‘He’ll Score At The World Cup’: Christian Pulisic’s Goal Drought Doesn’t Worry USA Coach

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — If there’s one universal anxiety that fans of the United States men’s national team share heading into the Americans’ 2026 FIFA World Cup opener against Paraguay just 15 days from Thursday, it has to be Christian Pulisic. Possibly already the greatest attacking talent the country has ever produced, Pulisic has been the USA’s best player and undisputed headliner almost since he first donned a national team jersey a year ago. But ahead of what is supposed to be the biggest moment of his life — a World Cup played on home soil — Pulisic is mired in the longest scoring drought of his career. In more than 20 games for the U.S. and Italian club AC Milan in 2026, the 27-year-old hasn’t scored a single goal. It’s not ideal, to say the least. But while Stars and Stripes supporters are worried, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino isn’t. “Okay, he didn’t score in the last, I don’t know, six months?” Pochettino rhetorically asked a small group of reporters on Thursday after his team trained at U.S. Soccer’s sprawling new facility about 25 miles south of Atlanta. “He’s going to score in the World Cup.” Pulisic and Pochettino have butted heads several times since the former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham manager took over the U.S. program. As I reported last year, Pulisic almost immediately rubbed the 54-year-old Argentine the wrong way by begging out of Pochettino’s second match at the helm. The Americans lost that match, to chief rival Mexico, 2-0 south of the border. Pulisic then asked to skip last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup, citing fatigue after two grueling seasons with AC Milan. Again, the request was granted, but Pulisic created a stir when he said he “didn’t understand” Pochettino’s decision to leave him out of a pair of pre-Gold Cup tune-ups against European foes Switzerland and Türkiye. “Players don’t need to understand,” Pochettino said when I asked him about his star player’s comment the day before the Gold Cup opener. “Players need to listen and to stick with our plan. They cannot dictate the plan.” The U.S. reached the final without Pulisic but lost — again to El Tri — in the decisive game. “I was disappointed with him,” Pochettino said Thursday of the Gold Cup controversy. “[And] he was disappointed with our decision not to include [him] in the two friendlies.” That’s all behind both of them now. Pulisic is here, and he told me on Tuesday that he’s “feeling great,” despite the thigh strain that limited him to just 59 combined minutes over Milan’s final three games. “I’m confident that good things are going to come,” he said. “You make a couple good plays in a tournament like this and things change fast.” The irony here is that sitting out the Gold Cup last summer was supposed to help Pulisic be at the height of his considerable powers going into this World Cup. For a while, it looked like perhaps it was the right decision; Pulisic had four goals and two assists in the Rossoneri’s first five matches of 2025-26. At one point last fall, he was leading all of Serie A in scoring. When the calendar flipped, the goals dried up. “[It] shows that not always people really know themselves,” Pochettino said on Thursday. “Too many factors can affect” a player’s form. Now it’s on the staff to help Pulisic get back to his best. “For me, it’s a special player,” Pochettino said of his No. 10. “We are going to try in these [two] weeks  to recover his confidence, and we really trust in him, and we have the confidence that he is going to perform.” “I really trust in that,” Pochettino added. “He’s had a very good attitude, very good commitment. He’s trying so hard to get his best level. And I think he will achieve it.”