Just when it appeared Borussia Dortmund would have to settle for a share of the spoils against Hoffenheim on Matchday 17, up popped USMNT starlet Christian Pulisic to steal the headlines with a goal his colleague Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would have been proud of.
Latching onto a perfectly-weighted pass from Shinji Kagawa, the 19-year-old calmly lifted the ball over the onrushing Oliver Baumann before sidefooting into the unguarded net, completing a 2-1 victory which extends Peter Stöger’s winning start to life in the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK hot seat.
Watch: Pulisic doffs hat to Kagawa
“I made a run and Shinji played almost the perfect ball,” Pulisic told bundesliga.com afterwards. “I think it got a little deflected, but I touched it right around the keeper and it was an easy finish from there.”
The Hershey-native would be the first to admit he has not scored as many goals as he would have hoped this season - Saturday’s late winner was only his third league strike of 2017/18 - yet Pulisic has been a pillar of consistency for Dortmund throughout a trying campaign, starting 14 of BVB’s 17 league encounters and proving a handful for opposition defenders with his pace and quick feet.
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“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”