USMNT World Cup Daily, Day 19

Pulisic cleared to play against the Netherlands in Saturday's Round of 16 showdown

U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter talked at length about the influence of the Netherlands, where he played for six seasons, on his development as a player and a coach (Photo by ANP via Getty Images)

DOHA, Qatar — The U.S. meets the Netherlands on Saturday in the first World Cup knockout-round game (10 am ET, FOX, Telemundo), and today coach Gregg Berhalter and captain Tyler Adams met the media in a much less tense environment than the one before the Iran game. 

The big news is that Christian Pulisic, who suffered a “pelvic contusion” scoring against Iran, has been cleared to play against the Dutch. That’s huge, since Pulisic is massively important to the U.S. attack.

But it’s clear that the U.S. does not fear the Netherlands, who won their group but haven’t performed quite as well as I was expecting entering the tournament. A decent but not great Ecuador team got a point off the Dutch here, so there’s no reason the Americans can’t hang with the favorite in this game. The most important players for the Netherlands are forward Cody Gakpo (who has scored in every game here) and Virgil van Dijk, one of the world’s premiere centerbacks.

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