Christian Pulisic is a big part of the new generation of the US men’s national team, a leader of a group of “fearless guys” looking to put American soccer on the world map, as he told Trevor Noah on Tuesday's edition of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
He’s also inspiring his hometown club, last week cutting the ribbon for mini pitches at PA Classics, a founding member of MLS NEXT.
“I’m really excited I was able to help my hometown club, PA Classics, to basically build new fields for these kids,” Pulisic told Noah. “There’s multiple miniature fields these kids can kind of just go play on, another field with a nice kick wall for skills and challenges and stuff. It’s really just an area where I hope the kids can just go to and have fun sometimes without coaches.
"I hope it will inspire kids to go out and want to play and have fun and maybe see my name on the court and think I want to be like him. That would be the goal.”
That’s how Pulisic said he fell in love with the sport, joining other kids after school in a year living in England to play pickup soccer for hours.
Pulisic also discussed a remarkable eight-day stretch which saw him make history as the first American to win the UEFA Champions League with Chelsea and then score the decisive penalty kick in the USMNT’s come-from-behind win over Mexico in the inaugural Concacaf Nations League final.
“I’m really just trying to take it all in. It’s been an unreal journey honestly,” he said. “I can’t believe that I’ve got to this point so soon, but I honestly just feel really lucky.”
Along with former MLS academy standouts Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Gio Reyna, Pulisic explained why young Americans are finding success at the highest levels in Europe.
“I think in this new generation you’re seeing just a bunch of fearless guys just going for it in Europe,” Pulisic said. “I really just took a big risk moving to Germany, for example and Weston, for example, going out and doing his thing in Germany and then getting a move to Italy. It’s just this new generation of fearless soccer players who just want to go out and prove to the world that Americans can do it too. I think that’s why we’re seeing such a big jump.”
Pulisic's former youth club will hope to be involved when the inaugural MLS NEXT Cup Playoffs take place from June 25-July 3 in the Dallas Metroplex to crown MLS NEXT Cup champions in four age groups (U15, U16, U17, U19).
