PULISIC, USMNT CRASH THROUGH POLITICS AND MAKE AMERICA PROUD

Refusing to succumb after an injury hospitalized their best player, amid days of incendiary drama surrounding their Iranian opponents, the Americans persevered and reached the World Cup knockout stage

     The triple-whammy was so exquisite, as soccer is meant to be, that it almost made years of American woe worth the agony. Streaks of red, white and blue in his hair, Weston McKennie spotted Sergino Dest blazing toward the enemy goal box and lofted an airborne pass. The ball didn’t touch the ground again until Christian Pulisic saw it at his feet, directed there by Dest’s head, and watched all of his dreams and burdens flash before him.

     With a hop and a flick of the orange shoe on his right foot, the most heralded player in U.S. history — and, by extension, maligned — finally was deserving of a nickname bestowed long ago. Captain America thrust the breakthrough dagger, the one that put the national team in the World Cup knockout stage for the first time in eight years, and as the ball rifled into the net, Pulisic smashed into Iran’s goaltender and just lay there in the goalmouth for the longest time.

     He was in pain in this 38th minute — unable to play in the second half, off to the hospital for an abdominal scan that revealed a pelvic contusion — all of which framed an appropriate groundswell to appreciate everything he has endured and finally overcome. We’ve awaited this moment for years, since he hit the global scene as a teen from central Pennsylvania, and his adversity grew so massive of late, he agreed to do a Volkswagen commercial about it. Sprawled beside a shrink, he is asked, “Where do you think the pressure is coming from?”

     “Everyone,” he says.

     The pressure, at long last, now comes from nowhere. He delivered the fearless, patriotic moment. His teammates covered for him the rest of the way in a 1-0 victory, anxious only at the end when a Spanish referee rightly nixed Iran’s appeal for a video review on a potential penalty kick. And the American interlopers, second-youngest team at this event, are advancing to a Saturday date (wake up early, folks) against the Netherlands. A win vaults them into the quarterfinals for the first time in 20 years. Their TV ratings never have been higher. Heavens to Ted Lasso, have we become a serious soccer country?

     “Obviously, we’re very thankful that he threw his body there,” McKennie said of Pulisic. “It was a heart-drop sinking moment, but we got it done.”

     “That’s what he does, that’s the special quality he has, and as soon as a goal is wide, he goes in with intensity,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “He crashes the box and makes it difficult for defenders. It’s a wonderful thing when one of your best players is also one of the most hard-working. He’s certainly that.”

     Said captain Tyler Adams: “How many goals has he scored like that in his career? Back post arriving, he's brilliant. The way that his timing is into the box and to get in front of that ball — he'll do anything for this team in order for us to win.”

     Later, Pulisic wrote in a social media post from his hospital bed that he’ll “be ready Saturday, don’t worry.” Did anybody think otherwise? If his goal was a fairytale, the incendiary backdrop Tuesday was anything but. Even when the game is reduced to two regulation nets, one aerodynamic ball, numerous AI-assisted offside detectors and a field 120 yards long and 75 yards wide, the quadrennial challenge is tricky enough for America.

     Then play that game in Qatar, a country with a deplorable human rights record. And draw a splash-or-crash showdown against Iran, a country that treats women horribly and has yet to explain why 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for wearing a head covering, died in police custody in September. And deal with a needless disturbance created by colleagues in the home office, at the U.S. Soccer Federation, who decided it was a fine idea to remove an official emblem and two lines of Islamic script from the Iranian flag on an Instagram post listing the Group B standings. Naturally, Iran asked FIFA, the sport’s governing body, to throw the U.S. out of the World Cup for “offending the dignity” of the country.

     As it was, the USMNT was encumbered by a history of disappointment in the planet’s biggest sporting spectacle. Now, just as we were getting to know the coach with the groovy sideline t-shirts and his players, they were burdened by geopolitical chaos in a Middle East maelstrom. So heavy were the disruptions, by no fault of their own, it was tempting to give them a pass if they faltered and left for the Doha airport.

     But they survived the upheaval — the Ayatollah Khomeini is shouting from the south side of hell — and move forward after a performance more memorable for perseverance than the aesthetics of the lone goal. Given the tumult engulfing them, they could have lost focus and succumbed. Rather, they made their homeland proud and gave 8 million people worldwide a glimpse of what America still can be.

     “I always say it’s us against the world,” Tim Weah said, “cause no one believed that the U.S. could play good football.”

     Only a day before, Berhalter and Adams were attacked by questions at a press conference that involved everything but soccer. It didn’t matter to Iranian media when a helpless Berhalter said, “We had no idea about what U.S. Soccer put out — the staff, the players, had no idea. Sometimes things are out of our control. All we can do on our behalf is apologize on behalf of the players and the staff, but it's not something that we are part of. … Of course, our thoughts are with the Iranian people, the whole country, the whole team, everyone. But our focus is on this match.”

     Admirably, he tried to play mediator and inject life perspective into a tense scene. “Sport is something that should bring people together, bring countries together," Berhalter said. “When you look at the Olympics, to see all those countries competing at the same time, is a wonderful event. The World Cup is very similar, where people come from all around the world. Fans come from all around the world, and you get to compete on the field, as brothers, so sport does have the ability to do that.”

     The attack dogs wanted answers anyway. After one reporter rebuked Adams for mispronouncing Iran — “Our country is named ih-RAHN, not EYE-ran. Please, once and for all, let’s get this clear,” he scolded — he had the temerity to ask a racially charged question to a 23-year-old Black man who grew up in a White family in the Hudson Valley, north of New York City. “Are you OK,” the reporter asked, “to be representing a country that has so much discrimination against Black people in its own borders?”

     Handling the moment with commendable composure, Adams addressed his background as the son of a White mother and an African-American biological father. “My apologies on the mispronunciation of your country,” he began. “Yeah, that being said, there's discrimination everywhere you go. One thing that I’ve learned, especially from living abroad in the past few years and having to fit in in different cultures is that, in the U.S., we’re continuing to make progress every single day.”

     His response could have been problematic, leading to an international incident. Instead, Adams provided a teaching moment for the world on how to “assimilate” in disparate cultures. “Not everyone has that, that ease and the ability to do that, and obviously it takes longer to understand. And through education, I think it’s super important — like you just educating me now on the pronunciation of your country,” he said. “So, yeah, it’s a process. I think as long as you see progress, that’s the most important thing.”

     No amount of common sense can help the rulers of an Islamic republic, whose dress code for women led to the death of Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian, and the reported deaths of more than 300 people during two months of violent protests in that country. When players refused to sing the national anthem last week in Qatar, they were “threatened with torture,” per a CNN report. Berhalter and his team had vowed to set aside the political drama, but then came the altered flag. U.S. Soccer deleted the posts and reinstated Iran’s official flag, but the damage was done.

     Why would anyone have such a foolish brainstorm and not realize the harm it would do to the team? “The intent of the post was to show support for women’s rights,” said Michael Kammarman, a U.S. Soccer spokesman. “It was meant to be a moment. We made the post at the time. All of the other representations of the flag were made consistent and will continue.”

     So the Americans had to beat three opponents: Iran, the social-media idiots in their own federation, and Pulisic’s aching pelvis. They’ve made their country proud. Where this beautiful story is headed, who knows?

     But we haven’t had this much fun watching our men’s team in a World Cup since … since … when?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.