In Defense of Christian Pulisic
- Fred
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 21 hours ago
This article is written with anger and a gnashing of teeth.
Landon Donovan, when he was 26 years, played 25 games for Major League Soccer. And that's it. Across his entire career, Donovan averaged 20-25 games a year in MLS. He played 22 total games in the Premier League and 16 in the Bundesliga, FOR HIS CAREER. The most games Donovan ever played in a calendar year for his career was 37 in the 2014 season. When Donovan retired at age 36, he had played 501 games as a professional.
Christian Pulisic has played 127 total games while in the Bundesliga, 145 total games while in the Premier League, and 134 total games while in Serie A. For those bad at math, that's 406 games at the age of 27. Pulisic played 50 games in the 23-24 season and 50 games in the 24-25 season. Pulisic has notched 137 games in the last 3 years. That's an average of 45 games a year, almost 10 more than Donovan's PEAK year.
Carli Lloyd said Pulisic can rest when he's retired? How many games did Lloyd play? 427 games, total, when she retired at age 39. Her JOB was playing for the USWNT! She barely played over a 100 matches of club soccer.
I enjoy Pulisic's game, but at the World Cup he was injured (calf) and forcing things. I wish Pulisic played better, but coming into the World Cup, in his home country of the United States, there were signs that he was burned out.
The number 1 scapegoat for the USMNT's Round of 16 exit has been Christian Pulisic. It's not fair, but idiot broadcasters who've never played soccer continue to pound on Pulisic a week later. I don't blame them, per se, they are idiot broadcasters. I see Pulisic taking it on the chin on social media, but guess what? Welcome to social media. But former players taking a run at Pulisic galls me.
Their criticisms are, in a nutshell, that Pulisic is not Messi, Ronaldo, or Mbappe. Few people are. It is not fair to compare him to the Top 3 generational talents since the turn of the millennium. Pulisic is Pulisic, a very good American Player that is aggressive and compliments his teammates.
Without Messi, Argentina is out of the World Cup. Even with Ronaldo, Portugal is out of the World Cup. Your response is "boo-hoo, Messi has played over a thousand games."
Pulisic's crime is that he's not America's Soccer Savior? He's not Neo in the Soccer Matrix?
Now, in 2026, the best Americans go to Europe to play in their leagues and are wore out for the National Team. Back when Donovan played, MLS had a shorter season and easier competition (compared to Europe).
So back in the day, most (not all) of the Americans were in MLS and had plenty of spare time to play for the USMNT. Back in the year 2004, the average MLS salary was $80,000. THE AVERAGE. Meaning a lot of USMNT members needed the extra money. At 26, Langdon Donovan averaged one game every other week. At 26 Christian Pulisic averaged a game a week. That is a huge difference on the human body.
A generation ago, most Americans were playing in an inferior league, but they bonded for their country. The result was usually crashing out in the Round of 16.
This year, the Americans were playing in different superior leagues around the world, but they didn't have time to gel as a unit. The result was crashing out in the Round of 16.
You want to blame someone for the Americans losing?
Blame MLS.
Now you can fix it, but America won't.
First of all, MLS is WAY TOO BIG. You continue to add expansion teams for a couple of years, but then once you hit 38 teams, you split the league in half. The 19 teams with the best records stay in MLS, the rest of the league forms MLS 2. Now you have a 38 game season with no playoffs. Then you buy USL (and USL 1 & 2), now you have a proper soccer pyramid. If you have a proper soccer pyramid, there is pressure to win every single game, just like the soccer structures in Europe with the promotion/relegation model.
Then why doesn't MLS do it? Because an expansion team like San Diego FC just paid a $500 million expansion fee. You think they want to be shuttled down to MLS 2 in a few years? No way in hell.
If MLS pays more money in salaries, steals more players from South America, and sets up a proper soccer pyramid, they could potentially be the 5th or 6th best league in the world. The 6th best league in the world, today? Belgium's Pro League. MLS usually sits around 10th to 12th place in the world in World League standings, which again reinforces why the US is eliminated at about the same point every.....
-----Interruption-----
This just posted while I was writing: Pulisic Suffered Microfracture vs. Belgium
"United States international and AC Milan attacker Christian Pulisic sustained a bone bruise and microfracture in his lower leg and will be sidelined for several weeks, U.S. Soccer confirmed Thursday."
We're done here, all you former U.S. players can shut the f--- up.