Juventus made it three UEFA Champions League wins in a row after shutting out Dynamo Kyiv 3-0 on Wednesday with Weston McKennie going the distance for the winners.
McKennie excelled for the Old Lady, completing 83% of his passes and racing all around the field in a dominant performance for Juventus. Not only did the 21-year-old get involved in the opposition’s half of the field. but he was strong defensively against the Ukrainian visitors. McKennie successfully completed all three of his tackles while also winning two aerial battles and making two interceptions. Juventus can’t catch Barcelona for the top spot in G, but will head into the Round of 16 on great form if they can down the Catalan club next week at the Camp Nou.
Elsewhere, Sergino Dest and Christian Pulisic both started in Champions League wins while Konrad De La Fuente appeared off the bench for Barcelona. Chris Richards also featured for Bayern Munich in a 1-1 draw at Atletico Madrid. Tim Weah registered his first assist in UEFA Europa League play as Lille defeated Sparta Prague. Charlie Kelman made his QPR debut in a EFL Championship loss.
Here is a closer look at this week’s action involving Americans Abroad:
Europe
UEFA Champions League
Sergino Dest started and played 90 minutes in Barcelona’s 3-0 win over Ferencvaros on Wednesday.
Weston McKennie started and played 90 minutes in Juventus 3-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday.
Gio Reyna started and played 90 minutes in Borussia Dortmund’s 1-1 draw with Lazio on Wednesday.
Christian Pulisic started and played 67 minutes in Chelsea’s 4-0 win over Sevilla on Wednesday.
Tyler Adams came off the bench and played 45 minutes in RB Leipzig’s 4-3 win over Istanbul Basaksehir on Wednesday.
Chris Richards came off the bench and played 28 minutes in Bayern Munich’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
Jesse Marsch and Red Bull Salzburg defeated Lokomotiv Moscow 3-1 on Tuesday.
Konrad De La Fuente came off the bench and played 10 minutes for Barcelona.
Zack Steffen dressed but did not play in Manchester City’s 0-0 draw with FC Porto on Tuesday.
Ethan Horvath dressed but did not play in Club Brugge’s 3-0 win over Zenit St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
UEFA Europa League
Henry Wingo started and played 90 minutes in Molde’s 3-1 win over Dundalk on Thursday.
Theoson Siebatcheu came off the bench and played 14 minutes in Young Boys 3-1 loss to Roma on Thursday.
Timothy Weah came off the bench, registered ONE assist, and played 13 minutes in Lille’s 2-1 win over Sparta Prague on Thursday.
Folarin Balogun came off the bench and played nine minutes in Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Rapid Wien on Thursday.
Richie Ledezma dressed but did not play in PSV’s 1-0 win over Granada on Thursday.
England
EFL Championship
Duane Holmes started and played 80 minutes in Derby County’s 1-1 draw with Coventry City on Tuesday.
Matthew Olosunde started and played 71 minutes in Rotherham United’s 2-0 loss to Brentford on Tuesday.
Geoff Cameron did not dress in QPR’s 2-1 loss to Bristol City on Tuesday.
Charlie Kelman came off the bench and played seven minutes for QPR.
Cameron Carter-Vickers is OUT (Injury) for Bournemouth.
League One
Indiana Vassilev did not dress in Burton Albion’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland on Tuesday.
Marlon Fossey did not dress in Shrewsbury Town’s 2-2 draw with Accrington Stanley on Wednesday.
Lynden Gooch is OUT (Injury) for Sunderland.
National League
Giles Phillips started and played 90 minutes in Aldershot Town’s 0-0 draw with Chesterfield on Tuesday.
Germany
3. Liga
Terrence Boyd started, scored TWO GOALS, and played 79 minutes in Hallescher FC’s 2-0 win over Unterhaching on Wednesday.
Taylor Booth and Bayern Munich II’s scheduled match with Ingolstadt was postponed on Wednesday.
France
Ligue 2
Nicholas Gioacchini started and played 90 minutes in Caen’s 1-0 loss to Pau on Tuesday.
Spain
La Liga 2
Shaq Moore came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Tenerife’s 2-1 loss to Sabadell on Thursday.
Belgium
First Division
Chris Durkin started and played 59 minutes in Sint-Truiden’s 3-2 loss to Royal Excel Mouscron on Tuesday.
Joe Offord did not dress in Waasland Beveren’s 2-0 loss to Sporting Charleroi on Wednesday.
South America
Copa Libertadores
Johnny Cardoso did not dress in Internacional’s 1-0 first leg loss to Boca Juniors on Wednesday
Mexico
Ascenso MX
Jonathan Suarez and Pumas Tabasco face Atlante on Thursday.
An American played for half of the teams at the top of their groups in the group stage. We could realistically see 6-8 players play in the elimination rounds. And all of them are 21 and under. Amazing! The future looks bright for the USMNT.
One of the problems with the CBS coverage is that they rarely focus on a game for more than a minute or two at a time, outside of the featured game. And they give no preference to games with Americans playing. That makes it hard to keep track of the Americans involved. I didn’t know Richards came on for Bayern until I read it here.
I normally stream 2-3 games at the same time, but for the majority of the time, I’d stay on the feature game of my choice. In addition, I regularly monitor on the status of the ESPNFC’s scoreboards and lineups, so I know when to switch game. When I saw Chris Richards came on at the 62nd, I switched from the Liverpool game to Bayern. Having said that, on a super unlucky day, I sometimes ended up missing the goals, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of the downsides of having so many Americans playing on top European clubs–it’s hard to keep tr4ack of them all and you are sure to miss something when you have a bunch going on at the same time. The good old days when most of the Americans playing in a top European league were all playing on one team–Fullhamerica. In one period they had McBride, then Dempsey and Bocanegra and Kasey Keller for a season or two.
Olusunde and Holmes need call ups next Euro based squad. Hopefully they stay healthy and get constant PT. It is cool to see both domestic and euro based player pool expand.
Olusunde’s been hurt most of the season just getting back in the starting lineup this month. He has kind of the same problem as Shaq Moore, RB is pretty locked down with Dest, Cannon, and Yedlin. Reynolds now also allegedly headed to Europe