Christian Pulisic

The surprising United States men’s national team roster was revealed on Wednesday giving fans a better idea of who head coach Gregg Berhalter could have in his USA World Cup starting XI.

This potential USA World Cup starting XI lineup considers the current form of players, Berhalter’s history of starting certain people, recent position identifications (Brenden Aaronson being listed as a midfielder) and the best possible options.

Let’s look at what we’ve cooked up.

Brighton recorded its first-ever Premier League victory against Chelsea with a 4-1 win at the Amex on Saturday. A shocking Christian Pulisic miss vs Brighton was one of the lowlights for the Blues in the defeat.

Pulisic got his second start in-a-row on Saturday. He recorded a great assist to Kai Havertz on Tuesday in Champions League action vs. RB Salzburg but had a forgettable performance against Brighton.

To prepare you for the tournament, The18 has launched team-by-team previews for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This is the preview for Group B's USMNT.

USA World Cup 2022 Preview

World Cup appearances: 11th

Best finish: 3rd (1930)

How they got here: The USMNT qualified directly as Concacaf's third-place finisher, behind Canada and Mexico and above Costa Rica on goal difference. 

Chelsea travelled to Red Bull Arena and beat Salzburg 2-1 Tuesday night to clinch passage to the Champions League Round of 16 for the fourth straight year.

Christian Pulisic, making his first start since scoring against Wolves on Oct. 8, played a role in both goals, although they were spectacularly finished by Mateo Kovačić and Kai Havertz.   

Christian Pulisic opened his scoring account for the 2022-23 season on Saturday as he scored in Chelsea’s 3-0 victory against Wolves. After drama with former manager Thomas Tuchel and limited starts, the Pulisic goal vs Wolves ends his 150-day scoring drought for Chelsea.

Christian Pulisic made a great impression on new Chelsea manager Graham Potter after assisting the game-winning goal of the Blues’ 2-1 victory vs. Crystal Palace on Saturday. The game was Potter’s first Premier League game in charge for Chelsea.

Pulisic sat on the bench for 84 minutes of the match and was brought on late in the game with the score tied 1-1. He only needed six minutes to make an impact as he assisted fellow substitute Conor Gallagher for the 90th minute game-winner.

Gregg Berhalter and his United States men’s national team are on a one-way collision course with a nasty ass kicking in Qatar at the World Cup. On Tuesday the USMNT played its final friendly before the World Cup and pathetically tied lowly Saudi Arabia 0-0.

There are few words that can accurately describe how poor the U.S. has looked in the last two friendly games vs. Japan and Saudi Arabia. With no words to summarize these poor performances let’s just let one stat in particular speak.