Possibly one of the worst posts in BS history. I was going to post my real name and background also but I could not decide to list my occupation as astronaut, nuclear scientist, senator, or CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I would be floored if you even stated that you have a full time job, wife, children, or hobby beside soccer.
Would be completely different. Pulisic is the current money machine. McKennie is not selling tickets and neither is Weah. Brooks just begged out of a Friendly....crickets. Arriola just begged out of a Friendly....crickets Altidore hasn't played in 10 months....crickets (most don't want him) Sargent just begged out of two Friendlies...crickets Nagbe begged out of two Friendlies...the coach was hammered He wasn't coming to Portugal. He wasn't invited to Paraguay. He didn't want to play 270' at the end of last season. He was hurt during the last window. Get a coach, then call him. I don't need to see him as a winger in Dave's 4-1-4-1 where wingers go to die.
I don't get the by proxy drama on the part of some of you. He suffered a knock, which caused him to leave a match early. Missed the friendlies and the subsequent club match. What's the problem? Why does he need to 'pull a Vela'? Where's the conflict?
Long story short it's a conspiracy by MLS and SUM. Wil Trapp may or may not be the leader of Don Garber's army. CP is leading a valient rebellion against MLS and SJWs by not playing in the friendlies.
I don't get all the criticism of Pulisic's commitment to the USMNT. It's like everyone has a pipeline to his brain. Nobody knows the discussions he's had with USSF nor the discussions about Pulisic within U.S. Soccer. I like to think U.S. Soccer sees his development with BVB right now as the most critical part of the long term plan for him. When he's healthy and the games count he will be back.
The criticism is coming from USSF. I don't hear many fans at all being critical. It is USSF, through the media, that is making this story. The source, unnamed, claims to know the discussions and says that USSF wanted Pulisic to play all three Spring Friendlies and these last two Friendlies. That Pulisic pushed back and they compromised on Bolivia only. Then he was hurt. USSF would write that sentence as..."hurt". If the source for these articles is to be believed, USSF does not have any of Pulisic's long term welfare in mind. Or they think concern is overblown. They see his playing in these Friendlies with Dave Sarachan as the most important long term. If they didn't, why would they be complaining in the press about him? I would expect them to call him up for every game and he will have to show up if he is healthy. Sarachan said his attitude was bad, so we can see what that is like in October. Your post would only make sense if Galarcep and Wahl/Straus was speculating on their own. But they are getting this from Sarachan and other USSF sources.
I thought the Sarachan quote sounded like a fairly generic response to a reporter focusing on Pulisic, basically saying that Pulisic, just like any other NT player, needs to be focused every time he's with the U.S. No big deal to me. From what I saw Sarachan didn't question Pulisic's commitment regarding his absence from the last two friendlies. That came from Ives taking a quote from another outlet's story and adding his own editorial take. Fact is superstars get the spotlight and the attempts at click bait. I'm sure CP knows that and isn't going to take offense over a website that's maybe one step up from a blog.
It's good if he doesn't come for a while, it allows us to see how to create a team without him. We can't depend too much on a single player again, it's not a formula for success. Nothing guarantees he won't be injured for vital games.
We've depended on Donovan for a very long time. Last cycle, we just built around and relied on the WRONG guy.
We paid for it. Donovan made us believe our below-average guys were better than they really were, because he served them plays on a platter. In a way, it was him who inflated our sense of worth --everybody else in the region was warning us that our development programs were stuck.
"According to U.S. Soccer, Pulisic's injury was not significant, and one source told Goal that under different circumstances, such as World Cup qualifying, Pulisic would have been brought into camp to see if the national team could get him ready to play." That is not editorial speculation. That is USSF saying Pulisic is not really hurt. “What I want to see from [Pulisic] is a desire, a passion, energy, excitement and a great effort,” Sarachan told Sports Illustrated on Friday. “That should be each and every player that we bring in, and Christian is no different. … Look at the Bolivia game. It was an outlier from that standpoint. Yes, he was tired. He was coming off a long season—whatever the reasons. But when you come in with the national team, those boxes have to be checkIed.” “We needed a little bit more, and I think [Pulisic] knows that," Sarachan added, referring the Bolivia friendly. "He’s got the potential to be a major player for the senior national team. Will he maybe be a captain one day? He’s got the ability. We all know. So when he comes in, I’m hoping that he can be influential and bring the group together in an infectious way, and make sure he’s all in, because we need him. He’s that good." If you don't think Sarachan knows exactly what he is saying, you are being naive. Where has Sarachan ever criticised a player? When a coach says anything bad about their best player it makes news for a reason. See Mourinho vs. Pogba.
And I'm sure that if it were under different circumstances like WC qualifying Pulisic would be there and there would be no issues but he had a knock and a meaningless game is still meaningless.
The top (indirect) quote says the injury was not significant, which is different than "not really hurt." And that same unnamed source snippet cites no negative judgement on CP for skipping the friendlies. The direct Sarachan quotes are right there, and I still see nothing that accuses CP of faking injury to get out of the two recent friendlies.
Do these guys even follow Pulisic and his club? Because it seems they are either ignorant or idiotic; or perhaps both. BvB decided Pulisic was not healthy enough, so they excluded him from the squad on 2 straight BL games, and sat him on the bench in their first CL match. So yeah, he was definitely injured and wasn't 100%; but the USSF wants him to show up and play? I mean, we must be having real idiots running the USSF, including the coach.
can you imagine if Klinsmann said that? Sarachan is so far in over his head that he should say as little as possible. There was definitely no reason to include him in friendlies after the season. I dont feel as strongly, but if he doesnt want to distract his career with circus, so be it. The only thing we are getting out of these games is players getting experience. If they arent important enough to hire a coach, then they arent important for the players who dont need the experience of the games. No idea what CP is thinking, but could easily see him not wanting to play for the same staff that ripped the team apart, blamed his friend/mentor as a bad egg, and cost/delayed his life long dream of playing in the world cup. He and all the other players deserve better than this.
I think it's all pretty simple, whichever way you want to read Sarachan's comments. Sarachan's a dumbass, and Pulisic was held out of club games by BvB, so I could give a rat's ass what the placeholder coach says about CP. Clearly, he was injured, at least to some extent, which meant that a September pair of Friendly matches under a caretaker manager was less important than the risks associated with trying to play while injured. That's all I need to know. As such, I'm not worried by anything Sarachan says, except if he ever says "I've decided to remain as the permanent head coach of the US Men's National Team".
Actually I could imagine it quite well given that Klinsmann sent Fabian Johnson home so he could "rethink his approach about his team," cut Donovan when he thought he wasn't up to snuff, and stripped Dempsey of the captaincy. Klinsi had no trouble dressing down the better players when he thought it was warrented. Sarachan's minor criticism of CP's effort versus Bolivia is small stuff in comparison.
Pulisic is still very young and, IMO, doesn't seem to be en route to become a "world class" type of talent, just a good Bundesliga player. The way Sarachan talks, it's as if he expected the kid to light up every second he spends on the field. Well, no. He's young, he's played more minutes than nearly anyone else his age, he gets tired, he still can improve in several aspects, and he's good but not as good as people want him to be.
The way you view the comments from the different people is my point. I dont have a problem with coaches commenting on players. CP played like crap vs whoever we played in that useless game. It seemed obvious he didnt want to be there. I also saw no reason for him to have been there other than the Fed trying to make money. I see no reason for an unqualified, interim manager to make those comments. I'd love to see Sarachan strip Trapp of captaincy and send him home. He could very mater of factly say he tried very hard but after 6 games it could no longer be hidden that he just isnt good enough.