United States’ men’s national team soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks with the media, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Morristown, N.J. (AP Photo/Ronald Blum)
Ahead of Pulisic’s likely US return, Pochettino repeats summer flap is behind them
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) 鈥 A day before Christian Pulisic’s likely return to the field for the U.S. national team, coach Mauricio Pochettino repeated the summer flap between him and the biggest American star was in the past.
United States’ men’s national team soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks with the media, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Morristown, N.J. (AP Photo/Ronald Blum)
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) 鈥 A day before Christian Pulisic’s likely return to the field for the U.S. national team, coach Mauricio Pochettino repeated the summer flap between him and the biggest American star was in the past.
鈥淲e all made a mistake in some time, because we read the situation in a different way,鈥 Pochettino said Friday ahead of a friendly against South Korea. 鈥淭he most important is that when you are intelligent people, if we want to move on and do the right things 鈥 I want to be intelligent.鈥
A midfielder who turns 27 on Sept. 18, to rest his body after two long seasons with AC Milan. He offered to play in a pair of June friendlies; Pochettino rejected that because he wanted to keep the same group together, saying:
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Pulisic’s decision sparked criticism by former players, including Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, the U.S. career scoring leaders, which triggered lashing responses from Pulisic and his current teammates.
鈥淚 think those guys are chasing checks,” current American winger Tim Weah said on an episode of the Paramount+ series 鈥淧ulisic鈥 released in mid-August. “I just feel like they鈥檙e really evil, honestly, because they鈥檝e been players and they know what it鈥檚 like when you鈥檙e getting bashed, and those are the same guys that鈥檒l turn around and shake your hand and try to be friendly with you at the end of the day.鈥
Weah stood by his criticism Thursday.
鈥淗undred percent, don鈥檛 regret anything I said but I鈥檓 fully focused on the positives now,” he said. “I鈥檓 leaving all that negative energy out the window. I think right now it鈥檚 important to kind of shift the focus to what we鈥檙e doing as a group and what this team is doing and how we can execute performances and kind of take our game to that next level in order to be prepared for the World Cup.鈥
Pulisic, in the TV series, rejected criticism.
鈥淭he most annoying thing,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd for me the biggest cop-out of all time is when especially 鈥 all pundits want to say, 鈥楾hey didn鈥檛 want it, they didn鈥檛 have the heart. Back in our day we would fight and we would die on that field.鈥欌
Pulisic has not spoken with media during U.S. availabilities in New Jersey this week ahead of Saturday’s game.
鈥淐hristian is happy to be here,鈥 Pochettino said. 鈥淥f course, he鈥檚 an important player for us.鈥
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