SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Christian Pulisic and his father, Mark, were video chatting on Sunday from separate continents. They had a lot of things to discuss.
The previous night in Kansas City, Kan., Pulisic, at 17 years 212 days, had become the youngest player to score a goal for the United States national team — at least in the institutional memory of American soccer and for certain since 1990, when the federation began stringent record keeping. Mark Pulisic had watched the game from Verl, Germany, reclined on a hotel bed with an iPad in his hands. As he fought off sleep in the middle of the night, the sight of his son celebrating had had the surreal feeling of a dream.