Christian Pulisic is reaching new heights for his club and country this season, and his near-double against Jamaica in the second leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals helped the United States men’s national team secure a 4-2 victory in St. Louis on Monday.
Pulisic scored the first goal of the game in the 14th minute to help put the aggregate lead out of reach early on and book a ticket to the semifinal round at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. He was almost credited with a second after his shot was deflected by Jamaica defender Di’Shon Bernard to double the lead in the 33rd minute.
But what caught the attention was the first goal. Pulisic took advantage of a timely lob from midfielder Weston McKennie to slot the ball past Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake with his first touch. It was the kind of tight control and poacher’s instinct that propelled Pulisic to one of the strongest seasons of his career. Once the ball hit the back of the net, Pulisic ran to the corner flag near the fan section and began moving his hips and pumping his fists to imitate a dance trend popularized in other sports and inspired by the president. elected Donald Trump.
Following the USMNT victory, Pulisic was asked about the celebration.
“I mean you know, I saw everyone doing it yesterday in the NFL,” Pulisic told reporters after the game, including ESPN. “I saw Jon Jones do it and yeah, we were having a bit of fun, so I thought it was a pretty fun dance.”
Pulisic was happy to acknowledge the origin of the dance, but said it was not intended as a political message.
“Well, obviously that’s the Trump dance. It’s not like it’s just a dance that everyone does,” Pulisic said. “Yeah, he was the one who created it, so I thought it was funny.”
The trend has been popularized by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who celebrated his victory over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 by dancing with the future president sitting in the ring. Since then, the dance has become popular among college athletes, NFL players, and more.
The USMNT attacker maintained that the dance was not political in nature and that he was simply having fun when asked for further clarification due to online reactions about it.
“Not at all. It’s not a political dance, it was just for fun,” Pulisic said. “I saw a lot of people doing it and yeah, I thought it was fun, so I enjoyed it. I hope some people like it.”
The goal continued Pulisic’s good run this season, and he came close to setting another milestone. He apparently scored a second goal just after the half-hour mark, before it was finally credited as an own goal. Had that goal stood, it would have been his third goal in this international break after assisting Ricardo Pepi’s goal in the team’s first game. But his second was enough to make him the fastest member of the USMNT to reach 50 goal contributions, making just 76 appearances for the senior team.
Pulisic will then return to AC Milan for a critical week that includes a match against Tim Weah, McKennie and Juventus, as well as a Champions League clash against Slovan Bratislava. Pulisic is in the midst of a stellar season with Milan, where he has seven goals and four assists in Serie A and the Champions League. He leads Milan in goals scored and is tied for the team lead in assists.
All Serie A and Champions League games can be streamed on Paramount+ with select matches on CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network.
