Pulisic scores decisive goal for Dortmund on his birthday during his 100th appearance for the club

Happy Birthday to my compatriot Christian Pulisic who turned 20 today 🎉.

His team Borussia Dortmund faced Club Brugge earlier today to start their Champions League season. Going into the match they were heavy favorites to come out with a win and set the tone for this season.

I personally predicted that Dortmund would have a field day and find the back of the net a couple of times without much difficulty. This was far from the truth. Club Brugge were a very stubborn side to get through.

Dortmund dominated possession ending the match with 64.8% compared to Brugge's 35.2%. For the most part, Dortmund failed to take advantage of their time on the ball.

Brugge’s defense showed up today big time. They registered 16 attempted tackles with 50% of them successful. They cleared the ball out of danger 20 times. And to finish it off, intercepted the ball a crazy 19 times. It almost seems like they have Chiellini, Godin and Ramos on defense! That's an amazing defensive performance.

With time running out, it seemed that the match would end in a draw. Then came in Pulisic in the 70’ minute to replace Sancho. Going into the match with fresh legs against a side that was definitely tired of defending all day, he managed to score a really lucky goal in the 85’ minute right near the conclusion of the match.

Having a player like dynamic player like Pulisic come off the bench is a very dangerous weapon as further proven today. In roughly 20 minutes of being on the pitch, Pulisic had:

• a total of 2 shots with 1 on target that led to the goal

• 20 touches

• 14 passes

• 85% passing accuracy

• 1 tackle

• 1 successful dribble

• And a foul (oh well)

Pulisic scored the only goal that secured Dortmund their first win of the UCL season. I have to admit, Brugge one hundred percent deserved at the very least a draw due to their amazing display on defense. On the other hand, I’m very happy Pulisic scored a decisive goal on his birthday. It was his 100th appearance for the club, his birthday and a decisive goal all in one day. You can’t tell me it gets any better than that.

Pulisic is the reason I follow the Bundesliga ever since he joined. It's been very interesting to see an American international make a name for himself in Europe where's there's definitely a lack of Americans. While he’s still for the most part a prospect, he's a very promising one and I'm looking forward to see how his career progresses.