{"id":1101,"date":"2026-05-21T23:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:04:25","slug":"alexi-lalas-says-us-players-citing-world-cup-pressure-are-a-bunch-of-whiners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1101","title":{"rendered":"Alexi Lalas says US players citing World Cup pressure are a ‘bunch of whiners’"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Alexi Lalas doesn\u2019t want to hear U.S. players citing pressure ahead of playing in a World Cup at home and says Christian Pulisic, the top American, is \u201cnever going to be the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCry me a river, OK, when it comes to the pressure. Bunch of whiners, that they\u2019re whining about the pressure,\u201d Lalas said Thursday at a Fox event to promote its World Cup coverage.<\/p>\n

Lalas, 55, played for the U.S. when it hosted the 1994 World Cup and has been Fox\u2019s top soccer analyst since late 2014.<\/p>\n

American players, hoping to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2002, haven\u2019t complained about pressure but have said it exists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s pressure, I feel it. Yes, it\u2019s there, but it\u2019s nothing that I can\u2019t handle,\u201d Pulisic said in March<\/a> . \u201cI\u2019m going to, yeah, attack it head on. We are as a team. I don\u2019t need to do it by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAllow me to grumpy old man a little bit here,\u201d Lalas said. \u201cThis is a generation that has been given absolutely everything both on and off the field in terms of resources, in terms of opportunities, in terms of pathways. And I don\u2019t think that I\u2019m being unrealistic. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m being unfair by saying that we should expect more from this group. We should expect this team to win this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lalas expects a turnaround from Pulisic, who hasn’t scored in 18 Serie A matches for AC Milan since Dec. 28<\/a> and a career-worst eight straight U.S. games since November 2024.<\/a> Lalas said Pulisic, a 27-year-old with 32 international goals, is \u201cwell on his way to becoming the best male American soccer player in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a fascinating player in terms of his talent. He\u2019s a frustrating player in terms of his personality,\u201d Lalas said. \u201cHe\u2019s going through a period right now from a football perspective where it\u2019s not going well and so this is going to test my form-is-fallacy theory. I have to believe that when that door closes behind him and he\u2019s on that plane, that he will feel a sense of relief and I think you will a sense a comfort coming to a team and, obviously, a country, that wants him to do well, that believes that he can do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s never going to be the leader that people want him to be,\u201d Lalas added, \u201cand that\u2019s OK because I think there\u2019s others that can do that, but he needs to be the star that this team needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lalas said the U.S. should win in the new round of 32 and reach the round of 16, where the Americans were knocked out in 2010, 2014 and 2018. With home-field advantage, Lalas said the team could then hope to advance to \u201ckind of rarefied air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re a Christian Pulisic or whether you are a Weston McKinnie or whether your are a Diego Luna or an emerging player, this is the platform for your brand,\u201d Lalas said. \u201cIf you star this summer, and this team does well this summer you will be remembered forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lalas spoke alongside fellow retired stars Stu Holden and Carli Lloyd of the U.S. and Javier \u201cChicharito\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez of Mexico along with studio hosts Rob Stone and Rebecca Lowe and Fox vice president of production Zac Kenworthy. Fox’s main network will televise 70 games of the expanded tournament,<\/a> which runs from June 11 to July 19, and 34 will be on FS1.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez predicted England will win the title if not Mexico, while Holden and Lloyd said France. Stone went for Spain, Kenworthy with Portugal and Lowe went with England.<\/p>\n

Lalas said he was rooting for \u201canybody but England,\u201d especially because it was the 250th anniversary of American independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think that they are insufferable now? Can you imagine if they came over and won that World Cup and it\u2019s coming home through our country?\u201d he said. \u201cAs much as it pains me to say, they are very, very good, and the soccer gods have a wicked sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone said the quarterfinals likely were a U.S. ceiling put perhaps home-crowd patriotism could lift the Americans to a semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love a \u2018Miracle on Ice\u2019 moment,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s just too far and too soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107, a Fox analyst for the first time, joined by video and chastised his colleagues for a lack of boldness in their U.S. predictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have the courage to say U.S. is going to win the World Cup,\u201d he said. \u201cI hear you: \u2018Yeah, if they win the group, if they go to the next stage, if they\u2019re lucky.\u2019 Oh, show some courage and say: \u2018We\u2019re going to win it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexico and Canada are co-hosts of the tournament, and Hern\u00e1ndez said El Tri players also face pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say I think we can win a tournament, they all call us crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then the first game happens, and they expect you to play (as if) you are going to win the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Alexander Rossi is expected to start the Indianapolis 500 after medical team clears him to drive<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexi Lalas has criticized U.S. soccer players for citing pressure ahead of the World Cup at home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAlexi Lalas says US players citing World Cup pressure are a 'bunch of whiners' - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alexi Lalas says US players citing World Cup pressure are a 'bunch of whiners' - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alexi Lalas has criticized U.S. soccer players for citing pressure ahead of the World Cup at home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1101\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-21T23:04:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Alexi Lalas says US players citing World Cup pressure are a ‘bunch of whiners’\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T23:04:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101\"},\"wordCount\":938,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/0e4bc55596fd7fd0d0a967e391a73c0a.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1101\",\"name\":\"Alexi Lalas says US players citing World Cup pressure are a 'bunch of whiners' - 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