Christian Pulisic whips the soccer ball into the upper corner after a short corner with Tim Weah. Pulisic scored United States’ first goal of 2024 Copa América, watch every angle of it here! The United States would go on to win the game 2-0 versus Bolivia. Indeed, the Pulisic short corner goal comes in the third minute. A momentum changer early on.
In fact, it is just a quick give and go with Weah off a corner kick and the Bolivia players don’t pressure Pulisic enough. He has plenty of time to line up the shot to the far post. Moreover, there are a host of United States players at the back post waiting to head the ball in if Pulisic’s shot goes wide.
Pulisic celebrated by pointing to the team’s set pieces coach, Gianni Vio, in the stands. He said this about the short corner goal, via Fox Sports Jenny Taft, after the game:
“We had the idea that if they only brought one out [to defend the corner taker] we’d take that two-on-one,” Pulisic said, “and basically the idea was just to shoot at the back post and things can happen. Sure enough, it went in.”
Who knew that a set pieces coach would become the norm in world soccer. But if the set piece coach helps deliver a short corner goal like this it makes sense to have one. Plus, overall, Pulisic’s corner kicks have seemed to improve the last few games.
Generally, maybe the set piece coach just gives him more confidence to whip the ball in on goal. What will we see next? Maybe Pulisic trying to score an Olympico – directly from a corner? That would keep the goalkeeper and defenders of opposing teams honest. Or, how about a trick corner kick made famous by Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs.
However, the trick really on this short corner and the goal is how quickly Pulisic plays the ball to Weah. There is no hesitation. He sees the chance and the plan has been set piece coach Gianni Vio.
Christian Pulisic has now scored 30 goals in 69 games for the United States. Furthermore, Pulisic has reached the 30 goal mark the fastest in USMNT history. Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are tied for the most goals for the United States with 57 total goals. At 25 years old, Pulisic has plenty of time to pass them both.
In the rest of their games in Copa America I don’t think any team will give Pulisic the time to line up a shot like this after a short corner kick.
