MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) — A day before Christian Pulisic's likely return to the field for the U.S. national team, coach Mauricio Pochettino repeated the summer flap between him and the biggest American star was in the past.
“We all made a mistake in some time, because we read the situation in a different way,” Pochettino said Friday ahead of a friendly against South Korea. “The most important is that when you are intelligent people, if we want to move on and do the right things — I want to be intelligent.”
A midfielder who turns 27 on Sept. 18, Pulisic skipped the CONCACAF Gold Cup in June to rest his body after two long seasons with AC Milan. He offered to play in a pair of June friendlies; Pochettino rejected that because he wanted to keep the same group together, saying: "I am the head coach. I am not a mannequin."
Pulisic's decision sparked criticism by former players, including Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, the U.S. career scoring leaders, which triggered lashing responses from Pulisic and his current teammates.
“I think those guys are chasing checks," current American winger Tim Weah said on an episode of the Paramount+ series “Pulisic” released in mid-August. "I just feel like they’re really evil, honestly, because they’ve been players and they know what it’s like when you’re getting bashed, and those are the same guys that’ll turn around and shake your hand and try to be friendly with you at the end of the day.”
Weah stood by his criticism Thursday.
“Hundred percent, don’t regret anything I said but I’m fully focused on the positives now," he said. "I’m leaving all that negative energy out the window. I think right now it’s important to kind of shift the focus to what we’re doing as a group and what this team is doing and how we can execute performances and kind of take our game to that next level in order to be prepared for the World Cup.”
Pulisic, in the TV series, rejected criticism.
“The most annoying thing,” he said, “and for me the biggest cop-out of all time is when especially — all pundits want to say, ‘They didn’t want it, they didn’t have the heart. Back in our day we would fight and we would die on that field.’”
Pulisic has not spoken with media during U.S. availabilities in New Jersey this week ahead of Saturday's game.
“Christian is happy to be here,” Pochettino said. “Of course, he’s an important player for us.”
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
