PULISIC = PRETENDER

Here's an excerpt from my latest column at TribLive.com:

When the World Cup last came to the U.S. in 1994, the event was supposed to be a launching pad for the sport in this country.

But here we are 32 years later, out in the Round of 16 like ordinary teams do. Still without having developed our Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

Just a flaccid pretender in Christian Pulisic, who used a sore ankle as an excuse to do the Irish exit in the 59th minute of his biggest game ever with the U.S. trailing 3-1.

As former USMNT standout Landon Donovan said, “You would have had to drag me off the field. I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’ ”

Pulisic isn’t Donovan or Clint Dempsey, let alone Messi or Ronaldo.

To read more, click HERE.

Donovan continued to scold Pulisic when he talked further:

"I speak to people who are at U.S. Soccer. I speak to his sponsors. I speak to his teammates. I speak to the staff and the coaches. People are fed up with the way things are handled around him. It's his agents, his family, his hangers-on, the people who are influencing. People are fed up with it. They treat people poorly.

"There's just this sense about him that you can't get near him."

Pulisic has had a slightly above-average career, both succeeding and stumbling. Disappointing given his opportunities.

He benefits from the traditional over-rating of the USMNT's best player. Donovan did the same.

Pulisic couldn't get on the field for France, Spain, England or Argentina. Maybe not even in the squad.

Pulisic shouldn't play the star. His entourage should fade into the background.

Pulisic would be a waterboy if he’d chosen NFL-style football.

Worse yet, a kicker.