Christian Pulisic will not start in USMNT’s showdown with Mexico

CINCINNATI — U.S. soccer star Christian Pulisic, who just returned to active duty after a two-month injury layoff, will not start Friday in the 2022 World Cup qualifier against archrival Mexico, Coach Gregg Berhalter said Thursday.

The announcement was not a surprise, given the Chelsea attacker has not played more than 16 minutes since spraining an ankle against Honduras in a qualifier in early September. Berhalter’s comments did, however, raise the level of difficulty the Americans will face — at least at the start — without their most dynamic attacker against the Concacaf front-runners.

Berhalter said Pulisic “looks good” after four days of training. The sessions were about “assessing him,…