Tag: Weston McKennie

Max Allegri thinks Weston McKennie is the best American player in Europe

Perhaps Christian Pulisic would like a word?

Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri has called Weston McKennie the best American player in Europe at present.

McKennie has been linked with a move away from Juventus this summer but earlier this month, Allegri reiterated his stance that the U.S. men’s national team star would be staying with the Serie A giants.

On Thursday, ahead of Juventus facing Chivas in Las Vegas in the first match of their preseason tour of the U.S., Allegri gave some major praise to the 23-year-old.

“McKennie is probably the best American player playing in Europe,” Allegri said at a press conference. “I think it’s very important for him to continue showing the high levels that he has at Juve.”

The USMNT midfielder was in the midst of a standout campaign last year when he suffered a broken metatarsal in his foot in February, an injury that kept him out for most of the rest of the season.

Even with the addition of Paul Pogba this summer, McKennie figures to be a key part of a Juventus squad looking to bounce back in 2022-23 after its first season without a trophy in 10 years.

“Our duty is to win this year, and after 10 years in a row last year was our first without trophies,” Allegri said. “We are obligated to win and we will know that it’s an important year for us.”

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USMNT notes: Berhalter addresses McKennie, Mihailovic, Tillman and more ahead of Morocco

The USMNT coach touched on a variety of topics ahead of a stretch of four games in two weeks

U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter touched on a variety of topics ahead of his side’s friendly against Morocco in Cincinnati on Wednesday night.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Berhalter offered some information on his lineup for the Morocco match, the first of four games in a two-week span for the USMNT.

As expected, Matt Turner will start in goal after Zack Steffen withdrew from the roster for family reasons.

Aaron Long will partner Walker Zimmerman in central defense while Brenden Aaronson, who just completed a transfer to Leeds, will start centrally after mostly featuring as a winger during his time with the USMNT so far.

On Mihailovic’s injury

Djordje Mihailovic was forced off the USMNT roster with an ankle injury, in a major blow for a player who has been one of the top attackers in MLS in recent seasons.

Berhalter addressed the CF Montreal star’s injury as well as his decision not to call in a replacement.

“We purposely stacked the attacking positions in this camp with depth in every position, so we didn’t feel there would be a need for a replacement,” Berhalter said.

“Our heart goes out to Djordje. The timing of this is very unfortunate for him. He’s been having a great season. We were really looking forward to working with him in this camp. But what I told him is just focus on getting better and continue to do what you’ve been doing, and if you do that, there will be other opportunities for you down the road.”

Tillman eligible to play

On Tuesday U.S. Soccer announced that Malik Tillman’s change of association application with FIFA had gone through, clearing the Bayern Munich attacker to play for the U.S. after he declared his intention to switch from Germany earlier this month.

“We are really excited he got cleared by FIFA to play,” Berhalter said. “He’s shown a lot of quality in training, very good understanding of the game, very good first touch and awareness around the penalty box.”

McKennie working his way back

Berhalter also addressed the status of Weston McKennie, who missed three months with a broken foot before making a cameo off the bench in Juventus’s final game of the season on May 21.

In a positive sign for his health, McKennie was called into the USMNT roster, and Berhalter said the plan is to bring the star midfielder along slowly.

“The goal of our camp is to get him in position where he can start a game and play extended minutes,” Berhalter said.

“Right now what we’re dealing with is maybe he can play 20 minutes tomorrow. We’ve been looking at his training load, and have really been building him up. He’s had an intensive last four days, and tomorrow will be the fifth day of his load. So we want to be mindful with minutes, making sure that he’s recovered and moving the right direction, but he’s looked good on the field.”

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Injured McKennie dances in the stands during Coppa Italia final

Unfortunately for Juventus, the midfielder’s only contribution on the evening came in the dancing department

Weston McKennie couldn’t play in Juventus’s Coppa Italia final against Inter on Wednesday, but he still managed to have his share of fun at the game.

McKennie was filmed dancing in the stands along with thousands of other Juventus fans during a second-half spell after they had taken a 2-1 lead.

Unfortunately for Juve, those good times would not last. Inter equalized through a late penalty and then Ivan Perisic scored twice in extra time to give his side a 4-2 victory.

McKennie has been sidelined since late February due to a broken metatarsal in his foot, and appears to be drawing close to a return.

Unfortunately for Juventus, his only contribution in Wednesday’s game came in the dancing department.

Watch McKennie dance at the Coppa Italia final

USMNT won’t play in Olympics, but they could still feature a strong U-23 squad this summer

Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Sergiño Dest headline the USMNT’s strong core of U-23 players.

After losing 2-1 to Honduras on Sunday, U.S. Soccer’s under-23 men’s team failed to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan (the women’s team qualified last year).

Unlike the women’s game, the men’s Olympic tournament is an under-23 competition (technically under-24 this time after the Olympics were postponed one year due COVID-19). Because the men’s competition is considered a youth tournament, FIFA does not require clubs to release their players for international duty (for qualifying or the tournament).

For that reason, many of the best U-23 players in the world don’t participate in the Olympics and many countries don’t take soccer seriously at the tournament. It’s not anything close to the World Cup.

Americans love the Olympics, though, and we gather together every four years to watch sports we otherwise don’t care about. Evan casual American sports fans would have tuned in if the USA’s U-23 soccer team reached the semifinal or final at the Olympics — it’s another chance to win gold!

The USMNT won’t get a chance to grow its popularity during the Olympics this summer after they failed to qualify, but they could still build a strong U-23 roster for the Concacaf Nations League in June or the Gold Cup in July.

U.S. Soccer won’t be limited to 18-player rosters this summer, but I capped it at that just to demonstrate the Olympic-eligible core the USMNT has (teams can also bring three overage players to the Olympics). This squad won’t play in Tokyo, but they represent a promising future for the national team.

Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, and Weston McKennie all scored today, and U-S-A! U-S-A!

What a day for American soccer players.

Listen I know this isn’t a big deal to a lot of countries in the world, but occasionally as an American soccer fan you need to take a moment and realize the progress that’s been made, and how exciting a time this all is.

Today is one of those days. Three Americans — Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, and Weston McKennie — scored for top European clubs in their domestic leagues today. The clubs they play for — Chelsea, Dortmund, and Juventus — are all (in theory) in contention for their top flight title, and all playing in the Champions League.

All three of the players are 22 years old or younger.

This is WILD. We’ve never had anything like this ever happen before in this country, ever. We’ve had players make dents in Europe, to be sure, but at this age, at clubs of this caliber, scoring goals? All at once? No. Nothing like this. Nothing close to this.

Let’s start with Pulisic’s goal for Chelsea, a lovely tight finish after a late, gut-busting run to get in the six-yard box. Timo Werner is played in, Pulisic makes the run and gets across the defender to the near post, and slides with the finish.

On to McKennie, who came in as a sub in Juventus’ match against Torino, then got the tying goal in a comeback performance that saw his side prevail 2-1. Off a designed corner play, McKennie timed his run, got in behind, and finished coolly with his head.

Then, for the finale: Reyna. I mean, I don’t even know what to say about this goal. Kid’s 18 years old and he just did this against a Bundesliga side. Absolute bomb.

This is cool. This is very cool. The last time three Americans scored in top flights on the same day was 15 years ago, when Brian McBride, Gio’s dad Claudio Reyna, and Jermaine Jones did it. They weren’t all under 23 years old, however, and they weren’t playing for Champions League-caliber sides.

This is new, and exciting, and different. We can geek out a bit.

All 9 of Christian Pulisic’s goals for Chelsea, ranked

 

Weston McKennie wears ‘Justice for George’ armband during Bundesliga game

The American midfielder wore the armband showing support for George Floyd during a Bundesliga match.

American Weston McKennie was in Germany playing for Schalke in Bundesliga action on Saturday, but the 21-year-old midfielder used an armband to let fans know his thoughts were back in the United States.

McKennie wore an armband saying “Justice for George” during the match against Werder Bremen. George Floyd, a black man, was killed after a police officer in Minneapolis put his knee into his neck for over eight minutes, sparking outrage and protests across the country this week.

During the telecast, cameras zoomed in on McKennie at one point, at which point the armband was clearly visible.

You can see it here below:

American striker Jozy Altidore praised McKennie for the signal of support:

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