U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) superstar Christian Pulisic was on absolute fire Sunday evening, scoring a goal in the third minute of the match and throwing up another via assist when striker Folarin Balogun tallied one in the 44th minute. And the brilliant performance led the U.S. to a 2-0 victory over Bolivia in their opener of the Copa América.
Joining USMNT legend Clint Dempsey, Pulisic is the only player in program history to rack up a goal and assist during a Copa América game. On top of that, he’s scored 30 goals in 69 international appearances, which is the lowest of the Americans.
One of the six guests that were invited to the South American championship, the expectations are the United States will advance out of Group C into the knockout stage. Uruguay is expected to be the other team from the group.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
🇺🇸 THREE POINTS 🇺🇸
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/CntFT1K1Zi— U.S. Soccer Men’s National Team (@USMNT) June 23, 2024
So the million-dollar question: will the United States win the Copa América?
Well … despite us potentially having a “golden generation,” we’ve never won the tournament in its entire existence. And if we do happen to put ourselves in a solid position, we’re going to be tasked with taking on Lionel Messi and Argentina, and Brazil (which is kind of a mess right now, so maybe we can take advantage), and then you obviously have the rest of South America involved.
And let’s also not forget Bolivia is awful, having lost their 13th consecutive match in the Copa. Heck, they’ve only had one dub in their last 31 games in the tourney. So it’s hard to truly gauge how good the Americans were in this match.
Do I like our chances? (RELATED: If You Thought Shaq Couldn’t Get Any Cooler, He Just Did By DJ’ing A Concert After A Cleveland Guardians Game)
I’ll put it this way: I have higher expectations than I usually do for the USMNT with the talent and hype we have surrounding the program. The pressure is on to deliver success, for sure.
But winning it?
We’re just gonna have to sit back and watch on that one.
