Chelsea Ace Christian Pulisic Ready to Lead USMNT at World Cup |

Christian Pulisic, Captain America, is a lot of things. He’s the first American to play in and win a Champions League final, a three-time U.S. Soccer Federation player of the year and, arguably, the greatest June and July player in Premier League history.

Look up the stats from “Project Restart” in 2020, and you’ll see that his most prominent purple patch as a pro came during that summer with Chelsea.

That may have been the highest high for Pulisic at Chelsea so far. Unfortunately, the 24-year-old enters the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar coming off what is probably the lowest low of his pro career. He’s started only six of Chelsea’s 23 games this season, going the full 90 only once.

The managerial switch from Thomas Tuchel to Graham Potter didn’t lead to increased playing time for Pulisic, as he’s only scored one goal and registered one assist in 13 appearances, ten of them coming off the bench, under the new gaffer.

Last winter Pulisic discussed how his role at Chelsea is also a hot topic of conversation whenever he’s at U.S.A. camp.

“It’s always when I come to the national team, it’s: ‘How are things at Chelsea? How — what’s this, what’s that?”, the Hershey, PA native said. “and, yeah, it’s tough. It’s tough. It’s definitely played a lot on me, and mentally it’s been difficult at times.”

But the 24-year-old struck a very different tone after today’s training session.

It’s unreal for me to be here at a World Cup,” Pulisic said.

“Just the whole feeling to be with these guys to play on the biggest stage. You know, it’s been a dream of mine my whole life, so I’m just very excited to be here.”

He’s ready for the biggest stage in the world’s biggest sporting event.

“I feel like I’ve played in some big games,” Pulisic said.

“I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ve done a lot of things, but what I want to do with the World Cup is something on top of all of that. It’s something when I was a kid in Pennsylvania growing up, 5 to 10 years old, that’s all I thought about was the World Cup.”

“All those emotions and stuff that you’re not ready for, it always hits you. It hits you, and you feel it,” he said.

“You feel the big moments coming every day. Laying in bed at night, when it gets a day closer, you feel it a little bit more, so that’s how it goes.”