Frustrated US winger Christian Pulisic wants US Soccer to expedite the appointment of a new national team coach and labeled the row that befell teammate Gio Reyna and World Cup coach Greg Berhalter “childish”.
Berhalter’s contract has expired and the team is currently led by interim coach Anthony Hudson, with a new coach likely to be appointed after six months.
Following a public dispute between the coach and the Reyna family, sporting director Ernie Stewart and national team general manager Brian McBride resigned.
US Soccer president Cindy Parlow has said the organization is not expecting to appoint a new coach until “the end of the summer”, but Pulisic does not understand the delay.
The Chelsea winger said, “Do I feel like we should just wait and wait? I don’t think it’s necessary, because we’re not at the stage we were in if we weren’t qualifying (for the 2018 World Cup) ) where we needed a complete rebuild.” Pulisic told ESPN.
“We don’t need new people coming in. In my opinion we have a strong core – the guys have seen it and we need to continue. It’s tough for me because we should continue as soon as possible. ” As best we can and building up to this World Cup, which I think had a lot of positives. We want to get underway with this as soon as possible.”
Berhalter, who guided the US team to the last 16 of the World Cup in Qatar, became embroiled in an acrimonious feud with Reyna and his family.
Koch, who had publicly criticized Reyna’s attitude in Qatar, was forced to face charges over an incident in 1991 when he kicked his then-girlfriend and future wife in an incident outside a bar.
It later emerged that US Soccer was informed of the incident by Reyna’s father, former international Claudio, and his mother, Daniela, who was unhappy with the lack of playing time for her son.
While the federation investigated the incident, which Berhalter admitted, the coach’s contract expired, although he remains a possible candidate for re-hiring.
Pulisic expressed sympathy for the coach.
“What happened with Gregg is, first of all, handled in an extremely childish way. I think we’ve seen what’s going on,” he said.
“I think it’s childish, it’s youth football, people complaining about playing time. I don’t want to get too far into it, but I think Greg has been extremely unfortunate to be in this situation. “
Pulisic is part of a 24-man roster for the CONCACAF Nations League games, which will take place in Granada on March 24 and at home to El Salvador three days later.
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