LOS ANGELES — Malik Tillman wouldn’t have been shocked, really.
If you’d asked a younger version of the Nürnberg, Germany-born midfielder if he would suit up in a game between Germany and the United States on the doorstep of a World Cup, he probably would’ve believed you. Perhaps, though, Tillman would’ve assumed that he’d be playing for the country of his birth. His mother’s country. After all, Germany — Fürth to be precise — was where Tillman’s dreams of playing professionally began.
“I knew about my American background,” Tillman told Backheeled last year. His father was a U.S. serviceman. “But it was like, ‘I’m in Germany, I live with my German mom.’ So it wasn’t really a topic in my life to be honest.”
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But as his chances of being a regular for Bayern Munich narrowed and the door seemed to close on cracking his birth country’s senior national team, U.S. Soccer kept knocking. Calls and texts from U.S. coaches were commonplace, and a visit from then-U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter to Munich sealed the deal. Tillman would play for the United States.
That decision led the 24-year-old to Soldier Field in Chicago for the USMNT’s final World Cup tuneup, where Tillman experienced something new: playing against the country of his birth, the one he thought he’d represent at international level. Still, battling Germany wasn’t the only new experience for Tillman that day.
The attacking midfielder was also being tasked by U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino to play in a new role, one that would prove crucial to one of the most remarkable wins in team history.
When Pochettino’s World Cup roster was unveiled, there was one common refrain.
Where are the central midfielders?
