IRVINE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Christian Pulisic is the most accomplished and most famous player on his national team at the exact time when his nation is hosting a World Cup.<\/p>\n
Only a handful of prominent players in the past few decades have faced this confluence of talent and timing. They include a selection of generational greats: Zinedine Zidane for France in 1998, Michael Ballack for Germany in 2006, Neymar for Brazil in 2014.<\/p>\n
Pulisic\u2019s U.S. teammates recognize the extraordinary burden he is carrying while the Americans prepare for their World Cup opener Friday night against Paraguay. From the field to the back row of the stands, everyone is looking to Pulisic for leadership and goals, hoping his full decade of international success with club and country will propel a middling soccer nation to new heights on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine the weight that\u2019s on his shoulders,\u201d teammate Tyler Adams said. \u201cFrom such a young age, he was the hope of American soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic does not shy from the spotlight that will glare more brightly than ever in the next few weeks. In fact, he repeated Thursday that this challenge is \u201cwhat I\u2019ve always wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 27 years old, Pulisic has enough achievement and enough faith in his teammates to focus on how far the Americans can go, not how far they might fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel a difference in weight,\u201d Pulisic said at the U.S. training base in Orange County. \u201cI\u2019m not sure. Maybe less. I just feel like there\u2019s so many good players around me. I genuinely don\u2019t feel like I have to do anything on my own. I\u2019m going to give it the best I can. I want to help the team, and they expect a lot out of me, but with the guys I have around me, it makes it a lot easier for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic was already the center of the U.S. hopes and aspirations when this World Cup was awarded to North America eight years ago, and his status hasn\u2019t changed. A nation that had struggled to produce elite players finally created a star in this slick, creative midfielder from Hershey, Pennsylvania, who has gone on to a decade of European club success.<\/p>\n
National team progress has been more difficult to come by during Pulisic\u2019s first decade, but he is still considered the most consistently dynamic player in the American program \u2014 despite his 18-month goal drought in a U.S. shirt that only ended May 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course he needs to be an important player for us in the competition,\u201d said coach Mauricio Pochettino, who took over the U.S. team in late 2024. \u201c(But) I think what we\u2019ve learned after a year and a half is that the badge of the national team and the culture with this country is more important than any name, any player or any coach. That is a principal thing that we (believe), and from there, if you have talent and quality, you can perform on that platform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams, the 27-year-old Bournemouth midfielder, has been right alongside Pulisic for most of this ride.<\/p>\n
He watched in awe as the 17-year-old Pulisic made his senior U.S. debut in late 2016. Those Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but Pulisic quickly became a vital component of the group.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Pulisic was) the best player on the field at 17 years old, and the person that they rely on, (and) it\u2019s been since then that they\u2019ve relied on him,\u201d Adams said. \u201cNow, we have weapons around him to kind of relieve that, but he\u2019s a star. Not just for the U.S. national team, but in world football. He\u2019s that good. We rely on him in big moments, but that being said, I hope he doesn\u2019t feel the pressure to carry it all. Just to be himself and grow into each game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pulisic became known across the world when he moved from Dortmund to Chelsea in 2019. He was part of the Blues\u2019 Champions League winners in 2021, becoming only the second American to claim the ultimate club trophy, before moving in 2023 to AC Milan, where he remains a vital player for another major club.<\/p>\n
Pulisic finally made his World Cup debut four years ago in Qatar, contributing a big goal and an assist \u2014 but the U.S. scored just three goals in its four games before going home in the knockout round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels similar, but with a bit of that comfort of being in America,\u201d Pulisic said of his World Cup return. \u201cIt feels great having the people you love around you. It makes it that much more special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino has strived to build an aggressive, attacking team around Pulisic\u2019s talents, thereby minimizing its reliance on its best player. Prolific Europe-based strikers Folarin Balogun and Ricardo Pepi will make their World Cup debuts this month for the U.S., hopefully spreading out the scoring responsibility.<\/p>\n
But with his past World Cup experience in mind, Pulisic knows the Americans must step up quickly at home \u2014 and their opening matchup against a solid Paraguay team will put him right in the spotlight again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has that big-game feel, for sure,\u201d Pulisic said. \u201cBut in some ways, I feel a little bit more relaxed because I\u2019ve been there before. We\u2019ve played in a match like this. I think the experience has calmed me down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IRVINE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Christian Pulisic is the most accomplished and most famous player on his national team at the exact time when his nation is hosting a World Cup. Only a handful of prominent players in the past few decades have faced this confluence of talent and timing. They include a selection of generational … Continue reading Christian Pulisic is ready to shoulder the burden of US hopes in home World Cup opener vs Paraguay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1515220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-14 12:36:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1515220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1515221,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515220\/revisions\/1515221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1515220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1515220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1515220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}