Pulisic, U.S. close to World Cup qualification thanks to his fiery Captain America performance

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tyler Adams has been the de facto captain for the U.S. men’s national team during this World Cup qualifying cycle, but when the U.S. players emerged from the tunnel on Sunday, Christian Pulisic was at the front, the armband wrapped tightly around his sleeve.

It was fitting, too. On the night the U.S. all but clinched its place in this winter’s tournament, Pulisic — one of the few links from the team that failed so spectacularly nearly five years ago — led from the start.

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Pulisic scored twice in the first half on penalty kicks. He scored again just past the hour with the sort of balletic footwork in front of goal that gives American fans fever dreams. He had to be restrained by Gregg Berhalter when he tried to run at a mob of Panamanian players during a minor scrape near the sideline. He got a yellow card for screaming at (and charging toward) the referee after the official called a fairly benign foul in midfield, even with the U.S. fully in control.

In a game where the U.S. needed everything from its stars, Pulisic was a frothing ball of fire — exactly what Berhalter was thinking when he turned to Pulisic to be the captain.

“I think because of the journey,” Berhalter said. “You have a guy that’s been there before. He was on the field when we didn’t qualify, and this was us saying to him, this is a new group, this is a new team, and you’re a leader. We wanted to show that.”

Nothing could ever get back what was lost in Trinidad in 2017, but this match and this performance, from a player whose ebbs and flows so often drive the feeling about American soccer in general, was as sweet and special a salve on the scar as one could have imagined.

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“It was a huge honor to be captain tonight,” Pulisic said afterward. “Absolutely we can enjoy tonight,…