Captain America is back in office! Christian Pulisic is officially starting for the USMNT in their high-stakes World Cup knockout match against Bosnia.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino is not playing around, copy-pasting the exact winning lineup from the tournament opener.
Four key players who were benched to dodge yellow card suspensions are back on the pitch with clean slates.

⚡ What Actually Happened

Christian Pulisic has returned to the starting lineup for the United States ahead of their critical round of 32 World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California.
Pulisic had been sidelined with a calf injury suffered during training, which limited his play and forced him to miss significant time during the group stage.

The U.S. coach reverted to the exact starting lineup used in the team's dominant opening match victory against Paraguay.
Four key American players returned to the field after sitting out the final group stage match to avoid receiving a second yellow card, which would have triggered a suspension.
Bosnia-Herzegovina made three changes to their starting lineup, notably benching a winger who was born in the United States.

🤡 Who Said What

One article reports the final score of the United States versus Turkey match as a 3-2 defeat, while another simply refers to it as a loss without specifying the score.
An unrelated news snippet about a baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds was erroneously included in one of the source reports.

The media coverage heavily focuses on the tactical decision to bench players to avoid yellow cards, framing it as a calculated risk that paid off since players start the knockout stage with a clean slate.

Knockout Round: A single-elimination stage of a tournament where the losing team is immediately eliminated and the winner advances.
Yellow Card Accumulation: A rule where a player who receives a set number of yellow cards across multiple matches is suspended for the following game.

Pulisic's career stats: 33 goals in 88 international appearances.
Pulisic's tournament timeline: Left the Paraguay game after helping set up two first-half goals, missed the 2-0 win over Australia, and played as a 58th-minute substitute in the loss to Turkey.
US Starting 11: Matt Freese, Sergino Dest, Chris Richards, Antonee Robinson, Tim Ream, Alex Freeman, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Malik Tillman, Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun.
Bosnia Starting 11: Nikola Vasilj, Tarik Muharemovic, Sead Kolasinac, Amar Dedic, Nikola Katic, Stjepan Radeljic, Armin Gigovic, Ivan Sunjic, Ermedin Demirovic, Edin Dzeko, Kerim Alajbegovic.
The four players rested against Turkey to avoid yellow card suspension: Folarin Balogun, Tyler Adams, Antonee Robinson, Chris Richards.