Christian Pulisic is making his case as the best American soccer player ever
Christian Pulisic is taking over the Premier League – making his case as the best soccer player in American history.
On Tuesday, Pulisic scored for a third time in six games since the EPL restarted this month, this one coming in Chelsea’s 3-2 win over Crystal Palace.
Christian Pulisic can’t stop, won’t stop scoring for Chelsea ?
(via @NBCSportsSoccer)pic.twitter.com/vq5XmITE7c
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 7, 2020
The 21-year-old phenom has been nothing short of spectacular of late, keeping Chelsea’s quest to make the Champions League alive.
Pulisic has been receiving glowing praise across the soccer world for his outstanding play, starting with manager Frank Lampard.
“He’s moved his game on another level not just in how he’s going by people but real end product. Look around at the top attacking players in the world, they score goals, they score goals regularly to win games, and at the moment he’s doing that, so I’m delighted with him.”
?”He has got great talent, now he has moved his game on another level”
Frank Lampard on how important Christian Pulisic is to Chelsea pic.twitter.com/75CsuNqUSu
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) July 7, 2020
In 21 appearances this season, Pulisic has contributed on 10 goals, scoring eight. Even more important is the fact that Chelsea has been victorious in all 10 of those games in which Pulisic was involved.
Only five of those appearances have been starts, with all five coming since the EPL’s return.
With four games still remaining this season, Pulisic has already scored as many goals as he had combined over his past two seasons in Germany’s Bundesliga professional soccer league. His eight goals have him tied for 24th in the EPL.
With 4 games remaining in his first Premier League season, @cpulisic_10 has already doubled his best-ever league scoring record ? pic.twitter.com/Jms3z9MfnG
— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 7, 2020
Pulisic is rewarding Chelsea’s faith in him after the club agreed to pay a $73.1 million transfer fee to acquire him from Borussia Dortmund of the Bundesliga league. It was the largest transfer fee ever paid by a professional team to land an American soccer player.
“At this moment, Christian Pulisic is arguably the best player on Chelsea and one of the best players in the EPL,” said FOX Sports soccer analyst Alexi Lalas. “He’s not a great American player. He’s simply a great player who happens to be American.”
“This is the best American player playing today … and oftentimes the best player for Chelsea.”@AlexiLalas takes stock of Christian Pulisic’s impressive outings in the Premier League ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/q68hFT5VCr
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 1, 2020
The list of Americans who have had successful playing careers in the English Premier League is few and far between. In fact, only eight Americans have totaled more than two goals in EPL play.
Of those eight, only six have scored two or more goals in a single game, with Pulisic being one of them.
6 – Christian Pulisic is the sixth different American player to score 2+ goals in a Premier League game, after Roy Wegerle, Joe-Max Moore, Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey. Doodles. #BURCHE pic.twitter.com/wJcvYNCvJz
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 26, 2019
Clint Dempsey tops the list of most goals scored by an American in the Premier League, with 57 in 218 career appearances, or a goal every 3.8 games.
Pulisic is already No. 4 on that list with his eight EPL goals in 21 appearances, scoring once every 2.6 games in his young Premier League career.
Soccer fans will continue to watch in anticipation to see what Pulisic has in store for the final stretch of this EPL season. And the fact that he’s already being referred to by some as the “best American soccer player ever” lets you know what a special talent he is.
