U.S. Soccer legend Landon Donovan had some scathing takes for current team star Christian Pulisic, and he didn’t hold back after Team USA bowed out of the 2026 World Cup in the Round of 16 against Belgium.
Pulisic, 27, made little impact during the USMNT’s run, leaving the Belgium match in the second half with an injury. Team USA lost 4-1. Pulisic failed to score in the tournament.
“I’m starting to look back and … it’s more than just a trend now. It is,” Donovan, 44, said on the Tuesday, July 7 episode of his “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast. “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.”
He continued, “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.”
Donovan played in three World Cups during his playing days, scoring five goals over 12 career matches. Looking back on his experience on the sport’s biggest stage, he could not empathize with Pulisic reportedly asking to be subbed out of the game.
“And in fact … there’s reporting that he asked to get subbed out of the game. I can’t confirm that, so I don’t know if that’s true or not,” Donovan said. “But the reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact. Because … you would have had to f***ing 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.’”
As Donovan said off the bat, Pulisic’s inconsistent playing time has become a trend. Last summer, he took heat for skipping the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament to rest, only to still be seemingly unhealthy for the World Cup.
“He took the time off in the Gold Cup so that he would be ready for this season,” Donovan said. “And he would be fit and healthy and firing on all cylinders. And the reality is, he’s scored one goal since December. He’s not played well for the national team, not played well for Milan … and he’s been injured.”
Donovan isn’t the only U.S. soccer legend to call out Pulisic. Former women’s national team star Carli Loyd took issue with him saying that he now has time to “rest” with Team USA out of contention.
“You rest when your playing career is over,” she wrote via X. “Period.”
Loyd’s former USWNT teammate Sydney Leroux agreed, sharing Pulisic’s comment via X and writing, “He rested the entire World Cup.”
