Herculez Gomez blasts Christian Pulisic critics after injury revelation: ‘It’s embarrassing’
The revelation that Christian Pulisic played through a bone bruise and microfracture of his tibia and fibula against Belgium before asking to come off in the 59th minute has redrawn the battle lines around the media’s response to the USMNT’s elimination — and ESPN’s Herculez Gomez isn’t letting anyone off the hook.
“Questioning the best player they have, his commitment, when he comes out with a fractured leg — it’s beyond me,” he said on Friday’s Get Up. “It’s embarrassing.”
“Questioning the best player they have, his commitment, when he comes out with a fractured leg, it’s beyond me. It’s embarrassing.”
—@herculezg on the Christian Pulisic criticism 😳 pic.twitter.com/nfriMVkNfH
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) July 10, 2026
Gomez was careful to draw a distinction between his view of the team and what’s been said about its best player in the days since. He’s called this generation “soft” before, and he wasn’t walking that back, given that the USMNT lost to Belgium because it couldn’t meet the moment, full stop. But, according to him, here’s a difference between holding players accountable for a bad result and questioning the commitment of someone who played through a fractured leg.
“There are many ex-colleagues, maybe fans who have watched this game, and have embarrassed themselves with certain takes,” he said.
The sharpest portion of that criticism was aimed at Landon Donovan, who told his podcast audience that he would have had to be dragged off the field and later claimed that players, staff, and sponsors around the USMNT are “fed up” with Pulisic’s camp.
Gomez, who played alongside Donovan for the national team for several years, said Donovan should know better than most what Pulisic is living through right now.
“I find it interesting because Landon and Christian are the same person,” he said. “They’re the same player. They should really understand each other. And Landon had a situation in 2006 where he was used as one of the scapegoats for that disastrous World Cup campaign. He knows exactly what Christian Pulisic is feeling right now. So maybe instead of attacking each other or the camps, there should be some sort of coming to terms here, coming together and helping, because I think what Christian Pulisic is going through right now, he’s being used as a scapegoat for this failed World Cup.”
Gomez added that Pulisic is a star player who has never fully embraced the star role, and that the burden of expectation that comes with the commercials, the sponsorships, and the face-of-the-program status is part of the deal, but that right now, before any of that, Pulisic has to get healthy.
“Christian Pulisic right now has to focus on being healthy,” he said. “And when he’s healthy, gain the trust of America — because in front of now 50 million Americans who watched the USMNT against Belgium, he’s the face of the program.”
Not everyone is backing down. Carli Lloyd said Thursday that she doesn’t owe anyone an apology for her criticism, noting her original comments were directed at Pulisic’s preparation throughout the year, specifically that he skipped the Gold Cup last summer to rest for the World Cup and then barely played at all.
“He ended up resting the whole year,” she wrote on X. “That’s the facts. Nothing personal against him.”
As we noted on Wednesday, the media reaction to the USMNT’s exit was near-universal in its criticism of Pulisic. The fractured leg changes the conversation for some. Gomez’s point is that it shouldn’t have needed to.
