a 1-1 draw with Ecuador on Friday in Austin, Texas<\/a> \u2014 Pulisic was reduced to second-half sub because of an ankle ailment suffered in training camp. It was not immediately clear the extent of Pulisic’s hamstring injury. He will return to AC Milan on Wednesday for evaluation, Pochettino said.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Pulisic\u2019s absence did not prevent his teammates from rallying around Wright, who, in his first U.S. start in 13 months, tied the match in the 33rd minute and scored the winner in the 51st.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an important thing to say, \u2018I am here. I want to play. I want to be part of this team,\u2019\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cFor sure, a player that performs like today actually is coming close. It’s possible to be involved\u201d at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
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Haji Wright’s two goals made the difference as the USMNT beat Australia 2-1 on Tuesday night in Commerce City, Colorado.<\/p>\n
(Jamie Schwaberow\/ISI Photos\/USSF via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Both goals were assisted by Cristian Roldan, a defensive midfielder attempting to parlay a superb MLS season with the Seattle Sounders and impactful performances during these camps into a second straight World Cup roster berth.<\/p>\n
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Known for his off-field contributions as a true team player, Roldan showed his on-field traits Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is what we need,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cWe need a player with confidence, with some belief, with a little bit of arrogance. \u2026 If you want to build your perfect player, he has a little bit of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year of experiments and more low moments than high marks has given way to a three-game unbeaten streak against World Cup-bound opponents. Tuesday\u2019s result marked the first time since Pochettino\u2019s appointment a year ago that his team had recovered from a deficit to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we get closer to the World Cup, obviously results matter more and more,\u201d goalkeeper Matt Freese said. \u201cAnd in the World Cup, results are the only thing that matter. \u2026 Game by game is what matters. And so we’re starting to get that into our system. \u2026 We have full faith in the process that we’re doing. That process has showed this camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Similar to Ecuador \u2014 which arrived stateside on an 11-game unbeaten run before drawing with the United States \u2014 the Socceroos entered the U.S. matchup on a 12-game unbeaten streak, including seven straight victories, most recently against Canada on Friday in Montreal.<\/p>\n
A meek start to the match gave way to Australia\u2019s goal in the 19th minute against a woefully passive U.S. defense. Jordan Bos executed a throw-in and scored the goal.<\/p>\n
Bos\u2019 throw was flicked by Sands. Sands couldn\u2019t recover in time and Chris Richards was slow to react. Bos collected the ball on one bounce in the penalty area and split Roldan and Richards before lifting the ball off Roldan. Bos chested it down and slammed a 7-yard shot past Freese and into the far corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot concede the goal that we concede,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cNo, when you arrive [at] the World Cup, you cannot concede that type of goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pulisic\u2019s night ended after absorbing a second hard challenge in the space of 11 minutes. After receiving medical attention in the center circle, he left the field gingerly and was replaced by Diego Luna.<\/p>\n
The Americans\u2019 pace picked up. In the 33rd minute, as the jacketed Pulisic approached the locker room entrance behind the goal the U.S. team was attacking, Richards stepped up to intercept a pass at midfield. Roldan and Weston McKennie combined before Roldan slipped a delicate pass through a narrow channel to Wright in stride for a rising right-footer into the near side from 12 yards.<\/p>\n
Shortly after intermission, Wright struck again. Roldan\u2019s quick restart near midfield liberated Wright one on one with defender Cameron Burgess. Wright\u2019s cutback in the box sent Burgess tumbling, and the U.S. forward curled a 15-yarder into the far corner for his seventh international goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m yelling, \u2018Haji!\u2019 [and] making eye contact with him,\u201d Roldan said. \u201cI’m also yelling at Alex [Freeman] to leave the ball [alone]. This is all happening at once, and it’s just one of those moments where we’re on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Wright said, \u201cI saw [Roldan] looking at me, so he kind of gave me a little head flick. I kind of picked up on it, and I was like, \u2018OK, let’s do it.\u2019 So I spun immediately. Then as the ball bounced, I kind of noticed there’s no one around me, so I checked to see if anybody’s in the box. I wanted to cross it originally, but once nobody’s in the box, I know I had to create the chance myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down the stretch, the Americans absorbed pressure and created some of their own, including Luna deep in the box and Aidan Morris in the clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to trust in ourselves [what] is in our mind, in our brain, in our heart. It\u2019s in our blood,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cSometimes it is difficult to explain how that magic happens. But this is about the work every day, every time we work together, to build a seed \u2026 and when that starts to grow inside, I think that is why this scene starts to happen, and for sure, more positive things will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The U.S. team will resume World Cup preparations against Paraguay on Nov. 15 in Chester, Pennsylvania, and Uruguay on Nov. 18 in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMMERCE CITY, Colo. \u2014 If the U.S. men\u2019s national team is going to make a significant run at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[154670,88502,4525,150461,4740,154672,2147,150455,85471,141305,11172,61348,154668,51,2219,154671,8887,28316,50,154669,52,66745,8885,150464,150457],"class_list":{"0":"post-305037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-2022-world-cup","9":"tag-2026-world-cup","10":"tag-ac-milan","11":"tag-aidan-morris","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-cameron-burgess","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-chris-richards","16":"tag-christian-pulisic","17":"tag-cristian-roldan","18":"tag-diego-luna","19":"tag-ecuador","20":"tag-haji-wright","21":"tag-headlines","22":"tag-italy","23":"tag-jordan-bos","24":"tag-matt-freese","25":"tag-mauricio-pochettino","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-the-world-cup","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-uruguay","30":"tag-usmnt","31":"tag-weston-mckennie","32":"tag-world-cup-roster"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115377572870911986","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}