Christian Pulisic shines in 'encouraging' USA win over Senegal ahead of World Cup

The USA started strongly in Charlotte, going ahead after seven minutes when Pulisic combined with Ricardo Pepi and teed up Sergino Dest for the opener. 

Pochettino later reflected on the performance, saying: "Today, we saw the commitment of everyone there. We have attitude and commitment, we have the talent, we have players that have enormous talent."

Pulisic then added a goal of his own, finishing calmly after rounding the goalkeeper, before Senegal responded through Sadio Mane just before half-time.

After the break, Pochettino made nine changes, and the game swung both ways. Senegal equalised through Mane again, but the USA responded to regain control. Folarin Balogun eventually struck the winner after a cross from Timothy Weah caused confusion in the Senegal defence.

Pochettino stressed the importance of the result beyond the scoreline, saying: "The good feelings with that victory, I think it's more important for the environment than for us. For us, it's important always to win, but it is important also for the environment to trust a little bit after the last two games."

He also added: "We were the problem in previous games, not being in the right place, not the right commitment, not the right attitude. Today we showed we can be a very solid group, all together."

On Pulisic, the coach was especially positive, saying: "The performance of Christian in 45 minutes was really, really good. I think he has still potential to improve."

Senegal coach Pape Thiaw admitted his side were second best early on and struggled to cope with the USA's intensity. He said: "This team really put us in difficult situations, we didn't win many duels and at one point we didn't have the ball too much."

He added: "We have to congratulate them. I think they deserved their victory. It was a good American team that we saw today."

Despite the defeat, Thiaw remained calm about his side's preparation, noting: "We will continue our preparation, we know we have a busy week ahead."

The USA now turn their attention to a testing friendly against Germany, with Pochettino insisting the challenge level "doesn't matter" as long as his side maintain the right approach heading into their home World Cup.