Interesting. The only off field things I can think of are hosting a party during Covid and banging Pulisic's sister (allegedly, although we know it was something else). Those don't seem like entourage things. On the pitch? Other than the Leeds loan, what?
Overall, he's been bang average. On his day and in a decently-performing team, he's quite effective. If the team is having an off day, he's pretty anonymous. Put that on top of his recurring injury issues and you have a player you cannot afford to build your team around
It didn’t look to me that the defender hit the ball at all though… so it’s murky. Also, not you specifically, but a lot of people are saying Pulisic could have “not” kicked him. Pretty sure that was a lunge and reach that you simply can’t avoid split second.
This is how I’m feeling about it now. Buoyed by the fact the defender didn’t clearly touch the ball and lunged in. I guess it’s a question if a block is considered the ball only or the ball and shooting foot?
He doesn't have to touch it - he got in position between Pulisic and the ball. Are you saying Pulisic was lunging/ reaching? Or the defender? Pulisic was clearly shooting.
I’m saying the defender didn’t play the ball (missed) and lunged in desperately. Pulisic struck a foot that came in last minute and was injured due to the defending player. I replied to Method that I tend to view that as a foul and reckless. This is consistent with other protective rules like contact through a player that’s in a high 50/50 play or the mouth covering rule. It’s entirely possible Pulisic was fouled on his follow through based on the integrity of the rules. Defender lunged and he hit a foot that never challenged the ball.
One thing I forgt to mention in this post, but felt compelled to clarify: While the WC was disappointing for Pulisic and I just don't think he will reach the expected heights for the Natts, those ex-players who are piling on right now, from Landon to Lalas, can shut up. They have a right as pundits to have opinions, but certain takes they have need an asterisk; they could never dream of having or attemtping the club career challeneges CP faced. Landy Cakes sure does like to talk about how he would play on a broken leg for the US, as he enjoyed his LA club career from his beach front home close to where he grew up. Anyway, I am still skeptical of Amorim - the Milan players did not look thrilled in his introductory speech in the weight room. It will be interesting to see what happens when CP shows up to Milan post-injury.
The WC was obviously disappointing whether how much was related to that calf injury that lingered or issues with pressure in the moment. What I find weird though is how a segment of soccer fans in this country attempt to define a player's career by a brief 3-4 week tournament against a far larger book of production in club play. Soccer fans as a whole globally generally define a player by club career. Messi being the obvious example was widely considered the best player ever despite Argentina's shortcomings in the WC up until he was 35 in 2022. Zlatan who is all over the tv now, when his career is discussed his zero WC goals is just a footnote. There's numerous high tier players from outside the global top 8 nations whose careers are weighted heavily by club performance. Just like you don't judge an NBA player's career on how he did with USA basketball. It sucks in the moment, just like Polish fans are disappointed when their NT crashes out of any competition they're in despite having Lewandowski but it hardly plays into the discussion of player caliber. So I generally find it odd some of the criticism in the US beyond poor performance in this tournament. It's why it's personal and emotional. Why. Don't know, don't care. But there's a decade plus of weekly performances across leagues/UCL which operates in a global economic market with high accountability/metrics on one side, then a 3-4 week tournament on the other.
It’s not that weird, national team fans aren’t obligated to care about his club career. But even so I highly doubt many fans are calling his whole career a failure because of the World Cup.
This is a bit revisionist. A lot of people had him behind Maradona until the World Cup win. See the opening paragraph of this article from the day of the 2022 final: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...ona-world-cup-2022-final-france-b1047759.html "For years, there was a debate in Argentina about who was better: Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi. Now, we have stopped comparing them. They are the two greatest players in football history and it makes us proud to have those two big names as part of our country." But also, the World Cup attracts a ton of casual fans even in the countries where soccer is ubiquitous. So for us, you get idiots who say Pulisic is crap, and for Argentina, you get (got) people saying that Messi couldn't compare to Maradona.
unfortunately - for CP - as good as he is ... he is fragile for club and country ..... he is on the north side of 25 now and I don't see any reason that the fragility will change. At least he has played at an extremely high level for the US and professionally despite this ... JOBs career was much shorter even though he had amazing abilities as well.
I find the two careers incomparable - CP10 already has amost 5 times the number of club appearances as JOB in his entire career. It will probably be close to 10 times when he hangs it up. It looks ike across all competitions, CP10 is only about 70 first team appearances behind Landon Donovan for his entire career. I feel like the injunry riddled narrative is not a great fit with the facts.
Donovan played more than 25 league games in a season twice and played in a league with fewer matches in general that also played through international breaks, which he was largely absent from his club for. Pulisic has basically missed two full seasons’ worth of matches due to injury so far, and also has 67 fewer international caps than Donovan.
ArsenalMetro already commented on the LD # of appearances so I don't need to. Re: JOB - my point was simply this - JOB also had amazing talent but his career was cut short very early due to injuries. We are at the point - despite being a great player for club and country - that CP is simply fragile and injury prone and that is not going to change. For whatever reason some great players don't reach their full potential due to fragility or frequent injuries. It seems CP is in that camp. Despite that he is/was a great player for the US.
Donovan played in a MLS which was regarded far weaker back then but he compensated by stepping up for international competition. Christian hasn't done that the same consistently for the NT although he's given his all for his club team. Maybe it just comes down to (mins injuries) Christian may be club over country.
He has played 134 games for Milan across the last three seasons. And he would have been available for more if Milan had any Euro comp last season.
and yet for the two most key/toughest matches - Paraguay and Belgium (in terms of opponent ranking) he got injured and adversely impacted the team substantially. He is fragile. Yes he has been in 3 seasons of matches for Milan but this past season alone his injury and extended time out really hurt the squad and even when back he just was not as effective. Same happened at Chelsea as did at BVB. he is a Ferrari that requires frequent maintenance.
He has been one of the most available players at Milan over three years. More than their other attackers. It is a stark contrast to his end at BVB and 2nd half of his Chelsea run. It is simply the numbers. If you split his career into thirds he has been significantly more available during his Milan stretch. The timing of what occurred in the WC sucks but don't let it cloud the larger trend. Speaking of timing, Balo, Pepi, Adams, Dest, Arob all missed substantial club time with injuries during that same stretch. Johnny has missed considerable time. I would suggest this wasn't as apparent as we didn't go thru qualifying this cycle. If we had, Puli would have been more available than a number of others. He obviously has a considerable history of injuries throughout his career. But I am also suggesting emotions from the WC are clouding the trend.
It’s not just about how often you’re available. When you’re available matters too. Poch set the USMNT up to play with a tempo more familiar to clubs in England than in Italy. Pulisic’s body was unable to keep up.
He might well have struggled to maintain Poch's tempo but I don't see how we can judge that from the games ... He was injured twice from behind by a defender. The first a clear foul as he was kicked, the second a debatable foul when the defender stuck his leg in front without touching the ball. Perhaps his recovery from injury was too slow but that' s a pretty tough standard.
I agree, his injuries at the World Cup were not consistent with a change in tempo. You can argue he wasn't tough enough in responding to those injuries (Sydney Leroux), but I'm not sure how you blame the injuries on his body not being able to keep up when they were contact injuries.