Christian Pulisic had himself one heck of a May and June. winning the UEFA Champions League and Concacaf Nations League, and he has returned from his summer break enjoying a similar run of success.
Pulisic made his season debut on Wednesday, helping Chelsea win the UEFA Super Cup, then made his Premier League season debut on Saturday with a goal in Chelsea’s 3-0 win vs. Crystal Palace.
Pulisic wasn’t the only American to have a strong opening weekend in Europe. Here is a look at the top Americans Abroad performers this weekend:
Joe Scally
The former NYCFC fullback made an impressive first-team debut in Moenchengladbach’s DFB Pokal win last Monday, then surpassed that with an outstanding showing in Friday’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.
Gio Reyna
It was another strong season opener for Gio Reyna, who started and scored a goal in Borussia Dortmund’s 5-2 win vs. Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
John Brooks
The Wolfsburg centerback picked up where he left off in Bundesliga play with a dominant showing in Saturday’s 1-0 win vs. Bochum. Brooks recorded three tackles and seven interceptions, and completed 77 of 82 passes.
Sergiño Dest
FC Barcelona enjoyed a winning start to the post-Lionel Messi era and Dest played well in the starting right back role. He completed 23 of 25 passes and completed two successful dribbles to go with two tackles won.
Glad to see Tim Ream go the full 90 for Fulham.
What Ream is proving is he is a championship level player that is not quite good enough for the PL or International game because of his pace issues. Hope Berhalter understands that and doesn’t bring him for qualifying.
Ream has had a solid career but his time with the USMNT should be over.
Anyone else mildly surprised that Barcelona looked pretty good? Minus Messi, they still have quite a bit of talent.
They started 8 regulars from the Euros (4 Spaniards, 2 Dutch, Griezman, and the Dane Braithwaite). Then Dest, Pique, and Neto. If they don’t get some of their other offensive talent back from injury though they’re going to have trouble with lack of depth. Their bench was basically Konrad’s old teammates with Barca B.
All around great weekend for Yanks Abroad. Love that 2 players really stepped up in positions the team needs in DLF and Scally.