I won’t put all of Qatar on Pulisic, I mean watching that team be so handcuffed by “the coach” was absolutely frustrating and a big reason that team didn’t do more than it did.
However you do lightly brush on a point about Pulisic’s play that I don’t see getting a lot of chatter here: with the USNT when he feels the team isn’t playing well, isn’t producing, he goes into this hero mode and starts trying to do it all alone.
This type of takeover the game play works at clubs because your talent is so high and others will step up and jump on for the ride. The Men’s squad isn’t that talented. I’m not saying we have a massive drop off, but if Pulisic is a 9, it drops to a few 8s and then 7s and 6s very quickly. The team can’t match his level. And this play can breakdown our team game for stretches. Often the players start to ball watch.
And again look I get it. He’s our most talented player. He wants to jump start the team. But a top talent leader knows how to do that and keep everyone going. Pulisic doesn’t seem to see/get that. Worse in a way, he becomes a ball stopper. He gets the ball and then is 100% “I must score on my own!!”
To me, that’s his strike 3, when it’s to the detriment of the team (often). A leader either is keeping everyone involved (in his shoes) or telling him to do so (on or off the field).
As far as who our captain is - I don’t care if they don’t speak a lick of English, if they have the command of the locker room.
A. The casual fans don’t understand captaincy anyway and
B. The die hards will totally get it
C. This team needs real leadership and accountability! You take what you can get right now. What we have isn’t cutting it.