Landon Donovan offers brutal assessment of Christian Pulisic’s World Cup campaign

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.’”

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Christian Pulisic’s performance against Belgium by the numbers

Christian Pulisic’s World Cup campaign was off to a brisk start, as he assisted on the USA’s first goal of the tournament en route to securing a 4-1 victory against Paraguay. However, he didn’t play at all in the second half due to a nagging calf injury.

The AC Milan forward then missed their 2-0 win over Australia before coming off the bench in their 3-2 loss to Turkiye in the group-stage finale. Pulisic started against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Round of 32, but was largely anonymous.

Pulisic couldn’t regain his mojo against Belgium, as he had a terrible first half where he lost possession 11 times – the most of any player on the field at the time.

Overall, Pulisic only posted a paltry 0.02 expected goals (xG), had only one defensive contribution, won only two of his eight ground duels, and completed only two of his six dribbles against the Red Devils.