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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The longer Christian Pulisic went without a goal – and it had already been five months – the longer he knew he’d have to face questions about it.
The U.S. men’s national team star wasn’t panicking. He had gone through ruts like this before. Maybe not quite as long, but substantial enough that he knew things would turn eventually.
“Sometimes one will bounce off your knee and go in,” he said earlier this week. “And then it seems like everything goes in after that.”
With the World Cup approaching, more pressure was building in the wait for that moment. In the end, Pulisic didn’t need a lucky bounce off of his knee.
The AC Milan attacking star was the catalyst in the Americans’ 3-2 win over Senegal on Sunday afternoon, setting up Sergiño Dest’s 7th-minute opener and then finding the back of the net himself with a composed finish in the 20th minute.
It was Pulisic’s first goal of any kind since December 28, 2025, and his first goal for the U.S. since November 18, 2024, a span of eight caps. And when he let out a scream during his celebration, it was a sign not just of how much it meant to him that the drought was over, but also that the talk about it wouldn’t make it to June, either.
Asked after the game if it was a relief his finish would end any such questioning, Pulisic’s three-word answer was honest and blunt.
“Yeah,” he said. “It is.”
It will be a massive relief for U.S. fans, too.
The reality is that the ceiling of this team is dictated by Pulisic. He is the country’s best player and its most dangerous. He has historically performed his best on the biggest stages, and that was true in Qatar, where he set up the Americans’ World Cup opener against Wales and then scored the decisive goal against Iran to send the U.S. to the knockout stage, sacrificing his groin along the way.
Pulisic, at his best, is a menacing threat for opposing teams. He is most dangerous when in space running at defenders or arriving in the box to finish chances. He has a fantastic understanding of how to get on the end of things in the box, and he is capable of creating goals for himself and others, a quality of short supply in this U.S. pool.
The first-half production brought Pulisic’s total USMNT goal contributions to 52, surpassing Eric Wynalda into sole possession of fourth all-time, behind only Landon Donovan (115), Clint Dempsey (76) and Jozy Altidore (56).
Earlier this week, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino looked to inflate the confidence of his star by declaring that Pulisic, “is going to score in the World Cup.”
“I really trust in that,” the Argentine said.
There will have been relief for Pochettino, too, that Pulisic looked so confident against Senegal from the first whistle.
The team’s No. 10 nearly set up a goal just three minutes in, but Gio Reyna did not arrive into the space at the top of the six in time to finish. Just four minutes later, Pulisic made a smart run to the inside of Ricardo Pepi, took the feed from the PSV forward and found Dest arriving for an easy finish.
In the 20th minute, Pulisic made another dangerous run in behind the back line, with Pepi again finding him, this time down the right channel, and Pulisic easing around Senegal goalkeeper Mory Diaw to finish into an empty net.
Christian Pulisic scores around Senegal goalkeeper Mory Diaw to give the USMNT a 2-0 lead (Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)
It was the type of Pulisic performance that makes the U.S. its most dangerous in the final third. He was moving around the field, attacking Senegal from the left, central and right, and creating moments with every player around him. He looked more like the player who tore up Serie A in the fall with 10 goals and three assists through his first 15 games.
His teammates saw the player they had no doubt would show up.
“Any player goes through high and low moments in their career,” said teammate and good friend Weston McKennie, who first met Pulisic as 13-year-olds tossing gum at palm trees during their first U.S. youth national team identification camp. “Obviously the outside world may have been worried, and questioning what he’s gonna look like, and is he gonna be in form, but I think Christian has shown countless times on club level, and on country level, that he shows up in the moments when we need him the most.
“He has the support from us, and always has the support from the team and his close people around him. We believe in him. And he wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t the player that he is and the person that he is. Obviously it’s amazing for all of us to witness it and see him break that spell.”
Pulisic earlier this week refused to point to any one thing when asked about the drought. It was some mix of form, formation, role and sheer bad luck.
“I don’t try to place blame or figure out problems, to be honest,” he said. “There are moments where I could have done a lot better, and it was a difficult time for our team. It was a difficult time for me.”
Christian Pulisic runs at Senegal defender Krepin Diatta in Sunday’s pre-World Cup friendly (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
But Pulisic said he never changed the way he approached the job. He trained the same way. He prepared as best he could. Pochettino noted on Sunday that he felt Pulisic’s approach was translating to the national team, too.
“How he played 45 minutes was the habits that he created in the last week every day, training with this attitude, commitment, with this energy,” the manager said.
Pulisic, who became just the fourth player to reach 20 assists for the USMNT, following Donovan (58), Michael Bradley (23) and Cobi Jones (22), said that going into the Senegal game he didn’t doubt himself as much as maybe others were.
“I’ve felt this confidence, like I played really well in recent months too, but all people seem to care about was goals,” Pulisic told reporters. “So hopefully now people can stop talking about it.”
They will. Or at least that’s true for the next 12 days. Because when the U.S. kicks off against Paraguay on June 12, it will need Pulisic to play the way he played in the first half on Sunday. It will need that confidence to still be there, but, more importantly, it will need the goals he creates and scores.
Sunday’s win over Senegal was an enormous confidence boost — for the team, for the fans, for Pulisic. It also reinforced belief around the team’s star player. When he arrived as a teenager a decade ago, he represented hope for the next generation of the USMNT. That hope was built around this summer.
Those who know him best have no doubt Pulisic will live up to those expectations.
“We count on him in a lot of things,” McKennie said. “He’ll come through when we need him.”
