There’s never been a better time to be a USMNT fan and a fan of FIFA and European football. With an impressive 22 American men playing in Europe’s continental club competitions, it could be a legitimate strategy to build your FUT squad around U.S. players. With that in mind, we’ve done the hard work for you and found the best Americans in FIFA 22.
The USMNT injury updates include a mixed batch of good and bad news.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel gave a Christian Pulisic injury update after the American forward suffered a knock to the ankle during the USMNT’s 4-1 victory against Honduras. Good news U.S. and Chelsea fans, Pulisic will only be out for 10 days.
“For Christian, unfortunately he came yesterday on crutches and he has an ankle injury with about 10 days," Tuchel said.
Whew. That was a close one. Facing the prospect of two points from its opening three World Cup qualifiers, the USMNT rallied for a big 4-1 win on Wednesday night in Honduras, salvaging a decent showing over the September international window. It wasn’t great, but the Americans avoided disaster, which makes our USMNT player ratings (and coach rating) all the spicier.
Panic meters were reaching Cuova levels on Wednesday night in San Pedro Sula. The U.S. trailed Honduras at halftime and it looked like the Americans were headed toward a dismal two points from their first three World Cup qualifiers. Gregg Berhalter made three halftime changes, somewhat surprisingly leaving on qualifying novices Ricardo Pepi and James Sands.
Ricardo Pepi repaid the faith.
After two Gold Cups and one Nations League, now is when the USMNT finally gets to show where it’s at and how it’s grown over the last four years. Now is when World Cup qualifying begins. Now is when the matches really count. Now is when we try to figure out what in the heck Gregg Berhalter is going to do with this team, and for us to predict a USMNT potential starting 11 for World Cup qualifiers.
For the first time in history, Americans will play in all three of UEFA’s European tournaments. This season is also the first time there have been three tournaments, but minor details. There are tons of Americans playing in Europe, but only 22 have made it to the group stages across the three competitions.
Here are the numbers for Americans playing in European tournaments.
First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.
Christian Pulisic will have to sit out for Chelsea’s London Derby against Arsenal on Sunday due to a positive Covid test. For those asking themselves, “is Christian Pulisic vaccinated?” the answer is yes. Pulisic posted to his Instagram story on Friday that he was feeling well and had no symptoms.
Christian Pulisic opened his 2021/22 Chelsea scoring account in the first game of the season with a true poacher’s finish. With Chelsea leading 1-0 in the first half courtesy of a Marcos Alonso thunderbolt free kick, Pulisic made it 2-0 in the 40th minute.
One match, one goal for Christian Pulisic!
The U.S. men’s national team is reaching levels we haven’t seen in 15 years, rising 10 spots in the latest FIFA rankings. Hopefully this current crop handles its high ranking better than the 2006 squad.
Two years ago, Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga refused to be taken off in the closing minutes of a Carabao Cup match when coach Mauricio Sarri wanted to bring on Willy Caballero for penalty kicks before losing to Manchester City. On Wednesday, it was Kepa brought on in the closing minutes, and this time he came off as a winner.