American Players Abroad

Imagine telling U.S. Soccer fans that the USMNT have a player consistently starting for a team in Europe’s top five leagues, that team is in the top five of their league and the player is putting up solid performances.

That player would be called up in a heartbeat and the U.S. Soccer social media accounts should be talking about him nonstop. That isn’t the case however, and that’s because the player in question is John Brooks.

Christian Pulisic got an assist and helped set up another goal during AC Milan’s 3-1 victory vs. Cagliari in Serie A action on Wednesday. The Pulisic assist vs Cagliari is his first in a Milan shirt.

Wednesday’s game looked better for Pulisic after a string of so-so performances. Milan manager Stefano Pioli rotated his players and shifted Pulisic from the right wing to the left wing as Rafael Leão and Olivier Giroud were rested.

Here was the moment in the 60th minute when Pulisic set up Ruben Loftus-Cheek for a long-range goal to make it 3-1.

The American Folarin Balogun isn’t off to the best of starts with AS Monaco and two penalty executions in Friday’s match against Nice have sent the USMNT No. 9 into the gutter.

Folarin Balogun misses TWO penalties vs. OGC Nice in the same match

AS Monaco hosted OGC Nice in Matchday 6 of the Ligue 1 in what was a direct battle between two of the front-runners in the league table. Monaco, who were league leaders with 11 points, wanted a victory to increase their lead to a momentary point gap of four points over Brest.

The appearances of Americans in Europe’s most prestigious club competition has become a norm in the past few decades. With players like Weston McKennie who has played in five straight editions of the competition and Christian Pulisic who won the tournament in 2021 with Chelsea, the UEFA Champions League has gotten accustomed to seeing the United States’ best.

With appearances, though, comes the most important part of the game and an honor that many of today’s American Champions League stars have under their belt in the tournament — scoring goals.

United States men’s national team fans might have felt discouraged on Tuesday to see the Christian Pulisic benched news. For the first time this season Pulisic wasn’t in AC Milan’s starting XI as the club hosted Newcastle to a 0-0 draw in their UEFA Champions League opener.

Nigerian forward Samuel Chukwueze started in Pulisic’s usual place on the right wing for his first start with the club. Chukwueze arrived from Villarreal in the summer.

Weston McKennie made his 100th appearance for Juventus on Saturday during the club’s 3-1 victory vs. Lazio. He was involved in all three of Juve’s goals and provided a beauty of an assist on the third.

The American midfielder was coming off fantastic performances for the United States men’s national team and kept that form going.

Tim Howard reignited the fiery disagreements between Chelsea fans and United States men’s national team supporters over Christian Pulisic’s skill when he spoke on Taylor Twellman’s podcast, “Offside”.

Howard argued that Pulisic was at a disadvantage being an American player in the Premier League and if he were European, he would likely still be playing for Chelsea.

United States men’s national team defender Tim Ream found the back of the net for Fulham on Saturday vs. Manchester City. The unlikely hero for the Cottagers did so on a corner kick in exquisite fashion to level the game at 1-1.

Let’s set the scene.

Just two minutes prior to Ream’s goal, Erling Haaland had teed up Julián Álvarez for the game’s opening goal. The Etihad Stadium was rocking as their side took the lead.

LONDON — Nottingham Forest substitute Anthony Elanga struck early in the second half to earn a 1-0 win at toothless Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Swede kept his cool to push the ball neatly past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in the 48th minute after being put through by Taiwo Awoniyi following a Chelsea mix-up in midfield.

Anthony Elanga runs right by Chelsea's defense and scores for Forest!