Why the USMNT’s Biggest Stars May Be in the Wrong Leadership Roles

Christian Pulisic bristles at the suggestion he hasn’t shown enough commitment to the U.S. men’s national team after his decision to pull out of international duty this past summer.

Tim Weah went so far as to call former players who were critical of Pulisic’s decision “evil.” A more measured Tyler Adams said those pundits were fair to bring the heat considering past performances.

Whatever you believe about that trio of American players’ remarks, what those revelations from this week’s release of Season 1, Episode 8 of the Paramount+ “Pulisic” documentary series make crystal clear is that there’s a mismatch between the USMNT’s top personalities and the roles they’re being asked to occupy.

Pulisic is the Americans’ most talented attacking player, and he was also the first of his generation to make inroads on the senior national team, representing a new era that was supposed to take the program to new heights.

Along the way, he assumed the role of the new “Captain America” almost by default after the likes of Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Tim Howard moved on. With that has come the hope he would become the demonstrative soul and spokesperson of the program.

The problems are twofold: First, Pulisic has always been most comfortable in environments that allow his play to do the talking, even if he has become somewhat more outspoken with age. Second, even his advisers seem to wish for him to be something he’s not best suited for. There’s no other way to explain why Pulisic’s documentary series has been greenlit.

And if Pulisic’s most recent polarizing remarks show anything, it’s that he still doesn’t really get that taking on that mantle means getting blamed for the entire team’s effort — not just his.

“Come after whatever you want. Come after my performance, whatever you want to say,” Pulisic said. “But to talk about my commitment, the commitment that I’ve given to this game, that I’ve given to my national team for 10 years, that’s the only thing that starts to get on my nerves.”

If this were simply about his own play, Pulisic may be right to be annoyed. He has easily been the USMNT’s most dependable and prolific attacker despite a continuing revolving door in front of him at center forward. Even after withdrawing from national team duty this summer, he’s easily the most capped American player since the beginning of the 2022 World Cup cycle who is still in the picture and has been part of nearly every big positive moment.

But it was Pulisic’s team that looked disinterested in a disastrous fourth-place showing in the CONCACAF Nations League in March. It’s something a natural in his leadership role would intuitively understand without getting too bent out of shape about it.

Meanwhile, Adams clearly feels he has the traits to better shoulder that vocal leadership role. But his own remarks come across poorly given the reality that injuries have forced him to miss many more games overall than Pulisic or Weah, even if he was available this summer.

“They’re not judging the level of play and the quality that we have as players,” Adams told the documentary crew. “It’s the competitive nature, the bare minimum that you have to do. You have to run, you have to compete, you have to tackle. So I think it’s fair criticism.”

It’s almost like he’s trying to say the words he wishes Pulisic would. But criticizing work ethic and mental focus is a far different beast coming from someone with Adams’ spotty availability track record, even if that past is not necessarily his fault.

Oddly enough, it was Weah who may have taken the best tack relative to what fans and pundits want his role to be.

His “evil” remark was totally over the top and showed he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that pundits have a responsibility to be honest to their viewers and employers before being cheerleaders. At the same time, that ignorance could also be interpreted as a player ready to go to war for Pulisic, even if it means coming off a little crazy.

If Pulisic can have that effect on a few more of his teammates next summer, mentality won’t be a problem at the 2026 World Cup. And if the performances there are good enough, all this squabbling will be consigned to relatively forgettable history.