Was playing Christian Pulisic in USA vs. Türkiye the right decision?
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Coley Harvey are joined by former USA men's soccer player and World Cup contributor Taylor Twellman to discuss whether Christian Pulisic playing in half of the USA's 3-2 loss to Türkiye in the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage was the right decision. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Now, the team did look better on the attack at times once Christian Pulisic was subbed in.
it just seemed like they w- they were more fluid at times, throughout that second half.
with the calf injury that Pulisic is dealing with, why was it so important for him to appear in this match?
It's a great question.
I, I was in the camp, and I still am, even though we saw him, thankfully, survive the game and not get injured, but the risk outweighed the reward exponentially by playing Christian Pulisic, who has a history of having little nicks here and there.
Now, Christian told everyone in the world he was 100% fit, and now, once you get that from a player like him, I can understand Pochettino and the medical staff saying, "Let's get 20, 25 minutes from him."
You saw it in the blink of an eye.
Three, four minutes in, the US was more dangerous.
And so right away, you know the answer to who's the most important attacking player for the United States.
It's Christian Pulisic.
And so getting the 20 minutes out of him, I will say this.
It now takes the jitters of him returning away.
He's now training leading into the Bosnia game, completely confident in his body.
And so you win a lot out of that versus, in my way of saying, "Let's rest him," he wouldn't have played a game yet, so how were you gonna get him that kind of fitness?
The United States won this battle with Chri- w- we and Christian Pulisic won this battle of getting back to, to mental and physical fitness, and now he'll be ready to go against Bosnia.
