COMMERCE CITY, COLO. – This was supposed to be the lighter assignment in a compact stretch of 2018 World Cup qualifiers, a home task undertaken by a full-strength lineup tangling with a last-place foe before venturing into an archrival’s den this weekend.
But as Thursday’s match crept into the second half and a sellout crowd at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park fidgeted, the U.S. men’s national soccer team found itself locked in a scoreless duel with Trinidad and Tobago.
It didn’t stay that way much longer.
The ringleader was, to the surprise of fewer and fewer observers here and abroad, the unit’s youngest member, 18-year-old Christian Pulisic, who scored twice in a 10-minute span for a 2-0 victory.