IRVINE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Christian Pulisic says he feels \u201cgreat\u201d now after missing one World Cup match with a calf injury, and he hopes to play for the U.S. in its final group match against Turkey on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Pulisic played a dynamic first half in the Americans\u2019 historic 4-1 victory over Paraguay to open their home World Cup nearly two weeks ago, but the AC Milan midfielder came off at halftime after an injury from training stiffened up.<\/p>\n
Pulisic said he nearly played in the U.S.\u2019 2-0 victory over Australia last Friday but was held out to get closer to full fitness for the games ahead. He has returned to practice with his teammates this week after working out on his own last week before the trip to Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping to play a part in (the match against Turkey), for sure,\u201d Pulisic said before the U.S. training session Wednesday at Great Park. \u201cI\u2019ll discuss that with my coaches and the medical staff. Obviously not a good chance I\u2019ll probably go and play 90 (minutes) right away after you come back and miss a game, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino didn\u2019t reveal his plan Wednesday for Pulisic in the match against Turkey, which is meaningless for both teams. The Americans are locked into first place in their group, while Turkey has been eliminated from knockout-round contention.<\/p>\n
\u201cPulisic is talking with the medical (staff),\u201d Pochettino said in an afternoon news conference at SoFi Stadium. \u201cWe have to decide if it\u2019s possible to play from the beginning, or maybe play from the bench and play the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino did indicate that his players who have already received yellow cards \u2014 Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson and Tyler Adams \u2014 are unlikely to play, at least as starters.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the guys that have yellow cards, it\u2019s not necessary to take another yellow card and not be available for the next stage,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cIt\u2019s a normal, easy answer not to play with them from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic hopes the plan includes at least some playing time for him as the U.S. ramps up for its Round-of-32 match in Santa Clara, California, on July 1. While Pulisic\u2019s calf injury robbed him of one chance on the World Cup stage, he felt certain he wouldn\u2019t be out for long.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never feared anything worse,\u201d Pulisic said. \u201cI was pushing, and I was really close to trying to be available for the last game, for sure. I did feel a little something (against Paraguay), but I definitely was able to push through in the first half and just get me through. But yeah, it wasn\u2019t quite ready, but it wasn\u2019t anything where I feared anything worse than what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
With no stakes for the U.S. against Turkey, Pochettino seems likely to provide some rest to key players in his starting lineup while giving a few of his reserves possibly their only opportunity to hit the field. That sounds great to Richards, who thinks some time off wouldn\u2019t be a hindrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur trainings are pretty intense,\u201d Richards said. \u201cI think fitness won\u2019t be an issue. I don\u2019t think sharpness will be, either. Obviously it\u2019s good to keep into some sort of rhythm, but I think these guys deserve it if they get the chance (Thursday). I think we\u2019ll be fine when it comes to the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic was visibly excited as a spectator during the Americans\u2019 win in Seattle, celebrating along with his teammates as they capably handled a second straight opponent for their team\u2019s first consecutive World Cup victories since 1930. The U.S. offensive performance without its most accomplished attacking player, particularly in the first half against Australia, pleased Pulisic greatly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising to me,\u201d Pulisic said. \u201cI see what this team can do. We have depth. We have really strong players in a lot of positions. I don\u2019t need to do everything. It\u2019s such a strong team. These guys, everyone has each other\u2019s backs. That\u2019s what so fun about it, and to see the way the team performance that we\u2019ve put in, especially the way we\u2019ve started the games, has been fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Christian Pulisic says he feels \u201cgreat\u201d now after missing one World Cup match with a calf injury, and he hopes to play for the U.S. in its final group match against Turkey on Thursday night. Pulisic played a dynamic first half in the Americans\u2019 historic 4-1 victory over Paraguay to open … Continue reading Christian Pulisic feels \u2018great,\u2019 hopes to play for US in final World Cup group game vs Turkey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1518295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-27 10:43:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1518295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518296,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518295\/revisions\/1518296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1518295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1518295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1518295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}