“I’ve had this happen before in my career," Christian Pulisic declared before USA's warm-up match against Senegal. "There’s difficult times and then sometimes, one will bounce off your knee and go in, and then it seems like everything goes in after that."
After going almost six months without a goal, the AC Milan forward's scoreless slump has been one of the major talking points about the Stars and Stripes squad going into the World Cup on home soil.
Pulisic, though, believed that it was just a matter of time before he would find the target — all he needed was one moment to silence the doubters and change the narrative around his drop in form.
That moment came 19 minutes into clash with African heavyweights Senegal at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium on Sunday. After being played through by Ricardo Pepi, Pulisic expertly rounded Senegal stopper Mory Diaw and found the target in style to give the Americans a 2-0 lead.
Pulisic's celebrations told their own story as he ran to the corner flag, sunk to his knees and pumped his fists.
"It's great to score again, hopefully people can stop talking about [the slump]," he told TNT Sports afterwards. "I feel great and I'm really proud of the performance the guys put in today."
The well-earned 3-2 victory, sealed by Folarin Balogun, provided a much-needed confidence boost to a team, who were comfortably defeated by Belgium and Portugal in March, although the absence of the injured Chris Richards in defence was noticeable.
“The performance of Christian, for 45 minutes, was really, really good,” USA coach Mauricio Pochettino told reporters. “He still has the potential to improve. But I think it is the way that he is training from day one.
“How he played for 45 minutes was the habits that he created last week. Every day training with this attitude, with this commitment, with this energy.... I think now we need to try to extend (it) until 90 minutes. I am happy for him also because after a long time, a few months, he scored again. Obviously, that is important for our players in the preparation [for] the World Cup.”
USA next face Germany in Chicago on 6 June, where Matt Freese is poised to start in goal and Pulisic will have a new-found spring in his step.
Sources: FIFA Official
