My comment was intended to be somewhat tongue in cheek. Sorry, I should have added a "" emoji. BTW, I've been a fan of the Croatia national team since 1996.
My main point was Pukstas, much less his nationality, had nothing to do with the post that suggested others are conflating the Croatian league with the Croation national team (whether that's true or not). And the response was he's Lithuanian, which made no sense. He's equally American. He grew up here and has said himself he wants to represent the USNT. That was what I was getting at with the moreso American comment - while he's proud and very in touch with his Lithuanian roots, he appears to be culturally, and in soccer, American. At least by his comment and upbringing in American soccer.
🇺🇸💥 𝐑𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐒 𝐏𝐔𝐊𝐒̌𝐓𝐀𝐒 (𝟐𝟏) in the 2025/26 HNL• 9 Games• 4 Goals• 8.4 Duels Won per game (59%)• 3.1 Ball Recovered per game• 1.2 Key Passes per game• 1.6 Successful Take-Ons per game (57%)Breakthrough Season for this TOP BOX-TO-BOX MIDFIELDER 🪄 pic.twitter.com/DEl6ZVy1XR— Rising Stars XI (@RisingStarXI) October 8, 2025
Pukstas gets yet another start. Good guys come in with a three match winning streak, HNK Gorica come in on a there match losing streak. Hajduk even on points with Dinamo Zagreb at the top.
Lots of good ratings to go around on Hajduk Split as they take an early lead and don't look back in a 3-1 win. 90 minutes and a yellow card for Pukstas, with a somewhat shocking 20/31 on duels - so many that he led the match in duels lost while still winning 65% of his duels. Seems like a man who was damn stuck in. Hajduk pushes into first place though Dinamo Zagreb are still to play this Matchday.
Early cup match and Pukstas CAPTAINS the side against Cibalia, a midtable second division side from a town about as far away as you can get from Split while sill being in Croatia. I don't remember ever seeing him being given the armband before.
He scored on one of the PK's. I believe he got the armband as recognition for his performance on Friday, where he was all over the place. On a nice goal that was taken away by VAR, he started the counter-attack on their own defensive third of the field and assisted on it via header...really nice play.
For those interested, this is an interview Rokas did with CBS Sports 2 weeks ago. He's a bit more polished than before in interviews, so I wouldn't say there are any juicy nuggets here: