Mauricio Pochettino is putting the summer drama with Christian Pulisic in the rearview mirror ahead of Saturday’s U.S. Men’s National Team friendly against South Korea.
Sitting in the ballroom of the team hotel in Morristown, N.J., the head coach of the USMNT — which has spent the past week training at the Red Bulls facility in Whippany — said the tiff was “in the past” and that the American soccer star was “happy to be here.”
“We all made a mistake in some time, because we read the situation in a different way,” Pochettino said during a press conference on Friday. “The most important [thing] is that when you are intelligent people, if we want to move on and do the right things — I want to be intelligent. I think it’s easier to understand and sort through the problems and fix the problem. I think it’s in the past.”
Pulisic’s decision to skip playing in the Gold Cup after a daunting club season generated headlines and drew the ire of former American soccer greats like Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, which only heightened the drama.
The Pennsylvania native offered to play friendlies in June, which led Pochettino to say in a press conference that the players can’t “dictate the plan” and that “I am the head coach, I am not a mannequin.”
Pulisic has not spoken with the media this week while the national team has been in New Jersey, but his teammates have welcomed him back with open arms.
Defender Chris Richards called Pulisic the team’s “star boy” and said on Friday that it “means a lot” to have him back.
“He’s more of a quieter guy, but it’s good to have his presence known on the field,” he said. “He’s an important guy not just to us as a team, but also the nation. He’s our star boy. It’s good to have a guy like that back in the camp and having him excited to be in camp is another thing.
“He definitely has a fire in his belly. There’s been a lot of speculation about this or that, but he’s here ready to play.”
Pochettino reiterated that point as well, calling the mood “good” and saying that it was now “about building our journey to the World Cup.”
The United States and Pochettino have plenty of pressure on their shoulders heading into the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
American soccer fans are hoping to see a longer run in the World Cup, especially after the USMNT got knocked out in the Round of 16 by the Netherlands in 2022.
