Why Christian Pulisic and other USMNT stars aren't playing in Gold Cup
The U.S. men's national team enters the CONCACAF Gold Cup coming off a four-game losing streak under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino. And if the USMNT is going to right the ship this tournament, it's going to do so without its best players.
In recent years, the Gold Cup has been relegated to a developmental tournament with U.S. Soccer opting to instead send its best team to the CONCACAF Nations League or last year's Copa America. But this summer's Gold Cup could have been different with it being the final competitive tournament for the USMNT before next year's World Cup.
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Yet, when the rosters were announced, star players like Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, Yunus Musah and Weston McKennie were not included ... for different reasons.
Pulisic's absence was especially controversial among the USMNT fan base as the 26-year-old was coming off his best season at AC Milan. Pulisic, though, asked to not be a part of the Gold Cup roster in order to give himself an offseason to recover. Pulisic told CBS Sports that he was willing to play in the pre-Gold Cup friendlies, but Pochettino declined that request.
The USMNT coach wanted to use the same roster for both the friendlies and Gold Cup, so Pulisic opted to stay home.
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Musah and Robinson had similar reasons to Pulisic. They wanted to use the summer as an opportunity to recover ahead of the club season and World Cup.
When it comes to McKennie, Gio Reyna and Tim Weah, they were not available as their club teams are competing in the FIFA Club World Cup.
USMNT starters Folarin Balogun and Sergiño Dest were included on the initial camp roster but withdrew ahead of the friendlies. Both players were coming off lengthy injuries and were still working back to full strength.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Why Christian Pulisic and other USMNT stars aren't playing in Gold Cup
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