With just 12 months to go until the 2026 World Cup on home soil, the pressure on USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino is starting to increase.
The most recent international break back in March was a bleak failure for the US, losing to Panama in the semi-final of the CONCACAF Nations League. Now the team regroups for friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland.
If the US is to avoid an embarrassment at next summer’s tournament Pochettino needs to extract top performances from his star players and has big expectations for Christian Pulisic.
“I think Christian in the last year showed a great quality. He’s performing in Europe, also he’s performing with the national team. He’s a very talented player that can help us to win,” Pochettino said on the “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast.
Pochettino was talking to former USMNT stalwarts Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, both of whom made more than 100 appearances for the national team.
Pochettino continued: “You say people compare Messi with Christian Pulisic. I don’t want to be disrespectful to Messi or Pulisic, but I think in this country, Pulisic should be our Messi, because he’s an iconic player. The kids on the street for sure if you ask one soccer player in this country, it’s Pulisic.”
Pochettino, a compatriot of Messi’s, worked alongside him at Paris Saint-Germain and knows exactly what makes the Argentine so extraordinary. He won’t, however, have the benefit of Pulisic’s talents for this month’s games.
Pulisic was one of a handful of Europe-based US stars who opted to remove themselves from this month’s camp. Pulisic, along with Antonee Robinson and Yunus Musha, asked to be excluded to allow them to rest after a grueling season.
But in a separate episode of Unfiltered Soccer, Donovan took aim at Pulisic for allegedly prioritizing Milan’s recent fixtures over the national team.
“The problem I have with Christian in the last few weeks is he’s still playing for Milan,” Donovan explained. So, if you’re if you’re tired and you’re burned out and whatever [and] you guys are still playing for a Champions League spot, fine. I get it. They had nothing to play for this weekend. Zero.”
Without Pulisic and some other key players, Pochettino will not have the chance to work with his first-choice team for this month’s game. But it does give him the chance to try out some different, more left-field options who could force their way into next year’s tournament roster.