Christian Pulisic Embraces US World Cup Pressure Before Paraguay Opener

IRVINE, California (AP): Christian Pulisic enters this World Cup as the United States’ best-known and most decorated player, with the tournament being staged in his own country.

It is a rare mix of individual standing and national timing. In recent generations, only a few leading footballers have dealt with that kind of moment, among them Zinedine Zidane with France in 1998, Michael Ballack with Germany in 2006 and Neymar with Brazil in 2014.

As the Americans get set to face Paraguay in their opening match tonight, Pulisic’s team-mates understand the scale of responsibility around him. Supporters, coaches and players are all expecting him to provide direction and goals, hoping his 10 years of international and club experience can help lift a developing football nation while it plays at home.

“I can’t even imagine the weight that’s on his shoulders,” teammate Tyler Adams said. “From such a young age, he was the hope of American football.”

Pulisic is not trying to avoid the attention that will follow him through the coming weeks. On Thursday, he again described this stage as “what I’ve always wanted”.

At 27, Pulisic has built enough of a record, and enough trust in the squad around him, to speak more about what the United States can achieve than what could go wrong.

“I don’t feel a difference in weight,” Pulisic said at the US training base in Orange County. “I’m not sure. Maybe less. I just feel like there’s so many good players around me. I genuinely don’t feel like I have to do anything on my own. I’m going to give it the best I can. I want to help the team, and they expect a lot out of me but, with the guys I have around me, it makes it a lot easier for me.”

When North America was chosen eight years ago to host this World Cup, Pulisic was already the main figure in American expectations. That has remained the case. After years in which the United States struggled to develop top-tier football talent, the country produced a clever, attacking midfielder from Hershey, Pennsylvania, who went on to spend a decade succeeding with European clubs.

Progress with the national side has been less straightforward during that same period. Even so, Pulisic is still widely viewed as the most reliable attacking force in the US set-up, despite an 18-month spell without a national-team goal that ended only on May 31.

“Of course he needs to be an important player for us in the competition,” said coach Mauricio Pochettino, who took charge of the United States late in 2024. “(But) I think what we’ve learned after a year and a half is that the badge of the national team and the culture with this country is more important than any name, any player or any coach. That is a principal thing that we (believe) and, from there, if you have talent and quality, you can perform on that platform.”

Adams, also 27 and now with Bournemouth, has shared much of Pulisic’s journey in the US programme.

He remembers watching with amazement when Pulisic, then 17, made his senior United States debut in late 2016. That American squad did not reach the 2018 World Cup, but Pulisic soon became central to the team’s plans.