Pulisic’s Europa League hope, Wright on track once again and McKennie’s VAR setbacks all play a role in this week’s USMNT Player Tracker.
Every Monday we bring you updates on how American players are performing in European leagues over the weekend.
With a Copa America hosting this year and the 2026 World Cup, also partly on home soil, looming ever larger on the horizon, we’re keeping an eye on their performances.
How to follow the Copa America on Athleticism…
Weekend question
Big games demand big performance. AC Milan certainly have the former this week and hope their supercharged USMNT star can provide the latter as well.
The Rossoneri face Serie A rivals Roma in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final at the San Siro on Thursday.
For a club of Milan’s stature, 17 years is a long time to go without a European trophy, but their last continental trophy remains the Champions League won against Liverpool in Athens in 2007. Stefano Pioli and the club’s ambitious American owners will therefore be determined. to qualify for this season’s Europa League final in Dublin.
It’s actually a competition Milan have never won. They are generally more accustomed to competing in the Champions League, but they were knocked out in the group stage in December and have been eliminated in Europe this season. Victory against French club Rennes in the play-offs saw them through to the round of 16 and they then comfortably faced Slavia Prague in the round of 16.
And if Milan want to continue their progress, they will hope that Christian Pulisic’s good form continues as well.
This has shown no signs of stopping so far: the 25-year-old has 13 goals and eight assists in all competitions so far and was on the scoresheet again in a convincing win 3 -0 against Lecce on Saturday.
His performances have been so instrumental that Pulisic, who only joined Milan from Chelsea last summer, could already be in line for a contract extension until 2027, according to Italian publication Corriere Dello Sport.
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Player of the Weekend
It’s Haji Wright’s advantage in the shootout to become the highest-scoring American in England’s always entertaining second tier.
With his 49th-minute goal for Coventry in their 2-1 win over Leeds United on Saturday, the striker made it 15 league goals so far this season, one ahead of international teammate Josh Sargent. This handed the visitors the first league defeat of the calendar year.
March was a productive month for Wright, scoring five times, including the winning goals in matches against Wolverhampton Wanderers (in the FA Cup) and Watford.
The 26-year-old also scored against West Bromwich Albion and Huddersfield Town as Coventry won four out of five last month and moved up to seventh in the table.
Coventry are four points behind Sargent’s Norwich City in sixth, the last place to qualify for the end-of-season promotion play-offs.
The competition between the two even extends to the PFA Fans’ Player of the Month for March, with both also nominated for that award.
Coventry manager Mark Robins described Wright’s goal as ‘brilliant’ and the former striker must be a happy man with two prolific goalscorers this season. Wright now has 17 goals in all competitions, while his strike partner, Ellis Simms, has 18.
Quote of the week
“Tyler woke up two days ago with back spasms and was unavailable. It has nothing to do with the hamstring, but he was unavailable for the game.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola has reassured fans that Tyler Adam’s non-appearance during his side’s defeat at Luton Town on Saturday was not the result of a recurrence of his hamstring problems. pads that have ruined his season so far.
The USMNT midfielder had completed his first 90 minutes for his new club the previous weekend in the win over Everton, with this latest setback – although hopefully minor – distinctly ill-timed as he looking to stand out this season.
Weekend Chart
When Ethan Horvath signed for Cardiff City on February 1, it ended a long break between the goalkeeper’s club commitments.
Horvath became the proverbial ‘quadruple A’ player in England: a goalkeeper good enough to help a team gain promotion from the Championship, as he did successively with Nottingham Forest and Luton Town, but not good enough for those teams retain him. for their entry into the Premier League.
Six months as an unregistered squad member at Forest did little to improve his international chances. Whichever way you view his fit with Cardiff at a glance, the music to his ears was probably their offer of a three-and-a-half year contract. Finally stability.
Quickly he became the starting goalkeeper as Cardiff looked to crash out of the promotion playoffs.
Those hopes were seriously damaged this weekend, suffering a 3-1 humiliation at home to Hull City. The defeat saw a gap widen between the play-off hopefuls and 11th-placed Cardiff, now 11 points behind sixth-placed Norwich with five games remaining. In all likelihood, they will be back in the same competition in August.
As for Horvath, the long absence doesn’t seem to have hurt his shot-stopping instincts.
Its prevention target is in line with Cardiff’s upper average position, with a prevention rate of +3.9 per cent when comparing permitted targets to expected outcome (on a scale of -100 per cent to 100 per cent). hundred). For comparison, his rate as a Luton starter was -3.8 percent, while he had an impressive rate of +23.1 percent as Forest’s second-choice keeper.
His peripheral metrics leave room for improvement, as he is the most timid goalkeeper in the division in terms of stopping crosses before they find a target. Nevertheless, his international exploits between the sticks make him a sure bet to appear on the Copa America roster as Matt Turner’s understudy.
Jeff Rueter
How did the other American players fare?
Name: Joe Scally
Club: Borussia Monchengladbach
Position: Full back
Appearances: 31
Goals: A
Scally had to make do with a place on the bench as his Borussia Mönchengladbach teammates took on Kevin Paredes’ Wolfsburg.
With Paredes missing due to injury, Scally and fellow USMNT player Jordan Pefok were both on the sidelines but made late appearances as Mönchengladbach came from behind to win 3-1.
Name: Malik Tillman
Club: PSV Eindhoven
Position: Midfielder
Appearances: 35
Goals: Six
The American had two assists as PSV bounced back from losing their unbeaten run to beat AZ Alkmaar 5-1 on Saturday.
GO FURTHER
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Name: Mark McKenzie
Club: Genk
Position: Central defender
Appearances: 35
Goals: A
McKenzie made a solid shift in defense as his Belgian side Genk beat Royal Antwerp on Saturday and remain in contention to become Jupiler Pro League champions.
Name: Weston McKennie
Club: Juventus
Position: Midfielder
Appearances: 31
The Texan had suffered some personal frustration during Juventus’ 1-0 win over Fiorentina on Sunday after seeing a goal – which would have been his first of the campaign – and an assist separately ruled out by VAR.
What’s coming?
(All times Eastern)
You can see Pulisic and Yunus Musah in this Europa League tie with Roma on Thursday (Paramount+, Fubo, DirecTV Stream, ViX 3 p.m. ET).
Luca de la Torre and Johnny Cardoso will face off when Celta Vigo take on Real Betis on Friday (ESPN+, 2 p.m.), while in Germany, Scally and Pefok will be hoping for more minutes as Borussia Mönchengladbach take on Dortmund on Saturday (ESPN+, 9:30 a.m.). ).
Also on Saturday, Bournemouth and USMNT fans will be hoping Adams is fit to feature against Manchester United (Peacock Premium, 10am).
(Top photos: Getty Images)