The result gave him plenty to celebrate, but US men’s national team captain Christian Pulisic wasn’t too pleased with the crowd complexion for Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over Morocco at FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
Pulisic was rather upfront, calling out a perceived lack of support in what’s one of three matches the USMNT will play on home soil before competing in the Qatar 2022 World Cup this November.
The Chelsea forward’s remarks came after setting up Brenden Aaronson’s opener and drawing the penalty kick that Haji Wright converted on his senior-team debut.
“I’m not super happy with the amount of Americans here, however that works out, if I’m being completely honest,” Pulisic said postgame during an ESPN interview with Jillian Sakovits, who also co-hosts MLS podcast The Call Up. “But thanks for the ones who did come and the support is always great from them. It’s nice to be back in America and playing again.”
The match featured an official attendance of 24,002, which falls short of the MLS venue’s capacity of 26,000 fans.
On-site reporters also praised the vociferous support Morocco’s fans brought in what was the African country’s fourth-ever meeting with the USMNT. The Atlas Lions had won all three prior matchups, with the last one coming in a friendly before the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Wednesday evening’s clash between World Cup-bound nations was the USMNT’s second trip to the Queen City in under seven months. They beat archrivals Mexico 2-0 in a World Cup Qualifier there on Nov. 12 before a sold-out crowd.
Staying in Ohio, the USMNT have also played twice at Lower.com Field in Columbus recently. They played at the Columbus Crew’s home in a 1-0 WCQ win over El Salvador on Jan. 27, as well as in a 2-1 WCQ win over Costa Rica on Oct. 13.
The USMNT will play two more home matches before heading to Qatar, the first on Sunday (June 5) when hosting World Cup-bound Uruguay in a friendly at Sporting Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park. They’ll also visit Austin FC’s Q2 Stadium on June 10 for a Concacaf Nations League match against Grenada. Both matches in their September window will be played overseas.
Fine-tuning and preparing, Pulisic aims to keep building off the result – and craving more USMNT fans in the stands.
“It’s a great win,” Pulisic said. “We’re really happy. We started really well, got that early goal and just a really strong performance.”
