Christian Pulisic might have the talent to be USA’s No. 1 soccer star, but he certainly lacks elsewhere

Back in May, in the aftermath of a boisterous live roster reveal for the US men’s World Cup team, two players sat at a table in a room in downtown New York City, ready to take questions.

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One, Tim Ream, was the team’s captain. He was all smiles.

The other, Christian Pulisic, was their No. 1 star. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.

Now, of course, he is.

Along with the rest of a squad that crashed to earth in a round of 16, 4-1 loss to Belgium, Pulisic is out of the World Cup. But even as the US squad bathed in the good will of their exciting and tantalizing start to the tournament — dominating Paraguay in the opener, and then eliminating Bosnia and Herzegovina in the first knockout game — Pulisic continues to be its most maddening conundrum. His disappearing act as matches wore on is impossible to ignore, and the questions about what he might ever accomplish with the USMNT are impossible to answer.

The face of the team was rendered invisible.

Even before finding out a microfracture in his leg was the reason for playing just 59 minutes in the dismal elimination game, Pulisic was nowhere to be found on the field, losing the ball 14 times and earning zero scoring chances. In fact, after a brilliant 45 minutes in the opening victory was cut short by a different (calf) injury, Pulisic faded from relevance, out for the win against Australia, playing a short stint to shake off rust in a meaningless loss to Turkey, and turning in an unremarkable stint against Bosnia.

But off the field? He’s everywhere. Find his face on a fast food value meal, see it on billboards along the highways, splash it across the wrappers of the all American Hershey bar — in fairness, Hershey, Pa., is his hometown — and watch it share the national commercial airwaves with the likes of Lionel Messi.

That latter reality was what immediately exposed Pulisic’s disdain at the media obligation back in May, when an innocuous opening question about the pressure of handling the balance of being the face of the team with so many promotional commitments turned him defensive and dismissive.

“I feel like I’ve been asked this question so many times, so I’m not going to get into it anymore,” he said.

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Certainly his prerogative. Clearly, reflective of his personality.

Pulisic projects a strong ‘leave me alone’ energy, quite likely one of the reasons neither his current national team coach (Mauricio Pochettino) nor his previous one (Gregg Berhalter) chose to make him a captain. But the American soccer machine decided years ago that his outsized talent was enough to predict all-time greatness, and this was the year it would all come to fruition.

Instead, he continues to fumble his responses.

After days of post-elimination criticism from soccer pundits like all-time USMNT legend Landon Donovan, who decried the influence of Pulisic’s inner circle; or multiple World Cup winner Carli Lloyd, who scoffed at his talking about the upside of getting rest after being eliminated; or legendary US keeper Tim Howard, who said on his podcast, “When someone shows you who you are, believe them,” Pulisic finally took to his Instagram account to address fans.

He only made things worse, closing a note of thanks and regret with this bizarre conclusion: “It’s just the start for us and for this sport in America.”

The start? We’ve been hearing that for decades. Maybe it was true in 1994, when we last hosted the World Cup, and interest led to the creation of Major League Soccer. Now, with a strong league and Pulisic among those Americans playing in top international leagues, soccer has long since arrived. Much of this team’s roster was on the 2022 World Cup team. This year’s squad was experienced, on home soil, and lifted by vociferous home support. Pulisic, 27, was supposed to be the glue.

The start? Pulisic will be 31 for the next World Cup. He’s a central midfielder, the most physically demanding position on the field. He’s injury prone. In four years, he’s more likely to be at the start of a retirement tour than a deep World Cup run.

Because this one is over. Maybe it was irrational to think the United States might actually compete with the last four standing — Argentina, Spain, France, and England are the four top-ranked teams in the world. But it wasn’t irrational to expect more from the team’s purported best player.

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Instead, it was just (more) disappointment.