Where Does USMNT Go From Here After Epic Collapse? | Morally Abhorrent
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome everybody to another live edition of Morally Abhorrent, our World Cup situation here on the Dan Lebitard Show, joined by Chris Whittingham and Tom Bogert, both at the Galazo Network. Tom's been on the road with the U.S. men's national team the entire ride. Chris has been following along. Football is his passion. Boys, yesterday was a really long day, a full 24 hours without the World Cup, and I am proud, of the United States of America. We are a proper footballing nation because we have taken 24 hours to completely trash the former prodigy and the face of American soccer in Christian Pulisic. Now I'll begin with Tom. Christian Pulisic just put out a statement explaining to everybody that he was injured and it worked on Dan Levitard.
He played the empath perfectly well. And I had to explain to him that injury happened well into that match. It was 3-1 by the time Christian Pulisic came out. That doesn't explain the poor performance there. It only explains a five-minute stretch. What do you make of the last 24-hour news cycle around Christian, Tom?
It's been fascinating, and I think a lot of it has been opinions that people either had or were forming, and the Belgium result was the last straw. I mean, he's been criticized for not showing up in big games, which I think is a little bit unfair. He was criticized for being fragile, which it's not necessarily his fault, but I think it's just a fact. And this World Cup was a microcosm of his professional career and of his U.S. national team career. He was awesome against Paraguay. Those 45 minutes, he looked like a world-class player. And after that, he picked up two injuries, missed a game, and then didn't do anything against Belgium in the most pivotal game up until that point at the World Cup for the U.S.
So I understand. I think he deserves to get criticized. Some people are saying it's gone too far, and sure, maybe that's true. But I will say the wording on the injury release... is interesting to me i've never seen the word micro fracture to describe an injury and i think that they a lot of people wanted it out that it was technically a fracture a broken leg or whatever but he's going to be back in like a month so not to downplay the injury but i think now the other side of the discourse is whoa he had a broken leg when in reality that that's a little bit overstated too
Yeah, that's overstated, but you did mention something that I think is true. It's certainly true about me, and it caught me by surprise. There was a flood of Christian Pulisic takes that I had that I was surprising myself with because Witty and you and I did a Chelsea podcast, and we interviewed Christian a lot of times, and we've known for many years, for going maybe back a decade. He's on this kind of load management program. You have to be very careful. He has this sensitive ecosystem that we're trying to protect because we want him to be in the best possible situation to create and excel. And once he hit 27 years old, it was all about this World Cup, and he failed to meet the expectations. I caught myself by surprise in the flood of emotions and resentments that I had against Christian.
Yeah, I mean, there are any number of reasons why, but I think the number one is he's the number one American soccer star that has been built up for 10 years. And if you're going to build up an American soccer star for 10 years, the only reason why you're going to do it is so that he can perform well at the home World Cup. And he just didn't. And obviously injuries play a role in that. That's been a part of his career. I think we probably have been looking past this for a long time where we've been trying to say it's the World Cup. It's the World Cup. It's the World Cup. But there is a mountain of evidence down to the fact that Chelsea had him. He was a great player. We talked about all the time in the Champions League run when they won it.
He was a great player, but he didn't start the final. I don't even think he came off the bench in the final. And Chelsea decided, we don't really want him anymore.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–4:33
2
Is Christian Pulisic being unfairly blamed for the USMNT collapse?
4:33–7:25
3
Were injuries and ‘microfracture’ claims influencing Pulisic’s World Cup performance?
7:25–40:03
4
What happened in the USMNT’s 4-1 loss to Belgium and why was it so shocking?
40:03–42:02
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Dan Le Batard Show
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