The United States men’s national team made a winning return to the pitch on Wednesday, but captain Christian Pulisic didn’t like everything he saw in Cincinnati.
Morocco was cheered a bit more than Pulisic expected in the USMNT’s 3-0 friendly win, and the Chelsea star wants to see more American fans in the seats as the Yanks work toward the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
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Pulisic’s opinion was not drawn out by a pointed question but a relatively easy one about how good it felt to be playing in the United States again.
Here’s what the American star had to say on a night he pulled out a show-stopper of an assist and drew a penalty that he gave to friend and debutant Haji Wright.
[ WATCH: USMNT scores two show-stopping goals ]
Pulisic doesn’t like U.S. representation at game “to be completely honest”
“It’s been a couple of months since you were in front of these U.S. fans, how’d it feel tonight?”
This was not a gotcha question.
Here’s what Pulisic said in reply (video below).
“It was nice. To be honest for whatever reason, I’m not super happy with the amount of Americans here, however that works out if I’m being completely honest. Thanks to the ones who did come, the support is always great from them but yeah it’s nice to be back playing in America.”
It doesn’t necessarily feel like this was a shot at USMNT fans for not showing up in greater numbers, but frustration that it didn’t feel like a “Party in the USA.”
That said, Pulisic should be aware that most tickets to these games are very expensive and this was a Wednesday in June (We don’t know Ohio’s board of education or anything, but midweek during a pretty busy time for students and families, no doubt).
It’s going to be way more attractive for North America-based Morocco supporters to catch a rare glimpse of Africa’s Atlas Lions than it is for your average U.S. fan to head to the Midwest at midweek.
Christian Pulisic called out the lack of USMNT home fan support after their match against Morocco. pic.twitter.com/kyxBMDw20l
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) June 2, 2022
