Christian Pulisic salvages draw for Dortmund day after Barcelona link emerges

Muted by the worldwide hack on Friday was the shocking news of Barcelona (yes, that Barcelona) scouting Christian Pulisic (yes, that Christian Pulisic). The report from Spain found its way to the United States, but it didn’t get quite the holy-smokes-can-you-believe-this reaction it would’ve received if American Soccer Twitter had not been so rudely interrupted.

It was just the latest development in the burgeoning profile of Pulisic. It came as the excitement around the 18-year-old Borussia Dortmund hot prospect had died down a bit after his breakout September for club and country. He wasn’t making as much noise in the Bundesliga because opponents had figured how to handle Dortmund’s high-intensity, free-flowing attack. Clearly, they had scouted Pulisic, too. Defenders were no longer falling for his shoulder drops and getting beaten on the wing.

During his month-long drought of no goals and no assists, though, Pulisic was still working hard to keep his place in Thomas Tuchel’s squad. Pulisic had started three straight games for Dortmund before taking a seat on the bench for Saturday’s game against Ingolstadt.

Down 2-0 at halftime, Dortmund needed a spark. And Pulisic the super sub eagerly provided it.

He set up Adrian Ramos’ goal that brought Dortmund within 3-2, although Pulisic was somewhat lucky that his last touch rolled the ball perfectly to Ramos in the box.

Then, with Dortmund desperately searching for the tying goal in the first minute of stoppage time, Pulisic found himself in the right place. His fortuitous tap-in off a rebound set off a wild celebration, one that Pulisic was lucky to escape without injury after being knocked to the ground by an overzealous Felix Passlack, whose bending ball into the box led to the equalizer.

Afterward, Pulisic talked about the goal but couldn’t answer in German because his “emotions are too much.”

“It was very exciting, obviously,” Pulisic explained. “We would’ve liked to come out with three points, but it was good to tie the game up at the end.”

The 3-3 tie was Dortmund’s second straight draw in the Bundesliga. On the heels of leader Bayern Munich early in the season, Dortmund has fallen out of the top four, sitting in sixth place and six points off the pace going into Saturday’s Bayern-Moenchengladbach match.

More importantly for Pulisic, he’s back on the scoresheet, giving U.S. men’s national team fans more reason to dream. Apparently, it also gives more game film for Barcelona to pore over and ponder – to consider what would be the most significant transfer involving an American player since Tim Howard joined Manchester United in the middle of the 2003 Major League Soccer season (yes, that significant).

Would a move to Barca be the best decision for Pulisic’s development? Probably not. Sure, being on the same training ground as Lionel Messi and Neymar alone would be beneficial, but the kid needs playing time. He’s already getting that at one of the world’s biggest clubs in an environment that’s allowed him to mature and flourish.

But the allure of Barcelona might be too enticing for Pulisic, who, so far, has not been fazed one bit by the glare of the spotlight or size of the stage. He is different than any American soccer talent we’ve seen previously. Trailblazing seems to be the thing to do these days anyway. I mean, who would’ve ever thought a Premier League team would be managed by a guy from New Jersey?