For Christian Pulisic and the U.S. men’s soccer team, World Cup redemption is finally here

The Americans' World Cup story in Qatar doesn't start with their opening game. It starts with how long it has been since the last one.

Christian Pulisic flashes a rare smile at the U.S. men's World Cup team's practice on Sunday.Read moreAshley Landis / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Nov. 20, 2022, 3:46 p.m. ET

Where were you 3,065 days ago?

DeAndre Yedlin knows where he was on July 1, 2014: in Salvador, Brazil, playing in the U.S. men’s soccer team’s last World Cup game.

And where were you 1,868 days ago?

Christian Pulisic raises his hand first. On Oct. 10, 2017, he was in Couva, Trinidad, hunched over in tears. The final whistle that night doomed the U.S. men to miss a World Cup for the first time since 1986.

For all the talent in the prodigious young feet of Gio Reyna, Yunus Musah, Tyler Adams and Medford’s Brenden Aaronson, the story that will unfold Monday in Al Rayyan, Qatar, doesn’t start there.

It starts with how long it has been since the last day like this.

Of the 26 players on this year’s U.S. World Cup team, Yedlin is the only one who has played in the world’s biggest soccer tournament. And only he, Pulisic, Kellyn Acosta, and Tim Ream from the squad were in Trinidad on the night that will live in infamy.

‘That weight on my shoulders’

No player has carried the burden of that failure more — and more publicly — than Pulisic. The pride of Hershey has been in a constant spotlight ever since, with the national team and his famed English club Chelsea. Oftentimes over the years, when the subject has come up, he has closed himself off.

He recently has become more outspoken about that night, and a key change in him since: prioritizing his mental health. On Saturday, two days after Pulisic faced his latest wave of media, he produced perhaps his most candor yet.

It came in a video feature posted to the national team’s YouTube page without much fanfare. Pulisic sat in a quiet, sparse room with some cameras, lights, and a photo from that night in Couva. Nothing more.

“To be honest, I took a lot of that weight on my shoulders at that time,” he said. “I felt like it was my job to help the team, to score goals and put us in a position where we would qualify for that World Cup. That whole process was definitely tough on me, and obviously at the end, not qualifying was one of the biggest disappointments of my life.”

There followed more photos and video clips of him and his teammates, more words, and appropriate music for the mood. At the end of the four-minute feature, any doubts about whether the past still stings are erased.

So much has changed in the program over the last five years: players, coaches, front-office brass, even the U.S. Soccer Federation’s president and CEO. The failure to qualify for 2018 toppled so many incumbent forces that it’s sometimes hard to see the bigger picture — and that’s just on the men’s side of the game.

The new era

Now, finally, the wait ends. When the Americans kick off Monday against Wales (2 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo), the hosts-in-waiting of the next men’s World Cup will be the second-youngest team in this one.

(Indeed, you could start this story all the way back in 2010, when Qatar allegedly bribed its way to hosting rights at the United States’ expense. Acts and allegations of malfeasance haven’t stopped since.)

American soccer has endured snide patronizing for even longer than that, whether from abroad or within its own borders. Now there can be a new script.

Here are Adams and Weston McKennie, Pulisic’s longtime friends and fellow trailblazers in Europe, igniting their country’s midfield engine.

Adams was voted the U.S. World Cup captain by his fellow players, a natural move for a natural leader. The 23-year-old from New York’s Hudson Valley is the youngest U.S. men’s captain since Philadelphia legend Walter Bahr in 1950, but age is just a number. When Adams talks, his teammates listen; when Adams plays, his teammates improve.

Here are Reyna and Tim Weah, sons of soccer royalty who have waited their whole lives for their turns.

Does any American soccer name conjure more greatness than Reyna? In 1994, Claudio was still to become a star when he attended a joint U.S. men’s and women’s national team camp. He became close with one of Mia Hamm’s teammates, Danielle Egan. Three years later, Claudio and Danielle married; five years after that, Gio became their second child. Now he’s on track to surpass both parents.

In the rest of the world, the name Weah stops fans on a dime. Twenty-seven years since George was crowned the world’s greatest player, he’s still a superstar in Paris and Milan — and his native Liberia, where he’s the nation’s president.

Tim was born and raised in New York City. He has a jet-setter’s charm, a Brookynite’s swagger, and a dazzling right foot. He could have played for four national teams, but only ever wanted one.

“I knew I was always going to play for the U.S.,” he said earlier this year. “I couldn’t see myself on any other national team.”

A melting pot recipe

Here are Musah and Sergiño Dest. The U.S. men’s team has long been a melting pot, just like its country. These are the latest entrées.

Musah was born in New York to Ghanaian parents who were on vacation. He grew up in England and Italy, and now plays in Spain. Two things have accompanied all his travels: a soccer ball and a megawatt smile.

“After the first game with the U.S., it was really clear to me that I wanted to represent the country that I was born in,” said Musah, who played for English youth teams before making his final decision in 2020. “And now we’re here, so it’s all been worth it.”

Dest was born in the Netherlands to a Surinamese-American father and a Dutch mother. He rose from vaunted Ajax’s youth academy to even-more-vaunted Barcelona, and now plays in Milan.

Should you doubt if they’re “American,” ask Cameron Carter-Vickers. He was raised on England’s south coast by parents including a Louisiana-born first-round NBA draft pick, Howard Carter.

Ask Antonee Robinson, raised 50 miles northwest of London by an English father who played college soccer at Duke.

Above all, ask McKennie, who grew up in Washington state, Virginia, Germany, and Texas as the son of an Air Force serviceman.

When the 2006 U.S. men’s team visited Ramstein Air Force Base before that summer’s World Cup in Germany, a 7-year-old McKennie took photos with Landon Donovan and Carlos Bocanegra. Sixteen years later, another player from back then — current manager Gregg Berhalter — stood on his team’s practice field in Qatar and introduced McKennie to U.S. military and embassy staff.

Coming full circle

Finally, here is Pulisic, arriving on the stage he has dreamed of for so long. He was 19 years old in Couva, and is 24 now — still young, but so much wiser.

“There was for sure a little chip on my shoulder throughout the whole qualifying process,” for this World Cup, he said in that video. “I felt like I had to really perform and be the main man at times.”

As the U.S. team grew in talent, so did Pulisic’s appreciation of his place in it.

“There came a point when I realized I don’t need to be that with this team,” he said. “I felt like there’s so many unbelievable players in this team now that I can just be my best self and be a part of the team, and that’s enough.”

Now the dream becomes reality — and perhaps some redemption.

“Playing in the World Cup would obviously mean everything for me,” Pulisic concluded. “Knowing a lot of these guys for so long and being able to do it with them by my side is definitely special. And hopefully a moment that we’re going to cherish for the rest of our lives.”