Pulisic: USMNT's Biggest Mystery After Disappointing World Cup
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- Christian Pulisic played 45 minutes of excellent soccer in the opener against Paraguay, then was largely unremarkable through the group stage, including a nightmare loss to Belgium where he lost the ball 14 times.
- Pulisic sustained a bone bruise and microfracture in his lower leg during the tournament, making him unreliably available and complicating both his short-term play and the broader 'greatest USMNT player' debate.
- Landon Donovan said Pulisic's inner circle is a problem, while Tim Howard said on a podcast that 'when someone shows you who they are, believe them'; Carli Lloyd and Sydney Leroux also criticized his post-elimination comments about resting his injured leg.
- Pulisic has gone goalless for AC Milan since December, and unlike Clint Dempsey's stints at Tottenham and Fulham, he is no longer the lone American competing at a top European club — making it harder for him to differentiate himself.
- Both Mauricio Pochettino and predecessor Gregg Berhalter chose someone other than Pulisic as their World Cup captain, and the article argues his minimizer persona — calling the World Cup 'just another big tournament' — reads as disconnected to devoted fans.
- Pulisic will be 31 at the next World Cup, plays a position traditionally best filled by younger players, and has a significant injury history, making his trajectory beyond this tournament deeply uncertain.
Why it matters: The USMNT's marketing, ticket sales, and global brand rise have been built around Pulisic as the face of the program; if he can't deliver at the next World Cup at age 31 with a worsening injury profile, the federation faces a leadership vacuum precisely as soccer's U.S. traction is peaking.
