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Weston McKennie scores second goal this week for Juventus

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U.S. men’s national team midfielder Weston McKennie capped a week of impressive form with another header goal Saturday afternoon.

McKennie, making the 50th Serie A appearance of his career, finished off a cross from Mattia De Sciglio with a header toward the lower right corner of the goal. Juventus cruised to a 2-0 victory over Udinese thanks to McKennie’s goal and a first-half goal from Paulo Dybala.

McKennie is just the second USMNT player to reach 50 appearances in the Italian top flight. Michael Bradley, the other USMNT man to reach that mark, played 76 games during stints with Chievo Verona and AS Roma. Alexi Lalas is third on that list with 44 appearances with Padova. Gianluca Busio is next with 19 appearances for Venezia.

McKennie made 34 appearances with Juventus last season, in which he played on loan from Schalke. Schalke sold McKennie to Juventus permanently in July 2021 for a reported $27.5 million. McKennie has made 16 appearances with three league goals in 2021/22.

The header McKennie scored Saturday was very similar to the one he scored earlier this week against Inter for the opening goal of the Italian Supercoppa final against Inter on Wednesday. Inter later equalized and won the cup in a penalty shootout, but McKennie starred for Juve with eight of nine duels won, three of four aerial challenges won and three clearances.

The excellent form McKennie has shown as of late correlates with a return to form for Juventus. The Italian giant started the season with some disappointing results, including a 1-0 loss to Empoli. However, the Bianconeri are now on an eight-match unbeaten streak in league games.

Juventus moves on to face Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Comments

  1. Lol. Eh… I’m gonna admire a beautiful goal without trying to read conspiratorial drama into the scenario. Having seen his interactions with the team- the celebrations with his team mates on other goals of his I’d say its reading into a 15 second blip in time… there is little to no evidence Weston is ostracized. Maybe its because he ran the opposite direction and they were standing right next to the man who delivered a dime. Mckennie’s been a rock…. his all around game has been totally on point. Good news for us coming into quals. Wooooohooooo!

    Reply
    • I’ve watched him a ton there. We disagree. It’s not conspiracy LOL

      It’s fact. Some have trouble with the uncomfortable truths. It’s very in vogue to look at something in today’s world and literally say the opposite of what one sees.

      Reply
      • Why should we make anything of it?

        Maybe they all have a good reason to dislike Weston. Who knows why?

        I’m a USMNT fan, As long as he plays well for the USMNT, I couldn’t care less what his Juve teammates think of him.

        As long as he plays well and keeps scoring important goals, those guys at Juve will put up with him.

  2. Great point. Total BS. It was a nice ball sent in, yes. But Weston left running around alone and has to go find teammates to celebrate? Screw Juve. Get out of there and play for a team with teammates who respect you. Liverpool’s Robertson delivered an incredible ball for Ox to score on a header today, and what happened? Not what went down at Juve. Pathetic

    Reply
  3. Why did all his teammates celebrate the goal with the assist provider and not with him, the goal scorer? I don’t like this. The assist provider should always run toward the goal scorer and celebrate with him. After all, if the scorer didn’t score, there would be no assist. The assist provider should be thankful too.

    Reply
    • Maybe the “assist provider” is a really popular guy. All games matter but they were already ahead when Weston scored and it didn’t have the fell of a high intensity match.

      If in fact what you saw was Weston’s Juve teamates dissing him, and I’m not sure they were, then I would suspect that they understand the dynamics of their locker room better than we do.

      Maybe they don’t like him. BFD.

      In other words just because we think they should have treated him like a God or Alex Trebek, the instant he scored it doesn’t mean those players agree.

      Reply

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