USMNT in Serie A matchday 9 recap: Midweek matches unkind to Americans
With no European competitions this week, Serie A took advantage by scheduling midweek fixtures. Unfortunately, things didn't go well for the USMNT players in Italy. All four who saw the field had disappointing performances. Since we're talking about some of the most prominent American players, let's take a deep dive into what happened and how things went wrong.
Yunus Musah, AC Milan
Musah played all 90 minutes for Milan on Wednesday, and unfortunately, he was part of a dreadful collapse. After leading 2-1 for most of the game, Milan gave up three goals in the final 30 minutes, losing to Bologna 4-2. An error by Musah led directly to one of the goals, which was just as bad as having only one defensive contribution in a game his team should have won. While he’s been a key part of the Milan midfield this season, this is the third straight subpar performance from Musah.
Christian Pulisic, AC Milan
After earning Player of the Match honors on Sunday, Pulisic began Wednesday’s game on the bench, which was to be expected. He came off the bench in the 58th minute, meaning he was on the field for the three goals Milan gave up in the second half. While he can’t be blamed for giving up those goals, Pulisic failed to put away a scoring chance right in front of goal. Other than that, Pulisic made no meaningful contribution to the match.
Weston McKennie, Juventus
After AC Milan went down, McKennie struggled to save face for the Americans in Serie A. Juventus also lost a game that it probably should have won, falling 2-0 to Genoa. McKennie got the start, playing in a more advanced position, which means there wasn’t much he could do when Juventus fell behind 2-0 within 30 minutes. While he did create a couple of chances on the other end, McKennie and Juve never found the back of the net in a rare defeat to Genoa.
Gianluca Busio, Venezia
Busio is officially back from the injury that kept him out for more than six weeks. He was an unused sub over the weekend, but came off the bench in the 61st minute of Venezia’s 2-0 loss to Inter Milan on Wednesday. In that limited action, Busio had a long-range shot on target, but he also missed an absolute sitter inside the box. It was a bad miss in a game that Venezia had a chance to win, as Inter didn’t score until the 80th minute. We can chalk up the miss by Busio to rust after the injury.
