News Analysis: Why are big-name U.S. players passing on World Cup tuneup?

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6 days ago

Forward Christian Pulisic, America's active leader in goals and caps, will not participate in the last World Cup tuneup after a grueling schedule between club and country in the last year. (John Locher / Associated Press)
'To represent my country in a soccer game, there's just nothing better than that.'
—Christian Pulisic, 2020
Never mind.
—Christian Pulisic, last week
With the World Cup, one the U.S. will play at home, just 380 days away, Captain America has decided to take a pass on the national team's last major competition ahead of the tournament.
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That's Pulisic's choice, of course. He's played a grueling schedule with AC Milan this season, one that concludes Sunday, a week before the national team reports to camp in Chicago.
And he has permission.
'Christian and his team approached the Federation and the coaching staff about the possibility of stepping back this summer, given the amount of matches he has played,' said Matt Crocker, U.S. Soccer's sporting director, noting that Pulisic has played more than 4,400 minutes for club and country the last 12 months.
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Nor is Pulisic alone in his absence. Weston McKennie, Tim Weah, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson, Josh Sargent and Yunus Musah, Pulisic's teammate in Milan, were also left off the 27-man roster summoned to training camp ahead next month's Gold Cup, although some of those players will be participating in the Club World Cup.
Yet even if reason and rules are strongly on Pulisic's side, the optics are bad.
Over the last year the national team has suffered through two of its worst performances in recent memory, getting bounced in the group stage of last summer's Copa América — which cost coach Gregg Berhalter his job — then losing in heartless fashion to Panama and Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League under Mauricio Pochettino, Berhalter's successor.
So with the national team in dismal form a year before the World Cup returns to the U.S. for the first time in 32 years, this is probably not the best time for the active leader in goals and caps to be asking out of the lineup. Especially since the Gold Cup likely will be the last, best chance for the team to rediscover the form that saw it reach the round of 16 in the last World Cup.
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'There is already doubt and concern regarding this team given recent failures. People are even questioning if they care and saying, 'If they don't care, then why should we?'' said Alexi Lalas, who played every minute in the 1994 World Cup, helping the U.S. reach the round of 16 and changing the trajectory of soccer in the U.S. forever. 'I can't believe we created an apathy towards this team a year out from hosting a World Cup.
'I just think this summer's Gold Cup, a tournament in the U.S., is a great opportunity to create a more positive vibe surrounding the team and reignite a belief that they can do something special next summer. I don't think we can afford to waste it.'
That's all true. But Pulisic and the other first-choice players missing from the Gold Cup roster were put in a bad position by a global soccer environment with a rapacious appetite for matches — or rather a rapacious appetite for the money those matches produce.
Former national team star Alexi Lalas, who played every minute of the 1994 World Cup, believes all Americans should be on hand for the final World Cup tuneup.
(Jacob Kupferman / Associated Press)
Consider Pulisic's schedule the last 12 months. For the U.S., he played in the Copa América, five friendlies and four Nations League matches. For AC Milan, the Italian club that pays his $5.8-million salary, he played in four tournaments, including Champions League. He's clearly banged up and needs some rest.
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Traditionally, the Champions League final was the last game on the European calendar. Now it's followed by the Club World Cup, a competition I'm not sure anyone really needed but one that extends the club calendar for 32 teams for as long as another six weeks.
Even at 26, that's a punishing schedule. If Pulisic and the others don't take a break now, they could head into the World Cup year running on fumes.
'Many people can say it's really important for us to be all together for the last time before the World Cup,' Pochettino said in virtual meeting with reporters. 'As a coaching staff we listen to the player. We have our own idea in everything, but after consideration we decided the best for him, the best for the team, the best for the national team is the decision that we made.'
Lalas isn't buying that.
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'I recognize that players play a lot of games,' he said. 'But you know who plays a lot of games? Messi.'
(Not recently. Messi played about half as many games as Pulisic in the last year, according to the Fbref.com website.)
'Of course I want U.S. players to be at their best in the summer of 2026, but we can't put them in bubble-wrap until then,' Lalas continued. 'I know I am from a different generation, and I try not be a grumpy old man. But I just can't fathom turning down the privilege of representing my country.
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'We need all hands on deck. We can rest in 2027.'
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Pochettino might not be buying his own words either. Because in the same news conference in which he excused Pulisic and the others, he made it clear that every spot on his World Cup roster is up for grabs. And the best way to grab one is to show up at training camp.
'What we want to create in our national team is people desperate to come, but desperate to come to perform,' said Pochettino who, in his eight months in charge, has been unable to rouse his players from a listless funk. 'To perform means follow the rules, create a good atmosphere, be part of the team.
'We need to create this culture about winning and we need to chase our aim. If we want to be good in one year's time, we need to think that today is the most important day. It's not to say, 'OK, I wait. The World Cup is in one year. It's in six months. It's in one month.' And then it's late.'
The U.S. has been building for this since 2018, when FIFA awarded the World Cup to the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The roster has been carefully cultivated, players have been methodically groomed; broadcast contracts have been negotiated and sponsorships signed, all in the hopes of the U.S. making a deep run next summer.
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Now that the tournament on the doorstep, those plans appear to be crumbling.
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Could the U.S. really field a World Cup team without Pulisic, Reyna, Weah and the others? Well, it will be fielding a Gold Cup team without them. And Pochettino seems to have found a sense of urgency that was missing in the Nations League debacle.
It's all a gamble. If the U.S. makes a long run in next year's World Cup, no one will remember who played in the Gold Cup. But if the U.S. is ousted early, Pulisic and the other absentees will get blamed, no matter how well they play.
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'A home World Cup can create a legacy. We should be doing everything possible, on and off the field, to make it successful,' Lalas said. 'There is pressure, responsibility and opportunity, especially for a country like the U.S. Home World Cups in 1994 and 1999 fundamentally changed the landscape and trajectory of soccer in America. 2026 can have the same impact.
'If we mess this up, on or off the field, we only have ourselves to blame.'
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week's episode of the 'Corner of the Galaxy' podcast.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.