'He Doesn't Have To Earn The Respect Of Anyone' - Tyler Adams Is The Latest To Defend Christian Pulisic, Now Everyone Needs To Shut Up And Win

[Source] - “It’s a topic that everyone wants to have an opinion on, of course, but what Christian did is what he had to do for himself,” Adams said when asked about Pulisic’s absence this summer. “He doesn’t have to earn the respect of anyone in the group. Everyone knows who Christian is as a person, and how good of a player he is as well.” “But everyone needs time in certain moments of their career or life to just say: ‘Let me take a step back, focus on myself for a second and then move forward’.” “I speak to Christian all the time. We’re obviously super close. And I just know that this summer, while he took a step away, he didn’t anticipate that there was going to be that much noise and heat around it.” “But again, everyone wants to throw his name in the gutter because it creates a big story, or it creates noise around [the team].” “And that’s how big of a player he is and how important of a player he is. But everyone in the team knows how important he is, what an amazing person he is.” “I can’t say enough good things about him. He’s one of the leaders of our team. The decision that he made was best for him, and it’s going to help him in the long run.”

I love Tyler Adams. I think he's the kind of old school player that made me fall in love with US soccer. He doesn't care about who gets the recognition, he had some brutal injuries that cost him too much time, but he comes back and just plays soccer. I get why he's defending Christian Pulisic, I'm cool with him doing so. They grew up playing together, they are teammates now, they are both starters and part of this generation of hope we had. 

But now it's time for everyone to shut the fuck up. It goes for the old players too. I don't need to hear Alexi Lalas and that group criticize every single thing this group does. None of it matters until next summer anyways when we host the World Cup. It's the most important World Cup for us since we hosted it in 1994. I truly believe that because half the country didn't pay attention until we made our run in 2002 and then forgot about it until Landon Donovan's goal vs Algeria in 2010. That goal still fucking rules, I don't care, goosebumps every time. 

This sort of stuff is going to go on until the World Cup. Former players are going to yell about everything because US soccer is in this weird spot where the old generation thinks they were more successful than anything else. I'll let the 2002 group talk, they at least made quarters. I'll let Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey talk because they are Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey. Landon Donovan once cheered for Mexico, that takes away everything. 

All I know is it's time for everyone now to shut the fuck up and win games.