like we talked about. We have another opportunity against Ghana game in a few days and we just have to go out and turn it around there”.