USMNT steamrolled by Germany after Pulisic's early golazo
Christian Pulisic scored early, Germany hit the USMNT with three unanswered goals en route to a 3-1 friendly victory over the Americans at Rentschler Field in Hartford on Saturday.
[ MORE: Upcoming USMNT schedule - friendlies, Gold Cup, Copa America ]
The Yanks went ahead in the 27th minute, when Pulisic unleashed a sensational curler from outside the penalty area (WATCH HERE), beating Marc-Andre ter Stegen to take his career tally to 27 international goals. Pulisic got on the ball along the sideline and immediately raced by Jonathan Tah before he turned former Chelsea teammate Antonio Rudiger atop the box, before sticking the ball in the top corner where goalkeeper Ter Stegen could never reach.
The 1-0 lead nearly lasted until halftime, but Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan combined cleverly outside, and then inside, the penalty area to pull the four-time world champions levels in the 39th minute. Sane went past a sea of blue shirts, plus Matt Turner, before laying the ball back to Gundogan, who slotted home from a tight angle.
[ MORE: USMNT roster for Germany, Ghana friendlies ]
Germany continued to take the game to the USMNT in the second half, and Julian Nagelsmann's side took the lead just before the hour mark, despite Turner making a series of saves and key blocks. There was little that Nottingham Forest's no. 1 could do, though, when Robin Gosens found Niclas Fullkrug with a clever first-time through ball in the 58th minute. Two USMNT defenders stepped to Gosens on the edge of the box, but the ball was away before the realized it, leaving Fullkrug one-on-one with Turner, and the goal at his mercy.
Three minutes later, Fulkrug turned provider as Musiala tried to weave his way through the USMNT defense. Weston McKennie and Tim Ream combined to poke the ball away from the Bayern Munich superstar, but it fell to Fullkrug, who quickly squared for Musiala inside the six-yard box. Ream was no match for the 20-year-old in a foot race to the spot, and it was 3-1 in the blink of an eye.
Germany’s midfield press eventually overruns USMNT
From the start, Germany set out to press the USMNT high up the field, refusing to let them build out of the back at will. Gregg Berhalter's side has grown more and more comfortable (and had plenty of success) passing their way upfield against lesser competition in recent months, but Saturday was a harsh (and perhaps necessary) reminder that further improvement is required to make deep runs at Copa America 2024 and the 2026 World Cup.
The Yanks finished with just 40 percent of possession and were out-shot 19-6 (7-3 on target; 5-1 in big chances created). Where the USMNT grew accustomed to playing through and around the likes of Uzbekistan and Oman, as well as fellow CONCACAF nations, Germany denied ball progression through the channels and forced everything out wide where they could trap Sergiño Dest and Joe Scally along the boundaries. Yunus Musah was as uninvolved in the game as he has perhaps ever been in a USMNT shirt, which meant that Pulisic, Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun were feeding on scraps after from the 30th minute onward.
Meanwhile, Gundogan, Musiala, Florian Wirtz and Pascal Gross played their way through central midfield with very little resistance and pulled the USMNT backline out of position, setting up the majority of their 3.15 xG (to just 0.26 for the USMNT). As has been discussed ad nauseam over the years, the USMNT's midfield is often a shell of its former self when Tyler Adams, who is now recovering from a setback to his torn hamstring, is absent.
Player ratings - USMNT vs Germany
USMNT vs Germany, final score: 1-3
Goalscorers: Christian Pulisic (27' - WATCH), Ilkay Gundogan (39'), Niclas Fullkrug (58'), Jamal Musiala (61')
USMNT starting lineup
Turner — Scally, Richards, Ream, Dest — McKennie, Musah, Reyna — Weah, Balogun, Pulisic
How to watch USMNT vs Germany live, stream link, start time
Kick off: 3pm ET (Saturday, Oct. 14)
TV channel en Espanol: Universo, Telemundo
Stream link: Watch live online via Peacock Premium en Espanol
Focus on USMNT
This is a big window for the USMNT as they host both Germany and Ghana in friendlies and we will get to see how big of an improvement this young team has made over the last 10 months since reaching the last 16 of the World Cup. In the last 10 months the USMNT have largely played against CONCACAF opponents, so we're not quite sure where they're at. These upcoming friendlies will give us a much better idea, especially as it seems like Berhalter will just carry on where he left off after his contract was not renewed at the end of last year pending an investigation into his personal conduct, but he was then re-hired after his former assistants Anthony Hudson and BJ Callaghan did superb jobs as the USMNT won the CONCACAF Nations League and a weakened roster came to within penalty kicks of reaching the Gold Cup final.
Influential midfielder and captain Tyler Adams is still missing after a reoccurrence of his hamstring injury, which is a big blow, while Cameron Carter-Vickers and Gio Reyna (he and Berhalter have held positive talks following the post-World Cup fallout) are back from injury and newbie Lennard Maloney is joined by youngsters Kevin Paredes and Kristoffer Lund. All eyes will be on the forward quartet of Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah, Folarin Balogun and Reyna to see how they click if they all play together and without Adams in midfield, extra responsibility will be given to duo of Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah who have both started the Serie A campaigns well for Juventus and AC Milan respectively.
Possible USMNT lineup vs Germany
Our very own Nick Mendola took a deep dive and looked at which players could start for Gregg Berhalter, with the biggest questions in defense as some regulars have been given time to rest and there are a few new faces jostling for a starting spot along the back line.
Focus on Germany
Die Mannschaft have called up some new faces, with Nagelsmann potentially handing Robert Andrich, Chris Fuhrich and Kevin Behrens their first cap. Other than that, this is a very experienced Germany squad with Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Ilkay Gundogan, Joshua Kimmich, Antonio Rudiger, Mats Hummels and Marc Andre ter-Stegen all expected to start. This is a stacked Germany side and you have to think that the fresh energy of Nagelsmann (he's still just 36 years old) arriving will help them hit the reset button after a really poor few years which was obviously impacted recently by not having qualifiers for EURO 2024.
