LONDON -- Christian Pulisic is as committed and passionate about the U.S. men's team immediately focusing on winning the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico and Canada, as he was determined to drive the rebuild after Bruce Arena's squad failed to qualify for Russia 2018.
It was a promise on which Pulisic delivered, too, playing a part in every goal the USMNT scored at Qatar 2022, including the 1-0 winner against Iran that sent Gregg Berhalter's squad into the last 16. The 24-year-old Chelsea star was candid about his dismay at the treatment of his former national team coach -- and the drama around his exit -- and made clear his impatience at U.S. Soccer's slow start to 2023 when it comes to who's in charge, fearful of losing any momentum that this crew generated in Doha.
In a wide-ranging interview with ESPN, Pulisic demonstrated his footballing and personal maturity, his desire to be an inspirational figure for his national team -- with or without the captain's armband -- and describes in detail for the first time why, and how, Berhalter both shaped and impressed him. He describes that goal against Iran as the most joyful moment of his football life, strongly defends the "tell it as it is" Berhalter coaching techniques that seemed to upset the Reyna family and looks back, constructively, on the crucial moment against the Netherlands when, with the score at 0-0, he squandered his one-on-one chance that might have sent the USMNT to the quarterfinals.
Relaxed and free of his recent knee injury, with his club preparing for the Champions League quarterfinals and Pulisic personally keen to demonstrate his hunger for further international success, this is Pulisic at his punchiest -- he's determined to speak clearly on issues and promised that he'll demonstrate leadership in both actions and words from now until the USMNT takes the field at the next World Cup.
(Editor's Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.)
A message for U.S. Soccer
Graham Hunter: The USMNT has no director of football and no permanent coach. The World Cup (that the U.S. is co-hosting) might seem a long way away, but we've barely blinked, and we're already almost four months on from Qatar. Does U.S. Soccer have as much time as it thinks it does when it comes to consolidating and building on what you achieved in Qatar?
Pulisic: I'm not here to appoint the next manager. It's not my job. Whoever it is, I'm gonna play and give 100 percent. But in my opinion, everything that happened with Gregg has been handled in an extremely childish manner. I think we all have seen what's been going on. I think it's childish. It's [something you'd see in] youth soccer: people complaining about playing time. I don't want to go too far into that, but I think Gregg has been extremely unfortunate to get into the position he is now.
Should we just wait and wait [for a new manager]? We're not in a phase where we need a complete rebuild, like we were after not qualifying for the last World Cup four years ago. We don't need a bunch of new guys coming in. We have a strong core: a lot of people have seen that. We need to carry on. That's why it's a tough one, because I think we want to continue as soon as we can and build from this World Cup, which brought a lot of positives.
The recent independent report released by U.S. Soccer on Monday seems to put Berhalter completely in the clear, and it appears he is still a candidate for his old job. If Gregg were to be put in charge again, immediately, would you feel content with that?
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt about it. I think the strides that we've taken in recent years with him in charge, have been evident. I think it's quite clear.
Under Berhalter, the USMNT won two trophies: the CONCACAF Nations League and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Describe him and what it's like with him in charge.
Berhalter is someone who has grown on me a lot over the years. I've learned a lot from him and have grown so much as a player. It's underappreciated what he's done to create that environment which was so special within that team [in Qatar]. He's helped a lot of players improve in a lot of ways.
He's also very passionate about the sport. I think he's done some incredible things in a short amount of time. There were moments when he benched me and I wanted to kill the guy -- I hated him. I was so angry -- but then the next game comes along, and then I find myself in a better place. He handled a lot of situations, and I have to give him a lot of credit. I think he created a team that was probably the best brotherhood, or unit, that I've been a part of.
Improving players and forging a unit is so much tougher as an international coach than at club level.
One hundred percent. That's what makes these national team tournaments so special because everyone is in that same boat. At a club, you're able to work on things daily, month after month and game after game all season long. When you come to the national team, it's not so simple. He did a good job of showing the team and helping everyone understand "look, this is how we're gonna play in a short period of time."
Is it gonna be perfect? Of course not. No national team is. Argentina lost their first match [at the World Cup].
You know that tough moments are gonna come, and we had some of those. Of course we wanted to go further. I'm not here to say that we're at all satisfied with where we got in the tournament. We passed a big milestone, we got out of the group stage, but we wanted to go all the way. There's no doubt about it.
Go into detail about Berhalter's man management, please.
The best example I could give you is my first camp with him. I'll never forget this.
We played a game against Chile. I scored in the first half -- a great goal. Then I picked up a little injury and went to the hospital to get a scan. I came back late at night, and he calls me down to his office and -- this was after I had kind of a string of small injuries -- he said "Look, maybe the reason is that you need to train harder. You need to train more like you play."
This after I just scored a goal and I'm thinking "Who's this guy to tell me this?"
That moment stuck with me for a long time. It changed the way I look at training, even today, and I want to train like I play. It wasn't easy, and it took me a little while, but I said "let me take this onboard."
The way he deals with players, you can tell he is passionate, and he cares about his players. He's not going to tell you it's easy or tell what you want to hear. He is going to tell you what he feels is going to improve you.
He tells his players hard truths and tells it straight, but it's always for a specific reason and to improve them?
Yes, absolutely. You don't always want to hear it. And as a player, you want to be right! You know [how it is] "Who are these guys to tell you, a professional player, how to handle yourself!!'
But I've always been with that mentality that I'm here to learn. That's who I want to be, and it's what takes the top players to the top.
Playing for different coaches
Pulisic has trained under a handful of the world's top coaches -- Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel, Maurizio Sarri and Graham Potter at Chelsea, plus Jurgen Klinsmann with the USMNT -- across his 265 club appearances. It's a remarkable tally for a 24-year-old, and his analysis of Berhalter needs to be set against accumulated experience under those other high-achieving men.
Both Pulisic's acceptance of Berhalter's "tell it straight" tendencies and his appreciation of team-building success speak well of the man waiting in the wings to see whether he'll get his job back. But so does the USMNT performance in Qatar.
