SEATTLE — Christian Pulisic’s moment surely would come. How could it not?
You know, the one where the pulsating Pennsylvanian enshrined himself among the American soccer greats with a signature play — a clutch goal, a brilliant assist, a shootout winner — to spark a historic World Cup run on home soil. The moment that would validate the past decade of hype, from his U.S. national team debut as a prodigious 17-year-old to his recent run spearheading Italian powerhouse AC Milan.
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Yet the enduring highlight never arrived. A scintillating start to Pulisic’s World Cup gave way to an injury interruption. Back in the lineup for the knockout round, Pulisic showed flashes of his electric influence but never cranked up the wattage. And there was no more forgettable match than the United States’ 4-1 loss to Belgium on Monday night in the round of 16. Pulisic never got going one-on-one. He wasn’t on the same page as his teammates. The ball didn’t come his way.
By the time Pulisic exited in the 59th minute because of a right leg injury, with the Americans down two goals and chasing shadows, it was already obvious this wouldn’t be his day — or his tournament.
“It’s disappointing I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to, and to try to help us to really push and get over this next step of beating a really good team,” Pulisic said. “But I’m going to try to stay positive. I did a lot of good things, and the team did as well.”
He’s not wrong. Pulisic delivered 45 swashbuckling minutes in the 4-1 win over Paraguay to open the tournament, in which he set up one goal, helped orchestrate another and roamed the left flank with infectious flair. But a left calf injury sidelined him for the second half of that contest and for a 2-0 win over Australia. He then hit the post and looked sharp off the bench in a 3-2 loss to Turkey (a meaningless result for a U.S. team that had already won its group). Although the 27-year-old faded in and out of a 2-0 win over Bosnia to open the knockout round, his evasive dribbling proved critical as the U.S. clung to a lead while down a man.
“I felt really good this summer,” Pulisic said. “I thought my level was high.”
But Pulisic also never recaptured the lightning in a bottle that was his performance against Paraguay. The daring, defense-splitting spurts didn’t return. Neither did his uncanny connection with left back Antonee Robinson and striker Folarin Balogun. Instead of steering the U.S. to its first quarterfinal since 2002, Pulisic crashed into the same round-of-16 roadblock that has thwarted the Americans at their past three World Cup appearances.
“It sucks any time you lose,” Pulisic said. “Even if we made it to the semis and lost, it’s the same feeling again. So right now it definitely stinks.”
That’s not to say Pulisic was alone in having an off day. Goalkeeper Matt Freese had a howler. Center backs Chris Richards and Tim Ream were culpable on goals as well. Tyler Adams couldn’t dictate the tempo in midfield. Weston McKennie wasn’t his usual game-changing self. Balogun struggled to find the ball. On a day the talented Belgians came out firing — with a chip on their shoulder because of Balogun’s contentious eligibility, no less — Pulisic and his cohorts lacked ammunition.
“It’s hard to say where it went wrong,” Robinson said. “But that just didn’t feel like us out there today.” Adams responded to a query about an individual performance with a rhetorical question: “Was anyone a major presence on the field today?” As Balogun put it, “We didn’t give the crowd a lot to cheer for.”
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That Pulisic’s World Cup ended a half-hour early was salt in the wound. Eyeing goal, he swung his right leg but caught only the lunging foot of Belgian captain Youri Tielemans. Pulisic crumpled to the turf but didn’t draw the foul.
“I just twisted my ankle and my knee in one play,” Pulisic lamented.
Three minutes later, Belgium doubled its lead off Freese’s blunder. U.S. Coach Mauricio Pochettino promptly pulled Pulisic for Sebastian Berhalter. When the broadcast cut to the bench, the U.S. star was in tears.
“It just sucked,” Pulisic said of his injury woes. “It was tough.”
Now, Pulisic has a few weeks to himself. If past offseasons are any indication, he’ll pay a visit to his hometown of Hershey and also hit up a Floridian golf course or two. Maybe go fishing. Lie low and unplug. But the churn of global soccer stardom will always curtail such decompression. Case in point: AC Milan’s preseason opener is July 25 in Scotland. Even if Pulisic is excused from that match, he will be expected to report shortly after.
“It’s just going and spending some time with family and forget about the game for a little bit,” Pulisic said. “I’ll be right back in a few weeks, going back to preseason and back with the national team, no doubt. There’s still a lot more that we want to accomplish.”
It’s true that Pulisic’s national team tale is far from over. He probably has another two or three World Cups in him. In the short term, he’s expected to don the Stars and Stripes during friendlies and Concacaf Nations League matches this fall. He could very well lead the U.S. attack in continental competitions the next two summers, at the Gold Cup and Copa América.
But his underwhelming performance at this World Cup — staged at home in his prime before a massive TV audience — will undoubtedly haunt his legacy.
Landon Donovan concluded his career with five World Cup goals. Clint Dempsey had four. Pulisic may be mentioned in the same breath as those American icons, but he ended this tournament with the same number of World Cup goals he started it with: one. Most crucially, the face of U.S. men’s soccer couldn’t get his team to the quarterfinals and buy it another match in the nation-seizing spotlight.
“We put on some really good performances, for sure,” Pulisic said. “We made it through our group in dominant fashion, and we won the game against Bosnia. We can for sure be proud of [that]. But I just think we want to have higher hopes than that.”
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