Christian Pulisic scored one of the most important goals of the United States men’s national team’s World Cup qualifying cycle on Friday night. In the most heated soccer rivalry America has, Pulisic came off the bench against Mexico to score the game winning goal in the 74th minute. The team would go on to win 2-0, and climb over Mexico on top of Concacaf’s standings. But that wasn’t enough for Pulisic, who after scoring displayed a shirt with a curious message on it. Under his official USMNT jersey, Pulisic had “man in the mirror” written on a t-shirt.
The message stems from something Mexico’s goalkeeper, Memo Ochoa, said in the buildup to the match. Speaking to TUDN, Ochoa said of the USMNT, “Mexico has been that mirror in which they [the United States] want to see themselves and reflect, what they want to copy.” The remarks, as you might imagine, did not go over well with the American side. Head coach Gregg Berhalter responded to the remarks in his pre-match press conference saying that it, “shows that we have a long way to go to get the respect of Mexico.”
But it was Pulisic who had the last word. His goal fired the USMNT to their third straight victory over Mexico, the first time that’s happened since 1994-95. It’s also the first time that either side has won three matches in a calendar year against the other since 1937. After this result, it’s Mexico who’s left looking in the mirror for answers. Both sides will be back in action on Tuesday on Paramount+ as Mexico travel to Canada and the USMNT is in Jamaica.
