Christian Pulisic sounded off on ex-USMNT stars who bashed the team

USA Today

2 days ago

When it comes to the U.S. men's national team, there is never a normal day. It's a group that almost feeds off dysfunction, and there's been plenty of that this summer.
That doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon.
USMNT star Christian Pulisic faced enormous criticism when he opted against playing for the national team in the Gold Cup, choosing instead to take the summer off for recovery. Now, under normal circumstances, the Gold Cup is a developmental tournament comprised of mostly B-team players.
But this was the final competitive tournament for the USMNT before the 2026 World Cup. It made sense for the team's best player to be there with a new coach. And the most vocal criticism seemingly came from former players like Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey.
You best believe that Pulisic heard it all.
In a new clip from Paramount Plus' Pulisic docuseries, the USMNT captain — along with Tim Weah and Pulisic's father, Mark — ripped into the comments from ex-USMNT stars. Weah went as far as to call the players "evil" for their remarks.
Pulisic said:
'I'd say the most annoying thing, and for me, the biggest cop out of all-time is when all pundits want to say, 'They didn't want it. They didn't have the heart. Back in our day, we would fight and we would die on that field.''
Mark believed that those players were chasing "clicks" and podcast views. Drama is more compelling, and it suits those players to knock the USMNT in their post-playing careers.
At the very least, it doesn't seem like the infighting between the current team and old guard will stop in the near future. If anything, this episode could be another escalation.