This is by no means an attempt to apologize for Pulisic quitting the team this summer but 1 thing I have been thinking about.
Yes Ronaldo and all these other European players played just as many games and didn't blink at going straight to duty for their country. The difference is they are playing meaningful games vs top teams. TV and Social Media has spent the better part of a decade telling everyone how worthless the Gold Cup is, its B vs C teams, Concacaf sucks, etc... Look at the crowds at US games, it is pathetic. The Turkey match was solid but that is the exception.
US Soccer's promotion doesn't help, which is non-existent. And instead of trying to grow the fan base they want $150 a ticket to see a gold cup match of the USMNT (C team) vs T&T. Selling the broadcast to shitty fox didn't help either. It sucks but you need ESPN to prime the masses and ESPN's coverage is 100x better than Fox.
Given we are going into a WC year with no qualifiers it sucks guys skipped out. I have a feeling they view this summer's matches the same way 99% of the population does though, which is who cares...