Christian Pulisic ready to shine when USA take on England in Qatar

England v USA is a fixture more usually associated with the humiliation of the mother country, the infamous 1-0 defeat at the 1950 World Cup which the papers labelled as England's worst result still scars the mind of English football fans, even if few would have been alive to recall the day the likes of Billy Wright, Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney and Stan Mortensen were humbled.

Then there was Rob Green's gaffe in the turgid draw in the 2010 World Cup which The New York Post famously celebrated on its front page with the headline: 'USA Wins 1-1 — Greatest tie against the British since Bunker Hill', referencing the 1775 battle in the War of Independence to take Boston from the British.

But the US team has been around long enough to have its own footballing catastrophes and none is more painful than Couva, 2017. 'That was one of the toughest days of my life,' recalled Christian Pulisic last week, who was 19 at the time and already touted as the national team's next big thing. 'I'll never forget it.'

That was the night USA were beaten 2-1 by Trinidad and Tobago and failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Coming on the back of the heroic 2014 World Cup campaign, which had made household names of Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey, after a narrow defeat by Belgium in the last 16, it was a bitter blow. In 2014 they had been feted by President Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden had flown to Brazil to give the team a pep talk. Soccer seemed mainstream.

Since 2018, the US team has had to build back better, with Chelsea's Pulisic at its heart. That has at times seemed a burden. 

He dislikes the 'Captain America' moniker he has been given. 'It has been a lot to live up to,' he told ESPN recently. 'Especially in the US, I think I do have