Usmnt's Christian Pulisic And Teammates Stranded In Los Angeles, Saved By Golf Cart Dealer

The United States Men's National Team secured a berth in the FIFA World Cup knockout stage with a 2-0 victory over Australia last Friday in Seattle.

The squad flew back to Los Angeles, the team's base for the 2026 World Cup, shortly after the match. On Sunday, the trio of Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Alejandro Zendejas ventured away from the team hotel in search of pizza.

Pulisic is a fitness concern: the USMNT captain suffered a calf injury in the team's World Cup opening win against Paraguay and sat out the match against Australia. The last thing he needed was a "side quest" that could potentially involve strenuous activity. Yet that is precisely the situation the USMNT trio found themselves in, via The Mirror US.

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A nightmare stretch of Los Angeles traffic left the players effectively stranded. The 40-50-minute walk back to the hotel would ordinarily have been manageable, but Pulisic's calf made it a non-starter.

"With Christian's calf, we definitely didn't want to walk," McKennie, the USMNT's captain for their final group game against Turkiye, told ESPN. "I was the only one in flip-flops, but it was far. So, we thought, maybe we could figure something out with a cart."

Nearby was SC Carts, a local high-end golf cart dealership with several units available. The players ultimately balked at purchasing one for $9,000 after initially giving it serious consideration — Pulisic wasn't keen on arranging shipping to his Florida home once the World Cup concluded.

Owner Cole Schamber, who isn't a soccer fan, noticed a couple of supporters approaching the players for photos. He quickly devised a solution: he needed to drop off a golf cart near their hotel and offered to give them a ride. This followed McKennie's suggestion that the players would make the journey on foot.

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"I'm not a soccer fan: I just run my business, so I don't even have a chance to watch much TV," Schamber told ESPN. "It was only when people started asking them for pictures that I realized what was happening. And then they also mentioned that they play for the U.S. soccer team."

The squad had five days in Los Angeles ahead of what ended up a tough 3-2 defeat against Turkiye - an ultimately meaningless game with both nations' fates having already been sealed beforehand.

Pulisic was named among the substitutes for the USMNT alongside Zendejas, with both coming on in the second half. He is anticipated to be fully fit for the USMNT's Round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The "side quest" will ultimately amount to nothing more than a footnote in their World Cup campaign. "It was a little side quest," McKennie told ESPN. "It could have been a lot worse, but it worked out as well as possible. The guy was so chill. We're really grateful to him."