Pulisic Leads USMNT Into Friday Opener — Usa Game Tomorrow
usa game tomorrow lands at SoFi Stadium on Friday evening, when the U.S. men’s national team opens its tournament in Inglewood. Christian Pulisic says the group’s long shared history gives it “that extra level of comfort” as the team steps into a home World Cup with pressure attached.
Pulisic and McKennie
Pulisic and Weston McKennie first met as 13-year-old boys on a bus heading to a U.S. under-14 training camp. Nearly a decade and a half ago, they were also tossing wads of chewed gum from a hotel stairwell at a California hotel, a detail that fits the years of time they have spent around one another before this opening match.
That familiarity now runs through the squad. Four players from the 2012 under-14 identification camp — Pulisic, McKennie, Haji Wright and Alejandro Zendejas — are in the United States group for this home World Cup, and Timothy Weah and Tyler Adams were added a few months later in another camp for the same age group.
USMNT Path Since 2012
The bond did not stop at youth camps. Three years later, Wright, Pulisic, Zendejas, Adams and Auston Trusty played together at a FIFA Under-17 World Cup, Antonee Robinson joined in 2014 as a 17-year-old left back from Milton Keynes, England, and Sergiño Dest followed at a U-17 camp in 2016 as a 16-year-old Dutch-American.
Chris Richards entered the picture in 2018 at an ID camp as a 17-year-old center back from Birmingham, Ala., giving Mauricio Pochettino a core that has grown together through youth national-team stages and into this tournament. Pulisic called that continuity a source of motivation on Thursday, saying, “It helps, it just gives you that extra level of comfort,” and adding, “You want to fight for guys like that.”
Golden Generation Pressure
The larger backdrop is blunt. The U.S. men’s team has been called a golden generation, but the program has won only one knockout game since 1990. That history turns Friday evening’s opener into more than a first group match; it is the first chance for a group built over years to show that its old connections can carry into a home World Cup.
Pulisic said the relationships are personal, not abstract. “I played with some of these guys for so long, you don’t want to let them down,” he said. “You want to give them everything, you want to have their back always.” He added, “And I think that pushes you through in tough times,” which is the standard this team will carry into SoFi Stadium.
