Christian Pulisic totally shut me up during USMNT’s World Cup victory over Paraguay

There's no chance the USA can make noise at the World Cup if Christian Pulisic is the team's best player.

Believe it or not, it's what myself and probably countless other people thought leading up to the World Cup opener for Mauricio Pochettino and Co. against Paraguay. I'll flat out say it, for the longest time, I've thought Pulisic has been overrated, and that the 'Captain America' hype has been a bit overblown. I even thought Paraguay could potentially pull off an upset with Julio Enciso suiting up.

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Let this be my way of apologizing to you, Christian - I was so wrong. Yes, it may have just been the first game of the 2026 World Cup for the red, white and blue, but a convincing win over Paraguay, a South American sleeper, was posted despite the USA being on upset watch. And let's make one thing clear, Pulisic was the star of the show, with him giving the Paraguayan defense all sorts of issues flying down the wing in his 45 minutes of action (subbed off for what looks to be a minor injury).

Christian Pulisic was brilliant for the USA in the convincing World Cup win vs. Paraguay

In the USA's 4-1 win at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Pulisic most definitely played a huge role in the first two goals for the home team. Jumping ahead to the second one, Pulisic received a brilliant ball from left back Antonee Robinson, took a couple touches, and then put a ball on a platter for Folarin Balogun to fire into the back of the net, as you can see in the video above.

On the first goal, Damian Bobadilla was guilty of the own goal, but it was Pulisic's brilliant dribbling that ended up having the ball find the back of the net. He sliced his way through a pair of defenders before firing a pass in the box that, again, ended up putting the USA up 1-0.

Balogun is of course getting a ton of love right now too and understandably so. But right now, it's time for Pulisic to get his flowers, and it surely means the world to him right now. Throughout the past few months, life on the pitch had been brutal for him.

He was going through a rough end of the season with AC Milan, while he also posted a career-worst scoring drought for the USMNT as well. Thankfully, things ended with his finish against Senegal in a friendly in late May, a game the USA won 3-2. Before scoring in that victory, Pulisic hadn't celebrated a goal in five months for club or country - his last goal before that came for AC Milan in late December. He also didn't score for the USA since November 2024 before doing so against Senegal.

Because of those problems, people were questioning whether or not he'd have enough confidence to help guide the USA to a memorable run in the World Cup. Again, I'll admit it, I thought Pulisic was going to do more harm than good for Mauricio Pochettino and his staff, with him being overrated being something that was consistently on my mind.

All it took was one half for Pulisic to shut myself and so many other people across the planet up. He could not have played better against Paraguay, and the team's start to this World Cup simply could not have gone better either. With Australia up next, the U.S. reaching six points after two games is very much in the cards, and a warning message has been sent to Turkey.

Pulisic likely saw plenty of the negative outside noise, but it fueled him to be a complete and total stud with everyone watching him in front of a packed crowd in Los Angeles. I'll raise my hand and apologize, Captain America. This was the kind of showing that reminds everyone you're the leader of this team, and an elite playmaker we all need to take seriously.

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