Christian Pulisic is walking into a home World Cup off the worst run of form he's had in years. That's the reality, and no amount of tournament optimism changes it.
The numbers are stark. Pulisic was electric in the opening stretch of the Serie A season — eight goals and two assists across his first 11 league matches, looking like a player who'd finally found a permanent home in Europe's top tier. Then came the second half. Zero goals in his final 20 league appearances. Two assists. AC Milan collapsed around him, lost to Cagliari on the final day, and got leapfrogged by Como to finish fifth — out of the Champions League for the second straight season.
Milan's failure lands at the worst possible moment
The timing matters. Pulisic doesn't get a quiet week to shake off the disappointment and reset. He goes straight from a Serie A collapse into June 12 at SoFi Stadium against Paraguay, with Australia and Turkey to follow in Group D. There's no buffer. Whatever he's carrying from Milan, he's carrying it onto that pitch.
The head coach Massimiliano Allegri didn't survive the fallout — he's already out the door. That kind of institutional chaos doesn't exactly send players into tournaments in peak mental shape.
What Pulisic does have going for him is history. Thirty-two goals and 19 assists in 84 appearances for the United States. He's been in knockout World Cup football before, guiding the USMNT past the group stage in 2022 before the Netherlands ended their run in the Round of 16. He knows the weight of this tournament, and he's performed under it before.
Can the World Cup reset what Serie A broke?
Whether you back the USMNT to advance deep in Group D likely comes down to whether you believe that first-half Pulisic shows up or the second-half version. A goal against Paraguay would shift the entire narrative. Another scoreless run, and the questions about his form stop being a subplot and become the story.
He remains the most experienced, most dangerous attacking threat on this roster. But a player who didn't score in 20 consecutive league games isn't an automatic lock to flip a switch the moment he pulls on the American jersey.
The USMNT needs him to be the first-half version. Right now, there's no guarantee of which one turns up.
