Malik Tillman Ends Decade-Long Wait for USMNT Which Christian Pulisic Never Could
Malik Tillman became the first U.S. men’s international to score in three consecutive appearances for the Stars and Stripes since Clint Dempsey achieved the feat all the way back in 2016.
The forward’s crisp penalty in the second half of Saturday’s resounding 4–1 win over Peru got lost in the flood of accolades for Mauricio Pochettino’s impressive youngsters. Amid the hype over Cavan Sullivan and a wash of debutants, Tillman was responsible for a memorable piece of consistency the national team hasn’t seen in a decade.
Tillman was one of the clear success stories from a World Cup campaign on home soil with mixed conclusions.
While Christian Pulisic’s tournament was effectively curtailed at the halftime interval of the opening match, the versatile Bayer Leverkusen schemer was reliably impressive. Tillman ended the tournament with back-to-back direct free-kick goals in the knockout rounds, matching a feat only ever achieved once before in the competition’s history, and began life post-World Cup with another accomplished set piece.
Tillman’s Scoring Streak for the USMNT
World Cup Round of 32 vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Direct free-kick
World Cup Round of 16 vs. Belgium: Direct free-kick
Friendly vs. Peru: Penalty
Dempsey, the USMNT’s all-time joint-top scorer, was the last player to enjoy such a sustained run of scoring form for the national team, netting in three successive games at the 2016 Copa América. A 17-year-old Pulisic was part of that roster and already billed as the natural talismanic successor to Dempsey. It wouldn’t quite work out like that.
Pulisic Not Missed in New-Look USMNT
Tillman has scored more goals in his last three games for the USMNT (three) than Pulisic has managed in the previous two years (two). This recent slump in front of all international nets has left America’s great hope without a competitive international goal since November 2024.
Pulisic did end a five-month drought with the second in a pre-World Cup friendly win over Senegal, but he would conclude the actual tournament without a goal in four appearances. The USMNT’s No. 10 didn’t even come that close, registering just four shots over the summer, as many as his international teammate and defender Alex Freeman (who did score).
Pulisic’s Longest Scoring Streaks for the USMNT
Oct. 14–18, 2023: Germany (one goal), Ghana (one goal)
Oct. 7–10, 2017: Panama (one goal), Trinidad and Tobago (one goal)
June 3–9, 2017: Venezuela (one goal), Trinidad and Tobago (two goals)
Freeman was one of six starters for the U.S. against Peru who were also part of Pochettino’s World Cup roster. Pulisic, despite being healthy, didn’t even make the squad for these four fall fixtures. The sweeping changes paid dividends with a lopsided win against admittedly inferior opposition over the weekend.
Justin Ellis started in the absence of the injured Ricardo Pepi, marking his debut with a well-taken goal to open the scoring. Tillman’s penalty would cancel out Gianluca Lapadula’s equalizer for the visitors before another debutant, Julian Hall, doubled the USMNT’s advantage. Sebastian Berhalter, so often the figure to benefit from Pulisic’s absence at the World Cup, once again caught the eye with a thumping drive after coming off the bench.
One good result from a single friendly against a nation ranked outside FIFA’s top 50 should not get anyone too excited. The USMNT has known more false dawns than the Truman Show and is all too willing to wildly over-celebrate each one. Lest anyone forget that Alexi Lalas branded the first 45 minutes against Paraguay in that World Cup opener as “the greatest half of group play from a men’s team at a World Cup in history.”
The USMNT and Pulisic in particular would fade dramatically from that zenith but Tillman offers a rare glimpse of consistency in the international setup—for now, at least.
