“Had I finished that chance” – Chelsea star rues missed opportunity at the World Cup

Chelsea star Christian Pulisic rues missed opportunity against the Netherlands

Speaking on Tim Ream’s ‘Indirect’ podcast as quoted by Football. London, Chelsea star Christian Pulisic rues his missed opportunity against the Netherlands in the Round of 16 of the World Cup when he had a glorious chance to give USMNT the lead minutes into the game.

The Netherlands eventually beat the USA 3-1 to secure progression to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. However, things could have been different had the Chelsea man taken his chance.

To be fair to Pulisic, he had an excellent World Cup. The Blues man reminded his club and Graham Potter about his ability and was arguably the American’s best player in all the matches they played.

Even in the same game against the Dutch, it was the Blues winger who provided the assist for his nation’s only goal. He is key to everything good that his team does and will continue being so.

Speaking about the incident, Pulisic feels that the game would have gone differently had he taken the chance and revealed that he would love to go back and make amends.

“Had I finished that chance, the game goes differently. I would love that back. I still think about it. It’s a learning experience. I think there’s a reason why it didn’t go in, things happened the way they did. It all happens for a reason”

Alas, as Pulisic would very well know, football is much easier to play in hindsight. That said, the USMNT can be proud of the performance that they put in this World Cup in Qatar and will no doubt be a team to watch out for in 2026.

Pulisic is now back at Chelsea and will be hoping that the kind of form he showed at the World Cup convinced Graham Potter to give him regular game time in a Blues shirt, something he has never had till now.

This seems like a last-chance salon for Pulisic in Chelsea. He is too good a player to be wasting his time on the bench. The USMNT star will have interest from other clubs and it remains to be seen how it goes.

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• Transfer News: Chelsea eyeing Ajax midfielder Edson Alvarez in January
• Chelsea youngster Cesare Casadei earmarked for a January loan move
• Chelsea and Liverpool are interested in Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo

Pulisic has the potential to be one of the best wingers in the world. If he can realise that potential at Chelsea, it will be great. If not, it’s highly likely that he does it somewhere else very soon.