Christian Pulisic urges USMNT to forge a legacy at the World Cup: ‘People will talk in a different way’ originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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For Christian Pulisic, there is football, and then there is the World Cup.

“It’s something you dream about as a kid, playing on the biggest stage in a tournament like this,” Pulisic told The Sporting News a month before the start of the 2026 FIFA tournament on home soil. “Having it in America makes it extra special.

“It’s once-in-a-lifetime having this tournament being in America. I’m very excited about it.”

The USMNT star is burdened with a significant weight on his shoulders this summer. As the veritable leader of the current generation of U.S. talent, Pulisic has a heavy load to bear.

This group is largely considered the most talented in American history considering their vast club accomplishments across Europe. Pulisic himself became the first American to win a Champions League title when he lifted the trophy with Chelsea, but it doesn’t stop there.

Weston McKennie has blossomed with Italian side Juventus. Chris Richards won an FA Cup with Crystal Palace and is on the verge of a European trophy. Sergino Dest came through the Ajax youth academy and spent time with Barcelona sandwiched between winning three Dutch league titles. Malik Tillman set the Bayer Leverkusen transfer record, Tim Weah has won Ligue 1 three times and a Coppa Italia… the list goes on for their club accomplishments.

Yet there is precious little they have done to elevate the national-team level during their generation of USMNT service.

“There’s so many ups and downs in this sport,” Pulisic said as he works through a goal drought across the second half of this season with Italian giants AC Milan. “People will just look at goals and say, ‘if you haven’t scored, you haven’t played well as an attacking player,’ but I don’t feel that way.

“I feel good in a lot of ways, so I’m really not concerned. I’m excited for what’s to come and I see the World Cup as an opportunity, it’s going to be a big opportunity for everyone. I can go in there and have a good performance and people will talk in a different way.”

That word “opportunity” arose constantly through the conversation with Pulisic. He knows there is everything on the table for the U.S. players at this World Cup. Yes, everything.

“It’s the biggest event in the world, it’s what you practice [for] as a kid, and you think about, ‘World Cup final, this is the stage, and I have to score this penalty’ or whatever. That’s what you think of,” Pulisic said while speaking on his partnership with Mondelez and Chips Ahoy. “It’s the biggest thing possible. Having this opportunity to represent my country on this stage, there’s nothing like it. I see it as an amazing tournament and incredible opportunity for us Americans to make the American people proud.”

There is so much on the line this summer for Pulisic and the U.S. national team, tangibly and intangibly. Most notably, they have the “opportunity” to set a modern World Cup record for the United States men, who have only reached the quarterfinals once and beat a CONCACAF opponent to get there.

This summer, there’s even talk — mostly from within the federation, with head coach Mauricio Pochettino — that they can do the unthinkable and win the World Cup.

Yet there is so much more than just silverware or history at stake for the USMNT at this tournament. With the competition on home soil, there is the chance to elevate the sport in this country beyond anything previously done in U.S. national-team history.

Pulisic himself hopes to begin ushering in the next generation with his “Summer of Soccer” experience, as he will host a lucky sweepstakes winner for a training session in Florida.

During a time when sentiments of patriotism are more divided than ever, and controversy swirls, a run to the World Cup semifinals would galvanize the nation and bring together a fanbase that has been largely pushed away by a litany of things. USMNT fans have felt marginalized recently by myriad aliments, from mediocre on-field results to exorbitant ticket prices and controversial individuals, which has cast a shadow over the federation and left supporters feeling isolated and unwanted.

A strong World Cup performance would not just wipe that slate clean. It would launch soccer in the United States into the stratosphere, to heights previously thought unreachable in America.

“It’s to really cement your legacy as a team, as a player,” Pulisic says, knowing what’s at stake. “Doing it on the biggest stage, that’s really what it’s all about, and that’s the opportunity that’s in front of us.”

There’s that word again, “opportunity.” The opportunity to change the course of this generation of players, to alter the direction of soccer in the United States, to build something special. The opportunity to be a legend, to create something this generation has been missing — an identity.

For all their individual accomplishments abroad, this group of USMNT star players lacks the national-team accomplishments to put them in the pantheon of course-altering heroes that came before.

Yet for all that at stake, Pulisic just wants to exist within himself. He’s not talking about the grand machinations of USMNT lore, or how soccer could change forever in the United States like it did in 1990 or 1994. Instead, he wants the World Cup to be special for the group of players, who will spend this tournament in a sequestered environment only they will experience.

Together.

“Just the team camaraderie and being for weeks with your team on this big stage,” Pulisic said when asked about what he hopes to take from his time at the the 2022 World Cup and bring with him to 2026. “I want to take in even more of those moments, whether it’s around the hotel or going to the training facility and being [able] to spend those moments. I felt like we were there together for so long and had such an awesome experience together that when it ended it was like, ‘wow’.

“It felt like we were moving. It felt like we were leaving something so special. I just want to take that in this time around and enjoy every moment with my teammates, with staff. It’s not every day you get to live an opportunity like this, so that’s what I’ll take with me.”

For Pulisic, remaining within himself is not just important, it’s paramount. It allows him to make the pressure that comes with such a vast and overwhelming opportunity manageable.

“I feel like I have had so many questions about this,” Pulisic said when asked about how he personally handles pressure, “and I feel like people want you to feel the pressure in every way.

“I think the first step is accepting that it’s there. It’s nothing to shy away from — everyone feels it, whether they want to admit it or not. Of course, guys with more experience will handle it better and feel it a little bit less, and I feel that way as I’ve gone through my career in big games. It’s always there a little bit; you want to do well and you want to perform. You have to just take it in and appreciate it, and take deep breaths and just try to live in the moment.

“Everyone feels it. The way I deal with it is just preparing the best I can. That’s the only way I know how. If I feel really prepared and I know I can do it, then I feel comfortable going into it. If I wasn’t capable of playing on this level then I wouldn’t be ready and I wouldn’t be here, so it’s there and you just have to embrace it and do the best you can.”

So Pulisic will prepare, he will enjoy, he will work, he will train, he will endure, he will experience, he will exist, and he will play, for that is what he knows how to do. Whatever will be will be, and he knows he gave it his all.

For Pulisic, the chance presented to him is one of personal enjoyment. If he has fun, and works hard, and breathes from time to time, the rest will come.

There is an opportunity in sight; an opportunity to be great. Christian Pulisic holds the future of American soccer in the palm of his hand, but it’s just one hand, on one guy, in one place, on one team, at one tournament, with one world watching.

An opportunity of a lifetime awaits.