Landon Donovan believes Christian Pulisic has an “incredible opportunity” to shine at this World Cup — and a supporting cast more than good enough to take weight off of his shoulders.
The AC Milan forward, 27, is considered the face of the US men’s national team — just like Donovan was for years. But Donovan is also bullish on the USA’s cast of attackers around the Hershey, Pa., native.
“(It’s) crucial, the best attacking teams in the world have lots of options,” Donovan told The Post virtually before working a “shift” at Raising Cane’s new Inglewood, California location.
“It’s part of why Messi and Ronaldo have succeeded. Obviously, they’re incredible players, but they also have great players around them. So, if teams are going to choose to focus on Christian, there are a lot of other guys that can hurt them.”
The USA finished the 2022 World Cup with just three goals in four games and Pulisic (one goal and two assists) was directly involved in all of them. This time around, he projects to have a bit more help as they open their tournament against Paraguay on Friday in Los Angeles.
Pulisic will be supported in attack by the likes of striker Folarin Balogun (who had 19 goals for Monaco this season), Sergiño Dest and Ricardo Pepi, who each recorded a goal or assist in the team’s tune-up win against Senegal.
outside of Christian Pulisic to hurt other teams. FIFA via Getty Images
Weston McKennie, too, will be active around the box, while Malik Tillman has a nose for scoring as well. Balogun, Pepi and Tillman were not with the team in Qatar.
“We score a lot of goals, this team scores a lot of goals. That’s not the challenge,” Donovan said. “The challenge is going to be the defensive part, so (if) we get the defensive part right, this team will create a lot of chances and score plenty of goals to advance.”
That defensive aspect has been further magnified by the injury struggles of Chris Richards, who has been battling an ankle problem since the latter stages of his club season with Crystal Palace. The vital center back rejoined his teammates in training last Friday and said on Wednesday he is fit for the USA’s opener against Paraguay.
“He’s a really important player, and you have to be careful,” Donovan said. “The challenge is that in a World Cup, every game is really crucial. It’s a little less crucial this time, because of the expanded format. So you can still advance as a third-place team. Of course, that’s not the goal, but I would guess that they’re going to be very smart with him.”
Overall, Donovan — whose best World Cup finish with the USA came as they reached the quarterfinals in 2002 — is “really optimistic” regarding the team’s chances on home soil.
He said he expects the United States to emerge in first or second place from their group of Paraguay, Australia and Turkey — before hoping for a breakthrough against one of the bigger sides in the tournament.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team was thrashed 5-2 by Belgium in March, lost 2-0 to Portugal days later and fell 2-1 to Germany last week.
Friendly wins against Uruguay and Senegal, though, will also give the Americans some reason for optimism.
“The question is going to be when they play the big teams. We’ve seen (friendlies against) Portugal, Belgium, Germany over the last couple months, and a couple of them were decent performances, but they were all losses,” Donovan said.
“So, the question is going to be, when we get to the tougher part of the tournament, will they be able to do it?
“There are a lot of teams in this tournament, a lot of good teams that we can beat. And then if they’re going to have a special run, they need to beat a big team.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
