I wouldn't call Pulisic into any of our NT's, not the U23s, not the full NT until his Dortmund season comes to an end. Let him stay over there and concentrate fully on developing and breaking into the team. For me NT duty would just be an unnecessary distraction and take him out of his day to day, week to week flow. Then when the Copa A camp comes around, bring him in.
I share the same concerns that @jond has. He picks up a knock in NT training, he misses 1 month, goes back to the youth teams, doesn't sniff the BVB first side until next year. Or the travel/games can wear him down. Or on the other side, playing with our NT only helps his confidence and develops his game even more. It's a tough situation. I'd love to see him in a NT crest in March but I guess it comes down to, "how much better does Pulisic make our U23s and NT right now?".
In that case, I'm hoping it is on FIFA dates and Dortmund allows it. True, he hasn't played up for us but he never did for his club senior team either and look how well he did. Yes, as I stated earlier if RR is back then probably Pulisic may not be that much of a need. I guess we will know soon enough how well JK and his coaching staff feels about the kid. Remember, we took Green to a WC, so anything is possible with the "mad baker".
Agree with taking it easy on the Nat team call up. The only question for me would be how much he could affect the outcome of the Colombia play off.
I have seen LD since he was about 8-9, so I will say this, LD has a better top speed than Pulisic hands down BUT Pulisic is way shiftier than LD ever was. Will Pulisic ever get to LD's status? It will depend if he continues to progress and if he is lucky enough to avoid any serious injury.
Playing a side like Colombia for a spot in the Olympics represents the type of matches where he'd get hacked down repeatedly, increasing his chance of injury. I expect it do be dirty. And as Clint alluded to, he also isn't familiar with the side which hurts his potential impact. I'd also say if our U23s can't get to the Olympics without a 17 yr old coming in and saving the day, they don't deserve to go. That doesn't bother me personally all that much. And TBH, i'd think breaking into the Dortmund team and potentially being a regular sub option this season as a 17 yr old(which is his next step) gives more confidence than playing with our U23s just as I'd assume hypothetically breaking into Arsenal and getting sub mins would be a considerable more confidence booster for Zelalem than playing with our U23s. That club level when it comes to level of competition is levels above our U23s. There's more benefit to the U23s when your club level is quite a bit lower than what Dortmund/Bund represents. For a Morris type, I see much more benefit. I also see a benefit to a youngster who wants to use the U23s to showcase himself for a move to a top league, but again, Pulisic doesn't fit that scenario. A guy like Acosta though...
That's a bit too simplistic to say for certain, but it's likely. Pulisic is currently by far the most likely of the prospects on the horizon to surpass him, the only one, really. There's a lot still to do between "here" and "there."
So he'd be the best player we've ever produced, pretty much. I just hope that by the time this kid retires, a long long time from now, that we have 5-6 of him ready to go.
What can I say? BVB is a big, quality team. Just short of Bayern, Barcelona and the true giants. Probably a little better than Roma and Tottenham or maybe not. The point is that this is the level that Bradley, Dempsey and Donovan only achieved after years of toiling. Donovan in particular failed twice to make an impact. Pulisic has made it look effortless at 17 years of age and with no pro experience. Sometimes you can just tell.
You can compare the Bradley and Dempsey situations, but not the Donovan situation. That was just different altogether, and had as much to do with Donovan not liking where he was as anything.
You don't walk into a German team and do your thing. You come thru their academy and they put you on the pitch in your first start in a role where you can't fail. Dortmund isn't TeamKlinsmann. I saw Pulisic at WC 17's where he basically had no partners. He looked way better than anybody else but how much could he do by himself? He isn't as good as Donovan because he doesn't have Donovan's range but let's see how that goes.
Yes. Maybe we incorporate Nguyen now and at Copa A we put Pulisic just behind him ready to step in as crown prince.
I understand wanting to leave him at Dortmund, but at the same time you can't put the kid in bubble wrap. Pro soccer comes with the possibility of injury at Dortmund or with the US, part of the job. I hope the kid stays healthy and continues to progress. But I don't think worrying about injury is a reason to leave him at his club. He can just as easily get hurt there. I do think calling him away should be discussed with his club because being on good terms and progressing at his club will be very important to his progress as a player. A few games here and there for US youth teams will be far less helpful than getting regular time at a big club.
At the same time he could turn out to be one of these players that excels for his club but underwhelms for his country. There's just no way to know yet, and it's way too soon to make such proclamations IMO.
He will do well for the Nats because we don't have anybody playing his style other than Nguyen/Morris and Morris isn't a mid.
I find it highly unlikely we bring Pulisic to Copa America based on his one substitute appearance in the Bundesliga. Copa America won't be a time for experiments. Klinsmann will bring his "A" team as much as he can. Now........................I do hope we have a meaningless World Cup Qualifier (or two) in September at the end of this group phase. That should be the case if we take care of business against Guatemala. If that's the case I hope Klinsmann calls up Carter-Vickers, Pulisic, and Zelalem. As far as cap-tying, I'm much more worried about Carter-Vickers than Pulisic.
If Pulisic makes 5-7 more first team appearances with BVB and looks good would that vault him into our A team for you for Copa?
If we had some friendlies to integrate him prior to Copa America, then I think it would be a possibility. I don't think we're calling him in for the critical WCQers against Guatemala, so there are no chances to cap Christian prior to the Copa. He's presumably never played with a single one of our USMNT players or coaches. There are only 23 roster spots for the Copa America with three having to be goalkeepers. When you start writing out a projected roster, and start with the locks.......................it starts being a numbers game. Do people think Klinsmann is going to select Pulisic over Zardes? I don't. We have U18, U19, U20, and U23 national teams. Pulisic is so young that he hasn't represented any of them yet. He actually is the same player he was two weeks ago, when nobody was talking about the USMNT for him. Heck, I'm not convinced yet we'll call him up for the U23 Olympic qualifiers in March against Colombia. I think the perfect time to call him up would be the WCQer against St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Hopefully we'll be qualified or all-but-qualified for the hex by the time of that game. Then we can not only call him up, but start him.
I don't think JK will select Zardes over Pulisic either, though personally I certainly think he would have a better impact on the game than GZ.
Who's suggesting to bring him to Copa A based on one sub appearance? If he doesn't appear again for Dortmund this season, you really think people will be saying we need him for that tourney based on a single sub appearance way back in Jan? The idea is if he becomes a regular sub option for Dortmund and is seeing the pitch regularly by the end of the season, 17 or not, that's a player who can help our full NT. Most of our NT pool would never make the bench for Dortmund. After once again watching guys like Zardes and Finlay who can barely dribble or read the game, I couldn't care less if Pulisic is only 17 if he shows he's Dortmund standard. For my part, I don't think either Zardes or Finlay could appear for a Dortmund in a Bund match and look as up to the job as Pulisic did. Don't have the skill or speed of thought. I mean, our bar is quite low, frankly. None of that means to cap him! now. Give him the next 4 months to take the next step and become a regular sub. We're also a country where one of our arguable top 3-4 strikers has never even played a pro min, so... BTW, doesn't the pre-Copa A camp run for weeks like the GC camp does, with a couple friendlies? He'd have time to settle in. Of course, so much just comes down to the players' quality. Acosta, one camp cupcake, played out of position, thrown into the fire and looked the part. Kiesewetter, also looked the part. Finlay...like a deer in the headlights.