GOAL's key takeaways from Americans players in Europe, including Sargent's scoring and a match to forget for Pulisic
Christian Pulisic felt compelled to issue an apology. It had been a difficult week for Milan, leading the USMNT star to post on social media Sunday, "Really tough week. Hate letting down this amazing fan base."
Tough week was an understatement. First Milan lost to Feyenoord in the Champions League round of 16 playoff, comprehensively beaten by the Eredivisie side in a miserable performance at San Siro. Pulisic, for his part, was anonymous in that game – and was removed well before full time amidst reports that he is playing through a knock.
Saturday brought an opportunity for redemption, especially against middling Torino in Serie A. The result was quite the opposite, with Pulisic missing from the spot and Milan losing in a game that will surely hurt their chances of qualifying for next year's Champions League.
It wasn't much better elsewhere. Gio Reyna – who really should have left Dortmund 18 months ago – fell flat in a rare start. And Antonee Robinson's Fulham were beaten comprehensively by Chris Richards' Crystal Palace.
But there is good news to be found in the form of Josh Sargent, who scored twice for Norwich, including a truly lovely goal. Fellow American Brenden Aaronson will feature in perhaps the biggest game of Leeds' season when the Whites face off against Sheffield in a top-of-the-table match Monday night.
GOAL looks at the major takeaways from this weekend's Americans Abroad.
Getty Images SportSargent remains inevitable
It's getting harder to describe Josh Sargent scoring a goal every week. He did make it a little easier this time around because this week was different. This time, he didn't score a goal – he scored two.
Another week, another match-winning performance from the USMNT striker, whos is very much playing like a guy that wants to be the USMNT striker. He's now scored seven goals in his last six games, taking his total to 10 on the season. This campaign could have easily been derailed by his injury absence. Instead, we might actually look back at it as the one where Sargent took his career forward.
USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino will surely be watching. With no Folarin Balogun or Ricardo Pepi in March for CONCACAF Nation's League, the striker spot will almost certainly go to Sargent. There's no reason to worry about that. As long as he's fit, Sargent will head to March's camp ready to score.
Other clubs will be watching, too. Strikers who score this many goals in the Championship don't tend to stay in the Championship for too long. The USMNT standout seems ready for a big leap. Norwich still have slim promotion hopes, but Sargent looks like he might just be ready to move up with or without them.
That's for another day. For now, Sargent is in form and scoring goals, sometimes plural, every week. Long may it continue.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportPulisic's bad day caps AC Milan's bad week
It was bound to happen, but Pulisic will be extremely frustrated that it happened this week, of all weeks.
Just days after AC Milan were knocked out of the Champions League, and after Pulisic had to deny rumors of an alleged rift with coach Sergio Conceicao, the American missed a penalty for the first time in his career. He had previously been 12-for-12. He's now 12-for-13, and it cost Milan dearly.
The Italian giants fell 2-1 to Torino on Saturday, capping a miserable week with more misery. They now sit back in seventh in Serie A. Their top-four hopes are hanging by a thread.
Pulisic wasn't solely responsible. It was a bad day all around for Milan, who have had far too many this season. They deserve to be where they are and, given the mistakes they made against Torino, they deserved the loss, too.
There's still time to fix this, but that time is running shorter and shorter. It led Pulisic to add in his social post, "Will give everything to finish this season on a positive note."
GettyReyna fails to take his chance
When chances are few and far between, you have to capitalize when they arrive. Gio Reyna didn't.
Handed a rare start for Borussia Dortmund, Reyna was just about the only guy on the field not to contribute to a goal in a 6-0 blowout of Union Berlin. There were goals and assists aplenty, but Reyna wasn't particularly close to providing any of them.
He completed 20 of his 23 passes, had just 33 touches and didn't have a single touch in the opposition box. Reyna wasn't bad – he just floated on the peripherryin a game in which he needed to seize by the neck.
If he was starting every week, that would be fine. When you don't have that luxury, every start just means more. For Reyna, Saturday's start was meaningful, and he didn't use it to convince to club's brass to stick with him – or commit to more chances.
Who knows where this Reyna saga is headed next? It's taken plenty of twists and turns over the years,. Unfortunately, Saturday's performance had none of those twists and turns. Reyna's performance can be defined by a word that hasn't often been used to describe him: boring.
GettyJuventus get back on track
Well, it wasn't pretty. It rarely is for Juve. Even when they play well, Thiago Motta's side are a sturdy, defensive outfit. This is not the place to come if you're looking for scintillating attacking football. But on Sunday, it worked a charm. Juve grinded out the kind of ugly 1-0 win needed to get back to winning ways after a pretty miserable week.
They were bounced from the Champions League by PSV on Wednesday – a game in which they were never truly competitive. Here, Motta's response was to make sure they were as solid as possible. And so it proved, with an opportunistic 1-0 win over Cagliari. Dusan Vlahovic provided the only goal.
The American duo of Tim Weah and Weston McKennie played their parts. Weah was once again charged with showing some versatility and put in a solid shift at right-back. It is largely to his credit that the home side had very little down the Juve right.
McKennie, meanwhile, was less involved. He struggled to find pockets of space against a disciplined Cagliari low block, but he did have his moments, and his off-ball work was crucial in supporting Vlahovic – while also preventing any attacks down the middle. It stands as an important result.
