Christian Pulisic's absence didn't expose the USMNT. It cast a light on the team's adaptability

SEATTLE -- Two hours and 30 minutes before their latest history-making World Cup win, before they outdueled Australia and savored a magical afternoon here in Seattle, the U.S. men's national team didn't know the answer to the most pressing question in American soccer. Is Christian Pulisic playing? At 9:30 a.m., when players filed into a meeting room at their team hotel, they had not been told. But as they took their seats, and learned their starting lineup and tactics, there was no grand announcement about their wounded star, who missed Friday's match due to injury. There was, instead, a lineup of 11 players whom everyone in the room trusted to perform. There were 11 players who, a few hours later, throttled Australia and made America forget about Pulisic's left calf. "CP's a fantastic player, but I think you saw, we're still able to go out there and get a result and put in a performance," forward Folarin Balogun said after a 2-0 win that sealed the Americans' place in the knockout stage. The world saw that this U.S. team is far more than Pulisic. It is chock-full of talent, deeper than ever before. It will need Pulisic as the tournament progresses, but with over 60,000 raucous fans propelling them, Pulisic's teammates showed that they, the collective, the team, as one, is the star. In the buildup to Friday's match, all sorts of American eyes bored in on Pulisic's injury. Reporters broke out binoculars to scrutinize his movements at training. Ravenous fans craved news about the calf that Pulisic injured last week, first in training, then in a dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay. Fox's Jenny Taft delivered daily updates. The Athletic and other media outlets wrote story after story. Speculation accelerated. Would Pulisic be ready? How could the U.S. replace him? Answers were thin, and worry set in. When U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino revealed Friday morning that the answer was no, that Pulisic was out, unavailable, word spread through Lumen Field and concern trailed it. "Gosh," one fan said, reacting to the news. "That changes a lot." But then, as noon approached, as 66,925 seats filled, attention turned, finally, to the 25 players who were available and the 11 selected. And Australia couldn't keep up with them. The Aussies couldn't keep up with Balogun, who raced away down the left wing and created another early goal. They couldn't keep up with Weston McKennie and the audacious, masterful Sergiño Dest on the right. They couldn't cope with Malik Tillman's silky skill. They couldn't penetrate a defense anchored by Alex Freeman and the towering Chris Richards. They couldn't match a team that played games with their supposedly stout defense. In the 10th minute, McKennie, Dest and Freeman toyed with them on the right side. Moments later, the U.S. swung the ball to the left, then back to the right, then all the way out to the left, pulling Australia out of its defensive shell. And that's when the Americans pounced. Antonee Robinson played a sharp pass into the channel. Balogun galloped onto it and away from overmatched Aussies. His cross deflected into the net. There was no one moment of individual brilliance, no Pulisic needed, just a brilliant sequence of actions by players who now seem tied together by strings. And it was exactly as the U.S. scripted it. "We just tried to have as much possession as we can, combine on the sides, attract them to one side, switch sides, and yeah, try to make it as quick as possible so the other side is open," Tillman explained. And they had a half dozen stars, not one, who could do that. Which is why they weren't taken aback when Pulisic wasn't among the 11. "It wasn't a surprise. Nobody was in shock and awe," captain Tim Ream said. Ricardo Pepi replaced Pulisic, and his inclusion was "obviously a little bit surprising," Pepi admitted, but teammates didn't feel that way. "To play with Pepi today wasn't a shock, it wasn't like a plan B because CP was out," Balogun said. "It didn't feel like that to me. It just felt like another solution to win the game." It's unclear how much the U.S. rehearsed the Pepi-Balogun setup in training, but it ultimately didn't matter. "Everybody knew their roles and knew their jobs," Ream said. They knew not because of obsessive prep over the past week, but because they've developed an understanding with coaches and one another over the course of weeks and months, as everything built towards this spotlighted stage. "We have known for months, really," Ream said of roles and responsibilities. "Everybody knows -- if they're playing, they know what they're doing." So, they feel free. "Free to change, to move, to create, and all the dynamics," Pochettino said afterward. Free to play soccer like they would at a park, unfazed and unrestricted. Free to make up for Pulisic's absence. Pulisic, of course, is important. Pochettino now feels comfortable stating this. "All the players are important, but Christian is one of the best players in the world," he told Fox before the game. The hope is that Pulisic will be ready to face Turkey next Thursday, or at least for the round of 32 a week later. "But if we want to win the competition, we need the whole team, no?" Pochettino said. And it's clear, after two World Cup wins, that he has one. He has a team capable of charging deep into this tournament, capable of inspiring this country and capable of driving American soccer to new heights.