United States men's national team star Christian Pulisic has hit back at critics of newly rehired U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter. «I just have to give credit where credit's due and it does frustrate me a little bit, and just seeing just all the negative press towards him that people tell me about, and I can't fully understand it exactly,» Pulisic told ESPN's Herculez Gomez in an interview for Futbol Americas. «He's come in and won the Nations League, won the Gold Cup, we win the Nations League again.
Had a solid World Cup. Are there things that you can criticize here and there? Sure. And I think he'd agree with that, but it just seems a bit crazy to me.» The United States Soccer Federation announced last week that Berhalter, who coached the team from late 2018 through the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, would return as coach.
His contract expired Dec. 31 amid an outside investigation into a domestic violence altercation between him and his now-wife in 1991.
When the investigation concluded in March, it cleared Berhalter to again be considered for the job. Pulisic never specifically lobbied for Berhalter to return publicly but lauded the job he did whenever asked about it during the time in which Berhalter was out of contract.