In a week when he lamented a bias against United States men’s national team players in Europe, Weston McKennie did what he does best.
In adversity, the midfielder stood up to be counted and proved that you write him and his USMNT team-mates off at your peril.
Left on the bench, alongside compatriot Tim Weah, for their Italian club Juventus as they hosted Manchester City, the pair combined as second-half substitutes to help secure a statement win against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Only six minutes after their introduction to the contest, McKennie started a move by finding Weah and then burst into the box, before the latter sent a perfect cross to the back post for the Texan to volley spectacularly past Ederson.
It made the score 2-0 against the reigning Premier League champions and created a slice of men’s Champions League history in the process.
It was the first time an American has assisted another American for a goal in Europe’s premier club competition. “There was a lovely, lazy confidence about the way Timothy Weah tossed it into the path of his fellow countryman,” said commentator Clive Tyldesley on Paramount +.
There was a timely resonance to the moment, especially for McKennie, who spoke of his frustration at the perceived prejudice against American players in excerpts from a new Paramount + documentary about Christian Pulisic.
“There is definitely a bias,” said McKennie, who has had to prove himself to two different managers in the last two summers after appearing to be surplus to requirements in Turin. “I go through it most of the time when I’m at Juventus. Every year somehow I’m on the out and ready to be discarded, and every summer I’m like a new player coming in looking to make a name for myself.”
McKennie has only started three Champions League games out of a possible six for Juventus, and on Wednesday found himself initially benched with Weah, having recently recovered from muscle issues that had limited his involvement.
After the final whistle Juventus’ X account published a photograph of the pair with the caption ‘American connection’ and a stars and stripes emoji. The win moved Thiago Motta’s side up to 14th in the Champions League table and boosted their chances of automatic qualification for the last 16 of the tournament, with two fixtures of the initial league phase to go.
American connection 🇺🇸🔗#JuveManCity #UCL pic.twitter.com/kH18CKbUia
— JuventusFC 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@juventusfcen) December 11, 2024
It was a Champions League night which began inauspiciously for the Americans in Europe — with Christian Pulisic injured for Milan, striker Folarin Balogun sidelined for Monaco and McKennie and Weah on the bench. The previous evening, in-form striker Ricardo Pepi started on the bench as PSV lost to Brest, while Malik Tillman had a tough night in the same game.
Gio Reyna bucked that trend though, given his first start of the season in any competition for Borussia Dortmund in their home meeting with Barcelona.
Reyna started in midfield against the Catalan giants, a major upturn on his recent minimal game time from the bench in the Bundesliga, where his campaign to date has been ruined by groin problems.
But the 22-year-old attacking midfielder played 73 minutes of a pulsating 3-2 defeat at Signal Iduna Park, in a sign he is ready to take on a more meaningful role in Nuri Sahin’s team going forward. Against Barcelona, no other Dortmund player made more passes into the final third than Reyna’s six, according to Fotmob.
He was back in the starting XI on the second anniversary of the start of a spectacular feud with former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter that left a sour note on their relationship after the 2022 World Cup.
At the San Siro, Milan’s USMNT midfielder Yunus Musah was another who started for his team, as the Rossoneri ran out 2-1 winners against Red Star Belgrade.
But the headline grabber came in Turin, where there was a distinctly American touch to Manchester City’s latest struggle, and where the goal of the night might have done a little to ease that supposed stigma.
(Top photo: Valerio Pennicino / Getty Images)
