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Why didn't Pulisic start against Köln?

I was bummed when I turned on the TV this morning to watch Dortmund vs. Köln and saw that Pulisic wasn't on the field. At first I thought maybe I'd missed him, but his tiny steps when trotting are hard to miss.

It was good to see him warming up with Julian Weigl before the game, engaged in conversation and laughing. I wondered what language they were speaking. For some reason I think English, since in an Instagram or Twitter post Christian said something @ Weigl in English. And I'm sure it's English with Isak, who was also in the warmup mix, since Isak is fresh from Sweden and probably doesn't speak German.

Philipp's goal from Yarmolenko just a few minutes into the game was a cracker. Yarmelenko isn't the most graceful of players, but he seems to get the job done. And Philipp's header was nothing short of brilliant. I couldn't help but think, though: Shit, does Philipp playing well mean more bench time for Pulisic? And then of course Philip scored again later and BVB crushed Koln. Is Peter Bosz thinking, "Well, we just crushed this team, and Pulisic wasn't on the field"? Is he thinking this even a little bit? Hopefully he's not. Hopefully he's  thinking: "We played well today and Köln is the worst team in the league and we have depth and if Pulisic was on the field we might've crushed them by even more. He might've done a stepover and the Koln defenders might've crapped their pants and he and Auba might've connected for eight goals in 20 minutes."

I must say that things haven't quite been falling into place lately for Christian Pulisic. Some of his crosses have been off as well as some of his dribbles and passes. But here's the thing: Any time he's on the field he's one of the most dangerous players out there. Things have been a fraction off the past few games with his final touches, which means when they're back on again there are going to be many balls in the net, many assists, and many defenders with ankle injuries as CP cuts them up with his dribbling ability (think Bryan Ruiz in the Costa Rica qualifier, who probably has nightmares about CP tearing him to shreds at midfield [also, Bryan Ruiz is ugly]).

Anyway, that's it for today. Three more sleeps and it's Dortmund vs Hamburg. Please God or Peter Bosz or whoever the hell's in charge, let CP start, let him score a goal, let him get an assist, and let the Hamburgers cry about their season that started off so well. But let Bobby Wood score too, since he's rad.


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