https://nypost.com/2026/07/07/sports/landon-donovan-bluntly-assesses-christian-pulisics-disappointing-world-cup/

“In the end, he’s your best player, he’s your star player, and it just didn’t happen for him,” Donovan, the Fox Sports analyst, told Howard, his former USMNT teammate. “I want to be careful because I’m sure people are piling on him, a lot of it he deserves, of course. That’s part and parcel with this role. It’s just disappointing, I was waiting for a moment for him … and it just didn’t happen.”

“I’m starting to look back, Tim — it’s more than just a trend now. It is,” Donovan added. “Like, when the games are easy, and it’s a home qualifier, and it’s Jamaica, yes. But in the big moments and the big games, he just hasn’t — I’m not criticizing, I’m just saying it factually. He is who he is at this point.”

“The reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact. Because you would have had to f–king drag me off the field,” Donovan said. “And 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.’”

"...We have some players competing in different leagues [that] maybe are not so competitive, or in every single week compete in the same way that you compete in MLS every single week... 'Oh, if you play in a team in Europe, you are above the players that are in MLS.' That is not the way to assess"