Nobody on the US men’s national team is worried about Christian Pulisic’s severe lack of goalscoring form.
At least, nobody is saying they are.
Pulisic hasn’t scored for Milan in 2026 and hasn’t tallied for his national team in eight games, a career-high international drought that stretches back to late 2024. He walked through the mixed zone after the USMNT’s 2-0 loss to Portugal on Tuesday and spoke to a gaggle of reporters but said very little, praising the atmosphere in Atlanta and offering a few scant comments about the US’s intensity level, the hot-button issue of this window.
He spoke briefly of his own form as well, choosing to remain largely positive about his struggles and casting his sights on the road ahead.
“It’s frustrating,” Pulisic told reporters. “But I am just going to stay positive. I have a lot of big things ahead and I know I’m going to get to the other side and things are going to click.”
None of this comes as a surprise to any journalist who has spoken with Pulisic before. The midfielder is generally reserved with the press, often measuring his words with extreme care. After nearly a decade in the spotlight, he has no shortage of experience dealing with reporters and certainly isn’t eager to say the wrong thing, or have his words misconstrued.
On Tuesday evening, though, Pulisic couldn’t help but express himself on the field.
There were bright moments, sequences where he ran at defenders or put himself in promising positions. Pulisic spent much of the game playing as a center-forward. After the match, US head coach Mauricio Pochettino said he deployed Pulisic – who operates as a second striker at Milan and usually plays an attacking midfield role for the US – at that position to get him closer to goal and “help a little bit” in terms of getting his scoring touch back.
Pulisic had no shortage of opportunities to contribute. He was eager off the ball and at times felt like the US’s hardest-working player in the first half, certainly a welcome change of pace from a frustrating shift in the US’s 5-2 loss to Belgium on Saturday.
Yet Pulisic’s most telling attribute on Tuesday was his body language. Throughout his 45-minute shift, he was visibly frustrated, particularly in and around the penalty area, where he struggled badly.
He winced in the sixth minute, when his effort from close range was blocked out of play. He was even more frustrated 15 minutes later when he failed to even connect with a ball played across the six-yard box, an uncharacteristically poor technical effort from a gifted player. The only time he came close to scoring was equally maddening, a low effort from 25 yards out in the 35th minute that rolled an inch wide of the near post.
By the end of the half, Pulisic’s temper got the best of him. Denied a foul call after a tussle at midfield, he was given a warning after laying into Vintinha afterwards. Later on, after being stripped of the ball in the penalty area, Pulisic lashed out at Samu Costa and was given a yellow. Pochettino subbed him off at half-time. After the match, Pulisic said that was probably the plan all along.
“He feels frustrated,” Pochettino told reporters. “But that’s what we want and what we expect. He was fighting, he was committed in the phases that we demanded more [of him] and then with the ball, he is going to score. Because he has that quality. I am sure that he is going to go back to his club, and in the moment he is going to score, he is going to score again.”
It feels unlikely that Pulisic won’t course correct at Milan and perhaps even rediscover the early-season form that made him an essential piece for the club. And even if he doesn’t – and even if he fails to score a single goal for club or country before the US start their World Cup on 11 June – it is beyond question that he will be in Pochettino’s starting lineup.
The uncertainty surrounding his form, though, will only intensify, as will the pressure. Pochettino, who changed his tactical approach to this match at least in part to help Pulisic regain his form, knows this, whether he says so or not. So does Pulisic.
“[In] both first-halves [against Portugal and Belgium], we caused both teams a lot of problems,” said Pulisic. “We put a lot of pressure on them. We did a lot of great things. It’s just little moments, or just being a little bit more clinical. I feel really close, and I feel like we’re in a good place.”
