Christian Pulisic described his “hurt” after his USA side were knocked out of the World Cup by the Netherlands but has urged his side to deal with the pain by working to one day win the tournament.
The 24-year-old Chelsea winger captained his country in the last-16 of the competition but saw his side beaten on Saturday by goals from Memphis Depay, Daley Blind and Denzel Dumfries.
Haji Wright scored in reply for the States after latching onto a Pulisic cross but it wasn’t enough as they fell to a 3-1 defeat.
Speaking at the Khalifa International Stadium, Pulisic outlined his plan to make amends in 2026 when his country hosts the competition along with Mexico and Canada.
Pulisic said: “It is another experience for all these guys. There are for sure moments we can be really proud of.
“We don’t want to feel like this again and [we want] put ourselves in a position to win tournaments like this.
“We didn’t qualify for the last World Cup and here we are in the round of 16. We’ve definitely come a long way. Right now, it is just tough and it hurts after a loss like that. We felt we could have done more.”
Pulisic has had a good World Cup campaign, bagging two assists and a goal across his four matches in Qatar.
However, he wasted a great chance to take the lead after three minutes against the Dutch, hitting his shot straight at goalkeeper Andries Noppert.
Pulisic added: “Of course, it hurts. I thought I was way offside when it happened. He made a good save so of course, it is going to hurt for a while.
“We defended well for the most part but they score their first two real chances from cutting back, executing and finishing. We were down 2-0 but it didn’t feel like it should be that way. That’s what good teams do, they punish you.”
