CHRISTIAN PULISIC used Chelsea’s ‘decoy’ penalty taker tactic during USA’s key World Cup qualifier against Panama.
The US needed to beat their Central American opponents to keep themselves in pole position for the second automatic qualification spot behind Canada.
Ferreira acted as a decoy while Pulisic waited outside the area Credit: Twitter
Pulisic dispatched the first of two penalties in the game Credit: AP
Chelsea captain Azpilicueta did the same thing for Chelsea at the Club World Cup
Havertz tucked the spot kick away in extra time to win the tournament for the Blues Credit: Getty With the score goalless, Gregg Berhalter’s side were awarded a penalty in the 17th minute.
And it appeared at first as though striker Jesus Ferreira was going to take the spot kick as he was handed the ball and stood in the area waiting for the referee to move the Panama players out of the box.
The Panamanians began trying to get into Ferreira’s head as they exchanged words with him, crowding around him in an attempt to mess up his thought process.
Then, when the area was cleared and the referee had a handle on things, Ferreira gave the ball to Pulisic as the Panama players realised they had been well and truly tricked.
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Roman Abramovich attends Ukraine peace talks in Turkey after suspected poisoning Pulisic stepped up and tucked the spot kick away as the Chelsea man set USA on their way to a 5-1 victory.
Ferreira and Pulisic repeated the trick again in first half stoppage time after being awarded another spot kick, although this time the element of surprise had disappeared.
Pulisic still stepped up to successfully slot home as USA raced into a 4-0 lead at the break.
The Chelsea man would go on to net a hat-trick as USA boosted their chances of qualifying automatically for the World Cup later this year.
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It is likely the Blues forward learnt the “decoy” penalty tactic from his colleagues Stamford Bridge.
It was employed during the Club World Cup final when Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta acted as the trickster for team-mate Kai Havertz.
Azpilicueta took the heat out of the situation before handing the ball to Havertz, with the German scoring to hand them a 2-1 victory over Palmeiras after extra time.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
