Christian Pulisic the creator, Tyler Adams proving his fitness and Tim Weah’s centre-forward frustration all play a part in this week’s USMNT Player Tracker.
Throughout the season, we will bring you updates on the U.S. players plying their trade in various leagues around Europe. With a home World Cup on the horizon and new national-team boss Mauricio Pochettino monitoring them from afar, we’re keeping tabs on how they perform every weekend.
Issue of the weekend
Pulisic was back in his creative groove as he set up a goal to help Milan regain some momentum in Serie A.
The USMNT star exploited space on the right flank to send a clever looping ball into the area and allow Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders to grab the second in a 3-0 win over Empoli in San Siro on Saturday.
Victory allowed seventh-placed Milan to reduce the gap between them and Weston McKennie and Weah’s Juventus, who are sixth, to four points — as both Italian giants look to recover from patchy starts to their respective league campaigns.
Pulisic applauds San Siro after a comfortable win (Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images)
Pulisic, who unsurprisingly is on the shortlist to be voted Milan’s most valuable player for November, created four chances overall in the game. No other Milan player made more.
That’s not to suggest the 26-year-old was operating at the height of his powers throughout, but even when he is not scoring sensational solo goals or clinching man of the match awards, he is proving he can still make a difference. His vision created chances this weekend even with the game played in a thick fog that at one stage threatened a postponement.
There was also a start and a promising performance from his international team-mate Yunus Musah on the right of Milan’s midfield.
Player of the weekend
There was nothing spectacular or headline-grabbing, but Adams proved his match fitness by getting through plenty of hard work as he played the full game in Bournemouth’s impressive 4-2 Premier League win at Wolves.
According to Fotmob, the USMNT midfielder made more defensive actions than any other player on the field (16) as he quietly influenced Bournemouth’s first victory in three matches. The defensive action metric — defined as a defensive duel, interception or a sliding tackle made by the player — certainly gives an indication of how busy they have been in that aspect of the game, and nobody worked harder than Adams at Molineux on Saturday.
Adams blocks an attempt from Wolves’ Matheus Cunha (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Adams, 25, can take extra satisfaction from completing his first 90 minutes of the season in club colours, after recovering from his latest back injury.
Jeff Rueter’s graphic of the weekend
Quote of the weekend
“Today, I preferred Timo (Weah) up front to stretch the game. In the first half he worked well, but it is clear that in some situations we could have taken better advantage of his movement. Now we look forward, working to improve ahead of the next match.”
Juventus coach Thiago Motta, speaking in his post-match press conference, acknowledged his team could be doing more to provide better service for makeshift centre-forward Weah after he was deployed in that role again for the 1-1 draw with Lecce on Sunday.
A frustrated Weah (Ivan Romano/Getty Images)
Weah had precious little in the way of good deliveries to feed off in the Champions League goalless draw at Aston Villa of the Premier League on Wednesday, too, and it was scant pickings again as his team conceded a stoppage-time equaliser.
How did other U.S. players get on?
Name: Malik Tillman
Club/League: PSV/Dutch Eredivisie
Position: Midfielder
Games (in all competitions): 20
Goals: 8
Fresh from his superlative performance in the Champions League as his two late goals helped PSV to a 3-2 comeback win against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday, Tillman was quieter but still bright as the defending Eredivisie champions beat Utrecht 5-2 on Sunday.
Unfortunately from a USMNT point of view, Ricardo Pepi, who scored the winner against Shakhtar, was back on the bench as manager Peter Bosz restored captain Luuk de Jong to the starting striker role.
PSV’s Tillman shields the ball from compatriot Paxten Aaronson of Utrecht (Marcel van Dorst/EYE4images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Name: Taylor Booth
Club/League: Utrecht/Eredivisie
Position: Midfielder
Games (in all competitions): 9
Goals: 0
Booth was a second-half substitute in his side’s defeat by PSV and only managed to touch the ball 13 times in 45 minutes on the pitch.
His compatriot Paxten Aaronson had a quiet game for the home team, too, although he started on the left of a midfield three on an afternoon that saw their club overtaken by Ajax, dropping to third in the table. Utrecht travel to the Amsterdam Arena next midweek.
Name: Nathaniel Brown
Club/League: Eintracht Frankfurt/German Bundesliga
Position: Defender
Games (in all competitions): 7
Goals: 2
Dual-national Brown, who has an American father and German mother, is having a strong spell after breaking into Frankfurt’s team recently.
He supplied two assists in their 4-0 win over Lennard Maloney’s Heidenheim on Sunday, to add to his two goals in the previous three games. Brown, who has represented Germany at under-21 level, is a left-back so, with Antonee Robinson and Sergino Dest already established in that role for the USMNT, it remains to be seen if US Soccer will prioritise trying to lure him into their fold.
But, at 21, he is showing real promise in the Bundesliga this season.
Brown has shown flashes of quality at Frankfurt (Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Name: Folarin Balogun
Club/League: Monaco/French Ligue 1
Position: Striker
Games (in all competitions): 10
Goals: 3
After a dislocated shoulder caused him to miss seven games in October and November, Balogun was back leading the line from the start for Monaco’s Ligue 1 defeat at Marseille on Sunday. He had already made his comeback off the bench in their Champions League loss to Portugal’s Benfica four days earlier, and is in line to feature away to his previous club Arsenal in that competition next Wednesday.
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— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) December 1, 2024
Name: Gio Reyna
Club/League: Borussia Dortmund/German Bundesliga
Position: Midfielder
Games (in all competitions): 4
Goals: 0
A few Bundesliga minutes in the bag for Reyna as he made a late cameo in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.
What’s coming up?
(All times ET)
Pulisic and Musah could be involved in Milan’s Coppa Italia tie with Sassuolo on Tuesday (3pm, Paramount +), while Chris Richards will be hoping to get back into Crystal Palace’s team as they face a relegation six-pointer at Ipswich Town in the Premier League on the same day (2:30pm, Peacock Premium). Matt Turner is likely to be on the bench for Palace. On Thursday in the latter competition, Robinson’s Fulham meet Brighton & Hove Albion (2:30pm, Peacock Premium).
Then, at the weekend, find out if Weah can continue up front for Juventus against Bologna in Serie A on Saturday (12pm, Paramount +). You can also watch Joe Scally’s Borussia Monchengladbach face Dortmund in the German Bundesliga, where Reyna will hope for more game time than he got against Bayern, that afternoon (12:30pm, ESPN+).
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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