Paul Mullin of media darling Wrexham got injured pretty badly playing here last summer... Against the thugs of Manchester United
With a few exceptions, the Premier League is borderline unwatchable. At some point, they might as well just play rugby instead of soccer. LaLiga and Serie A at least play soccer.
The Premier League is like ballet dancing compared to when it was formed. "Get into them, forget the ball!"
No doubt Stu Holden would tell you it's like ballet dancing as opposed to back in his day, waaaaaaaaay back when...
There's one particular stadium a bit known for ACL injuries. Think it is where the Washington Commanders play. Not limited to soccer. Playing on turf sometimes seen as an issue, but I am not sure how often they do it. Otherwise... no more risk than playing a friendly anywhere else.
No more than anywhere else. And the day is HERE when its MLS clubs doing these pre-season tours. Inter Miami and Messi are going on a money-making preseason tour to Asia. [And playing FC Dallas in the friggin' Cotton Bowl. That'll be the most attended game of the season for Dallas. Preseason against Inter Miami.] These big Euro clubs are always going to go on pre-season tours of the states. Big money making opportunity. And yes......................it would be great for Milan to do so. People would go anyway, but Pulisic & Musah are a draw.
Christian Pulisic rates his USMNT teammates 📈🇺🇸 Weston McKennie when he finds out who is Christian’s best friend: 👁️👄👁️ pic.twitter.com/q20tRjfVLC— USMNT 1ˢᵗ 🇺🇸🥇 (@USMNTFirst) June 14, 2024
Christian Pulisic................ ..............is one goal away from catching Brian McBride for 5th all time on the USMNT goalscoring chart. He's 25 years old. Yikes.
It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that he catches Eric Wynalda for 4th this summer either. He would need 5 goals (meaning he would need a monster tournament) but Wynalda himself scored 3 goals at the last Copa America he participated in during our semi-final run. Either way, if not this summer, he's obviously going to pass McBride and Wynalda before too long.
0.93 - Christian Pulisic averages 0.93 goal contributions per 90 minutes in competitive matches for the #USMNT, the highest rate in team history (min. 1500 competitive minutes played). Example. pic.twitter.com/hbHBzkDlCG— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) June 24, 2024
Maybe not better. But he was playing in the Bundesliga when the others were playing for their high schools.
I think we're very close to admitting that Pulisic is the best player in the history of the USMNT. We've all known that talent-wise he's there. But he did need to rocket up the stats chart to get close to Donovan and Dempsey before really being able to have the discussion. [I'm talking play for the USMNT. Leaving club performance aside.] He's as important to the USMNT as Donovan was in the early-to-mid 2000s. We were completely and totally dependent on Donovan. The percentage of goals that Donovan either scored or assisted on in the decade of 2001-2010 is insane. I wish I could remember that number off the top of my head. Pulisic has every chance to catch Donovan and Dempsey in goals. But he's still way off of Donovan on assists. Landon Donovan 58 Michael Bradley 23 Cobi Jones 22 Clint Dempsey 21 Claudio Reyna 19 Christian Pulisic 18 Maybe if Pulisic had an actual #9 we could reliably trust to put the ball in the back of the net, he'd have more assists. He could have/should have had a couple more against Bolivia. That Donovan assist total might be unreachable. If there's one current USMNT record that might stand for 100 years, its that assist total. 18 assists for Pulisic at 25 years old is nothing to sneeze at. That's more than Beasley, Ramos, Stewart, Harkes, etc. had in their careers. He'll probably end up finishing 2nd in USMNT career assists, and still be far off Donovan. The 50 international assists club is very exclusive, by the way. Neymar got there. Messi got there. Cristiano Ronaldo is very close. He's at 47.
there is a comical stretch in this thread from 3 or 4 years ago discussing the fact that Pulisic had lost it
I feel like Pulisic is the first player from this group we are seeing reach his full potential. He's gotten past a lot of injuries and difficult seasons and has grown into a much better player today than he was in years past. He can play all along the front line and in an attacking midfield role and be extremely effective in any of them. He's a very dangerous player to have to try and defend with his quickness, close control and aggressiveness. He will keep coming at you and eventually you're going to need help or you're going to have to chop him down. His decision making has gotten better, his confidence has grown, and this team would be much better off if the rest of the squad showed his level of passion and focus on the field. He's a leader and a guy who just shows that will to win. I like having him as the captain. I tend to prefer his lead by example style and every player looks up to him. He's not a perfect player, but I'm ready to call him the best American player ever at this point, and he's still got another decade of games ahead of him still and probably another 5 or more playing at his current level. Baring injuries it's only a matter of watching the records fall in years to come.
We'll see. We all thought Donovan would play longer and put the caps and goals records out of reach. Then he really faded.................. Dempsey and Donovan weren't actually at their best for the USMNT for very long. Donovan faded and Dempsey rose. [Then Dempsey had his heart issue which put him out of the picture.] And with Donovan it all seemed mental. He was still in great physical shape for much of that period (until about 2014 when he had let himself go............by his standards). It was mental. Then we thought Bradley would crush the caps record, and that didn't happen either. So its easy to say Pulisic will play for another 10 years and crush all of these records. Might not happen. We should just enjoy the Pulisic of 2024 as much as we can. This "in his prime" version of Christian Pulisic might be the best player we've ever had. [And that includes the goalkeepers.]
I will say this - your family and support system is very important with the pressure these athletes face ... say what you will about Gio's parents - but they support him greatly ... Pulisic has incredibly supportive parents ... who knows - perhaps if Donovan had a better family situation growing up he might have done even more in Europe (instead of coming back to the Galaxy when he did) .... support systems matter and particularly for our younger athletes when they head overseas in the middle of their teenage years ... it is just not easy.
Your argument here is that 17 year old McBride and Wynalda and the rest would have been starting for the US. Me, I just mark it down to Pulisic being exceptional because it takes an exceptional player to make a good national team when he’s still in high school. You treated the “head start” as a negative which makes no sense. Instead the head start is a positive.