Christian Pulisic was on the receiving end of a lot of criticism following the U.S. loss to Belgium in the Round of 16 earlier this week.
The U.S. fell to Belgium, 4-1. Pulisic had to exit the game early with a leg injury. It was later revealed that Pulisic was playing through a bone bruise and micro-fracture in his leg.
But the criticism still poured in.
Everyone from Tim Howard to Landon Donovan to Carli Lloyd to thousands of fans on social media ripped Pulisic apart for what he did on the field and how he's handled himself off of it.
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ESPN’s Craig Burley, though, is not happy.
The prominent FIFA analyst has made it clear that he believes Donovan, Howard and others have crossed the line with their criticism.
ESPN analyst accuses critics of crossing the line
Burley did not hold back, accusing everyone of making it personal.,
“It seems to me it's almost a personal attack on an individual rather than an analysis of the football that's gone before," he said on air.
“It’s people from FOX. It's the same people that when Flo Balogun was told he could play, they were on that network, and they embarrassed the (expletive) out of themselves for about half an hour. It’s embarrassing.” “
They all danced around the fact that it was wrong, and said, this is the greatest decision in the history of U.S. sports, Flo Balogun's going to play. That's how embarrassing these people are. They have no shame.”
“You're criticizing a player for not carrying a team, no further than you yourself never carried a team.”
“Look, do I think he's perfect? No. But I'll tell you one thing about Christian Pulisic, and going back to [Landon] Donovan and one or two others, at least he's had the stomach to go to Europe over a long, long period of time and forge out a pretty good career for himself at Dortmund, at Chelsea, at Milan.”
"And listen, they can analyze games all they want. I don't care. That's their job. But here, I think this is personal. It's a real personal attack on this young man.”
It'll be interesting to see if Donovan and others fire back.
