Christian Pulisic has clearly fallen out of favor with some USA football legends following his poor World Cup campaign. After USWNT legend Carli Lloyd called him out, this time it was Landon Donovan’s turn to criticize the AC Milan forward.
Pulisic didn’t make much of an impact in the Stars and Stripes’ 4-1 loss to Belgium, struggling to create any chances in the final third. He ultimately left the match in the 59th minute due to an ankle injury he sustained after being on the receiving end of Youri Tielemans’ crunch tackle.
“I’m starting to look back, and it’s more than just a trend now. It is. Like, when the games are easy, and it’s a home qualifier, and it’s Jamaica, yes. But in the big moments and the big games, he just hasn’t… I’m just saying it factually. He is who he is at this point,” Donovan said of Pulisic on the Unfiltered Soccer podcast.
“This was a game where you needed him to go, ‘Give me the ball, I’m gonna stick it in the back of the net, it’s 2-2, let’s go.’ And he just didn’t. And he wasn’t even close to it,” he added. “You would have had to f–king drag me off the field. And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’”
MORE: USA’s World Cup run ends in heartbreak after defensive failures
Pulisic didn’t make much of an impact in the Stars and Stripes’ 4-1 loss to Belgium, struggling to create any chances in the final third. He ultimately left the match in the 59th minute due to an ankle injury he sustained after being on the receiving end of Youri Tielemans’ crunch tackle.
“I’m starting to look back, and it’s more than just a trend now. It is. Like, when the games are easy, and it’s a home qualifier, and it’s Jamaica, yes. But in the big moments and the big games, he just hasn’t… I’m just saying it factually. He is who he is at this point,” Donovan said of Pulisic on the Unfiltered Soccer podcast.
“This was a game where you needed him to go, ‘Give me the ball, I’m gonna stick it in the back of the net, it’s 2-2, let’s go.’ And he just didn’t. And he wasn’t even close to it,” he added. “You would have had to f–king drag me off the field. And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’”
MORE: USA’s World Cup run ends in heartbreak after defensive failures
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