With 12 months to go until the World Cup 2026 in home, the pressure on USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino is starting to increase.
The most recent international break in March was a bleak failure for the US and lost to Panama in the semi -final of the Concacaf Nations League. Now the team regrets for friendly matches against Turkey and Switzerland.
If the US to prevent shame at next summer's tournament, Pochettino must have top performances of his star players and have great expectations for Christian Pulisic.
“I think Christian showed great quality in the past year. He plays in Europe, he also plays with the national team. He is a very talented player who can help us win,” Pochettino said on the podcast “unfiltered football”.
Pochettino spoke with former USMNT steelwarts Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, who both made more than 100 performances for the national team.
Pochettino continued: “You say that people compare Messi with Christian Pulisic. I don't want to be disrespectful to Messi or Pulisic, but I think Pulisic should be our Messi in this country because he is an iconic player on the street, it is certainly if you ask a football player in this country, it's Pulisian.”
Pochettino, a countryman of Messi, worked with him in Paris Saint-Germain and knows exactly what makes Argentinian so extraordinary. However, he will not have the advantage of the talents of Pulisic for this month's games.
Pulisic was one of the American stars based in Europe who chose to remove themselves from this month's camp. Pulisic, together with Antonee Robinson and Yunus Musha, asked to be excluded to let them rest after a debilitating season.
But in a separate episode of Unfiltered Soccer, Donovan focused on Pulisic for alleged priority in the recent Milan matches above the national team.
“The problem I have with Christian in recent weeks is that he is still playing for Milan,” Donovan explained. So, if you are tired and you are burned out and whatever [and] You still play for a Champions League place, great. I get it. They had nothing to play this weekend. Zero.”
Without Pulisic and some other important players, Pochettino will not get the chance to work with his first-choice team for this month's game. But it gives him the chance to try out a number of different, more left-wing options that can make their way to next year's tournament station.