Exclusive | Landon Donovan sees crucial Christian Pulisic advantage for USMNT at this World Cup
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.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 vita...