Have the USMNT moved on from their Pulisic dependency?
Quick summary
An analysis of the USMNT's strong recent results without Christian Pulisic, questioning whether Mauricio Pochettino's side has outgrown its reliance on its marquee star thanks to an emerging youth movement.
Full article
Attributed to original sourceThe US have been defined for so long by the next singular player. This past perfect window shows that era may be over
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In 1990, then-United States men’s national team manager Bob Gansler made a critical and somewhat controversial choice. He left three of the program’s laureled veterans at home and brought a young and little-tested team to the World Cup in Italy, the USA’s first in 40 years.
As Gansler recalled later: “I was thinking not only for ’90, but I was thinking about the 90s.”
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What happened
The Guardian's Leander Schaerlaeckens examines how the USMNT have performed in Christian Pulisic's absence and whether the team has begun to move past the so-called 'savior complex' that long defined their relationship with their most famous player. With Mauricio Pochettino at the helm, a younger generation of American players has begun to deliver results, raising questions about Pulisic's long-term centrality to the project. The piece frames the conversation around tactical evolution, squad depth, and the psychological shift from depending on one star to trusting a collective.
Chance analysis
This is a thought-provoking reset of the narrative around the USMNT. For years, American soccer discourse revolved around whether Pulisic alone could carry the national team to new heights. Pochettino's appointment appears to have shifted that frame, introducing a more layered, system-driven identity in which a deeper pool of young talent can absorb the loss of a talisman without crumbling. The broader signal is structural: the USMNT is beginning to behave less like a side that needs a hero and more like one that has genuine options, a meaningful change for the program's competitive ceiling heading into the next major cycle.
The USMNT appear increasingly capable of winning without Pulisic, reducing the team's historical reliance on one player and slightly elevating the collective ceiling under Pochettino.