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Christian Pulisic’s 2018-19 club season ended over the weekend, as Borussia Dortmund beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0, but fell short of dethroning Bayern Münich by two points. Like many other loanees, he’s now come back to Cobham for a visit, though not actual training, watching from the sidelines as Chelsea began preparations yesterday for the Europa League final.
— Ray (@abbasiR1700) May 20, 2019
Unfortunately, Pulisic (like any other returning loanee) cannot play for Chelsea in Baku as they were not registered back in January when the squads were submitted to UEFA. The only loophole around that is to put a bunch of youth players, born in 1997 or later, on the B List who have been with the team for at least two years.
Chelsea have had goalkeepers Jamie Cumming and Marcin Bulka, as well as Callum Hudson-Odoi, Connor Gallagher, and George McEachran on the B List before, but with up to 12 bench spots available in the final and an decent injury list, we could see a few more names show up next Wednesday — perhaps the likes of Marc Guehi, Ike Ugbo, Billy Gilmour, Charlie Brown, or Daishawn Redan, just to name a few?
I wonder if Chelsea will beef up their B list with youth ahead of the Europa League final. They are allowed 12 subs in that game, but the club has only seven 'extra' players outside the starting XI, even in the event of an N'Golo Kante return. Drinkwater potentially in too #CFC
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) May 20, 2019
In any case, Pulisic is about to be busy again soon anyway as the US men’s national football team get ready to play the in the 2019 Gold Cup, which is CONCACAF’s continental championships, but held every two years instead of every four because why not. You will be entirely unsurprised that only the US and Mexico have ever won this thing except for that one weird Y2K bug when Canada (CANADA!?) won it in 2000, beating Colombia in the final, a nation who aren’t even in CONCACAF! [FUN] yeah, Gold Cup!
The 40-man provisional squad was announced yesterday, with both Pulisic and fellow Chelsea loanee Matt Miazga getting the expected call. The squad will be trimmed to 23 on June 6, with the first match to follow a couple weeks later against Guyana (who are technically in South America but are part of CONCACAF). Barring any great surprises, both Pulisic and Miazga should be there.