Christian Pulisic scored his fourth goal in his last seven international appearances, but the United States was eventually outclassed in a 3-1 friendly defeat to visiting Germany on Saturday afternoon in East Hartford, Conn.
Niclas Fullkrug scored and had an assist during a decisive second-half stretch for Germany to give manager Julian Nagelsmann a win in his international managerial debut.
Jamal Musiala and Ilkay Gundogan also scored for Der Mannschaft, which snapped a two-match losing streak on American soil that extended all the way back to the 1990s, while earning its eighth win overall in 12 all-time meetings with the U.S.
Giovanni Reyna played the first 45 minutes for the U.S. in his first appearance for manager Gregg Berhalter since both men were embroiled in an ugly saga in the aftermath of the Americans’ elimination from the 2022 World Cup.
The result was the United States’ first 90-minute defeat to an opponent since that tournament.
After the sides exchanged first-half goals, Germany took control with a four-minute outburst.
Fullkrug gave the visitors the lead in the 58th minute on a slickly worked goal. Musiala received a cross from the right near the penalty arc and played the ball to Robin Gosens on his left. Gosens’ first-touch pass back across to Fullkrug broke the USMNT’s back line, and Fullkrug finished easily past Matt Turner from close range.
Musiala’s goal in the 61st owed to some good fortune when his attempted dribble caromed off the leg of defender Tim Ream and directly to Fullkrug on the left side of the box.
But Fullkrug deserved credit for quickly returning the ball to Musiala for a first-time finish that left Turner no chance.
Pulisic opened the scoring in the 27th minute on an exceptional individual effort.
After a layoff from Tim Weah, Pulisic quickly pushed the ball forward from his position on the left to slip past Pascal Grob and Jonathan Tah.
From there, he continued cutting right to evade Antonio Rudiger before unfurling a right-footed strike from about 25 yards out that sailed beyond Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s dive and into the top right corner.
Gundogan was the architect of his own equalizer 12 minutes later, playing a give-and-go with Leroy Sane before finishing himself after Turner deflected Sane’s dribble.
–Field Level Media
