Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
2026 FIFA World Cup
5JUN

Pulisic's goal drought hits seven games

1 min read
08:45UTC

The USMNT captain has not scored for club or country since December. His manager says he is happy with him. His club manager disagrees.

← Back to Iran flies on a visa it doesn't haveJump to analysis ↓
SportAssessed
Key takeaway

Pulisic has not scored for club or country in three months, turning a form dip into a genuine selection concern.

Christian Pulisic squandered multiple chances against Belgium on Friday, extending his international goal drought to seven USMNT appearances stretching back to November 2024. 1 At club level the picture is no better: his last AC Milan goal came on 28 December 2025 against Hellas Verona. He has played 11 of his last 12 Milan matches without a goal or an assist. 2

Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri has publicly expressed concern about international duty straining Pulisic's fitness. 3 Pochettino, by contrast, says he is "happy" with his captain. The gap between those two assessments is where the real selection debate lives. Pulisic remains the only Serie A player since 2023-24 with 31+ goals and 20+ assists combined. Form is temporary. But three months without scoring is not a blip; it is a pattern, and it has arrived at exactly the wrong moment for the squad Pochettino named just days earlier .

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Christian Pulisic is America's best footballer and captain of the national team. He has not scored in his last seven games for the USA (since November 2024) and has gone three months without scoring for his club, AC Milan, either. For a player expected to be the USA's main goal threat at a home World Cup, this run of form at the worst possible time is a significant concern. His managers at club and country are giving contradictory signals: the club manager is worried; the national team manager says he is 'happy.'

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Pulisic's positional role at AC Milan has shifted under Allegri, who uses him wider and with fewer touches in central areas. This restricts the penalty-box arrivals that produced his 2023-24 output. The USMNT uses him differently again, creating a player who is adapting to two contradictory role definitions simultaneously.

The structural tension between club and country scheduling is acute at this stage of the season. European clubs prioritise league form; national teams demand peak fitness precisely when club managers want load management.

Sources:ESPN·World Soccer Talk
Mentions:Belgium →Christian Pulisic →Mauricio Pochettino →
First Reported In

Update #3 · USA beaten 5-2 at World Cup host venue

ESPN· 29 Mar 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Pochettino names 27 for last Cup window
Pochettino's squad selection included Pulisic as captain despite the ongoing goal drought, making the Belgium match the next visible evidence of the form crisis.
Occurred 23 Mar 2026
Read story →
This Event
Pulisic's goal drought hits seven games
The USMNT captain's three-month scoring drought across club and country raises the defining selection question of the host nation's World Cup preparation.
Different Perspectives
Manchester City
Manchester City
Manchester City holds Golden Ball winner Rodri under contract to summer 2027 while journalists report a divided Real Madrid board weighing an approach, with no source at either club confirming direct talks. Any move stays speculation rather than business until City's asking price is actually tested.
Argentine Football Association
Argentine Football Association
Claudio Tapia has set the Scaloni conversation for the 21 September to 6 October international window rather than force an answer now, the same approach that kept Scaloni through two prior cycles. Otamendi's on-record retirement and Messi's unstated future leave the federation managing a squad transition in public while its own head coach's contract runs only to December.
Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona will bank 2,893,533 euros from FIFA's 2026 Club Benefits cycle, down roughly a third from the 4.43 million euros it received after Qatar, despite the tournament reporting record revenue. Under LaLiga's squad-cost limits every euro is accounted for, and the shortfall removes a line the club had counted on after a deep run by its internationals.
FIFA
FIFA
FIFA restructured its Club Benefits Programme to split $350m across qualifying as well as the finals, the published mechanism it cites when a club's tournament payment falls even as the overall pool grows on record revenue. The reallocation reaches clubs that supply qualifiers but never a finalist, the constituency FIFA needs behind any 2030 expansion vote.
Fox Sports
Fox Sports
Fox is calling its Nielsen average of 38,937,000 for Sunday's final the most-watched soccer telecast in US history, a claim built on its own linear number rather than the 66.4 million combined total a ratings site produced from both networks' releases. The distinction matters because advertisers transact against the narrower figure, not the one a headline will carry.
Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports put its own name on the tournament's first goal total, 308 across 104 matches, published 20 July because FIFA's technical report was not ready to. An independent tally from SoccerAnalytics.net reconciled to the same number, but the figure entering wider circulation carries a broadcaster's byline, not FIFA's.