Christian Pulisic is the “catalyst and leader” for the United States and their World Cup dreams.
Chelsea winger Pulisic is a megastar in the US and is also regarded as a crucial player in the squad which is set to be the youngest at the whole tournament.
US boss Gregg Berhalter said: “He’s the catalyst. he’s the guy who can jumpstart everything, can make everything happen because of his ability. It’s not to add pressure to him because without everyone else performing well, he’ll have no opportunity to do that. But that’s what I mean. He’s like the tip of the iceberg, he’s like that last bit, that really can put you over the top with his special quality.
“That’s his MO. His MO is that if he’s not counted on by a manager then he’s going to prove that manager wrong. He’s going to train as hard as he can, then when he gets on the field he’s going to fight for that jersey, fight for that club, he’s going to show that he should be and deserves to be on the field.
“That’s what I really admire about him. It’s the transformation. He doesn’t feel bad for himself, he doesn’t feel sorry for himself, he just goes and does his work. That’s his quality.”
Berhalter also believes there are two sides to whether it is an advantage to have such a young squad as they will play with no fear but will lack some experience.
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He added: “I think it’s dual sided. It definitely helps to have guys going in there with open eyes, without fear but the other side of it is the understanding of what the World Cup is. And I think we’re lacking that.
“The World Cup is a different soccer tournament. There’s different pressures, a lot of different attention around these games and we’re going to need to come to terms with that.
“We’ll maybe have one guy on the whole roster who’s ever been to a World Cup before so, for us, we’ll have to come to terms with what the World Cup really is if we want to be successful.”
