International players returning to business, imports from New York and Christian Pulisic’s language skills all play a role in the first USMNT Player Tracker of the new European season.

Each week we bring you news on the USMNT players playing in various leagues across Europe, and with the World Cup on home soil just around the corner, we’ll be following their performances every weekend.

Edition of the weekend

Pulisic scores, Antonee Robinson assists, Gio Reyna is on the bench and Weston McKennie’s Juventus career is revived – new season, familiar start for some of the USMNT’s key players in Europe.

We’ll cover the rest later, but let’s start in Turin, where McKennie experienced déjà vu as he once again successfully maintained his position.

As was the case last summer, Juve’s mood music in July and early August suggested that the Texan was superfluous at the Allianz Stadium as new coach Thiago Motta sought to reshape his midfield with new signings.

New faces have arrived in the form of Brazilian international Douglas Luiz and highly-rated French star Khephren Thuram, but despite wooing from Aston Villa and interest from MLS clubs, McKennie seemed determined to stay.

His contract would have expired next summer and McKennie had the better cards as he knew he could afford to choose the right move for him or actually stay and sign a pre-contract to join a new team as a free agent. Should he leave when his contract in Turin expires, Juventus will miss out on a transfer fee.

McKennie in training with Juventus (Daniele Badolato – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)

As he did last summer when he was ruled out of the club’s summer tour of the USA, he kept his cool and worked hard, earning him a contract extension that now runs until 2026.

When the club officially announced his contract extension, there was no enthusiastic interview with either the player or the manager, but Motta had already hinted at his changed attitude, albeit in lukewarm terms, before Juventus’ opening game of the Serie A season against Como last Monday.

“First of all, McKennie is a useful and functional player for our needs,” Motta said at a press conference.

McKennie was not on the pitch as a substitute and will be hoping for a few minutes of playing time in the club’s second game tonight against Verona, given the injury concerns surrounding fellow countrymen Timothy Weah and Thuram.

GO DEEPER

Weston McKennie exclusive: “Everyone doubted me… but look at me now”

Player of the weekend

The well-trodden path from Major League Soccer to Europe is as popular as ever. This time it is New York Red Bulls midfielder Bento Estrela who is on the verge of joining Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.

The 18-year-old, who has played for the USA at U17 level but is also eligible to play for Portugal, is expected to join the defending Primeira Liga champions on Monday.

Estrela signed a professional contract with the Red Bulls in 2021 at the age of 14 years and 364 days, making him the fourth youngest signing in MLS history after Freddy Adu, Emmanuel Ochoa and Gabriel Slonina.

Estrela in action for the New York Red Bulls’ second team (Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

He has not yet made his debut for Sandro Schwarz’s first team, but he is highly rated and the New York club has included a sell-on clause.

It will be exciting to see how Ruben Amorim, considered one of the most promising young managers on the continent, can shape the next phase of his career.

Quote of the weekend

In Milan, Yunus Musah vouched for the excellent language skills of his club and national team colleague Christian Pulisic.

“He actually speaks it a lot recently,” he said of the striker. “Although they may speak to him in English, he answers in Italian. He has learned a lot and the coaches have started speaking Italian to him.”

“Even though he spent a lot of time in America, he obviously hasn’t forgotten the language. Now I don’t even translate anything for him. Nothing.”

Pulisic obviously had a good teacher – Musah is fluent in Spanish and Italian.

Pulisic’s language skills improve (Piero Cruciatti/AFP via Getty Images)

Graphic of the week

From his fairytale breakthrough in the 2020 MLS Cup to an emotional second title in 2023: At 22, Aidan Morris had experienced all the successes of his career at Columbus, his boyhood club, in a flash. A sale to Middlesbrough in the summer was the just reward for his rapid development and clean midfield play.

This was reflected in his first three appearances in the Championship, where he was a reliable part of Boro’s backbone with four shots on goal and as many chances created in 239 minutes.

Perhaps surprisingly, he performed best on his only away match so far, a 1-0 defeat at Derby County.

He could hardly ask for a better teacher than manager Michael Carrick, with the US international hoping to lead his new club into the Premier League for the first time since the 2016/17 season.

Jeff Rueter

How did other US players fare?

Name: Christian Pulisic
Association: AC Milan
Position: midfield

The striker’s goal in Milan’s surprise 2-1 opening loss to Parma may have been in vain, but the close-range strike secured the USMNT star a small entry in the record books.

Pulisic has now scored goals in ten different seasons in Europe’s top five leagues and is the first American to score at least one goal in every season during that span.

Name: Gio Reyna
Association: Borussia Dortmund
Position: midfield

After an unsuccessful attempt to relaunch his career in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest last season, Reyna is now back at Dortmund. And although the German team has a new coach in Nuri Sahin, the young American’s first game went according to his usual script.

He came off the bench in the 81st minute but was overshadowed by another young attacker, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, who scored two goals to secure the win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Reyna is back in Dortmund (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)

Name: Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi
Association: PSV
Position: Midfielder/Striker

And to continue this week’s familiar theme, the duo were among the goalscorers again – one each – as defending champions PSV started in the form that helped them to a near-undefeated season last season.

They thrashed Almere City 7-1 and Tillman, who started, was impressive throughout. Pepi, as he did so often last season, had to make do with a place on the bench but he did what he does best and still made a lasting impression with a cameo in the second half.

Name: Chris Richards
Association: Crystal Palace
Position: Centre-back

Having to face the media after Palace lost their opening two games against London rivals, Richards could at least be optimistic about his prospects of playing time this season, given Palace have sold Joachim Andersen to Fulham and Marc Guehi could potentially leave before the transfer deadline amid ongoing interest from Newcastle.

Richards pursues Mohammed Kudus as Palace suffer defeat against West Ham (Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)

Name: Brenden Aaronson
Association: Leeds United
Position: midfield

The 23-year-old scored in Leeds’ 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday and has now scored twice in the West Yorkshire club’s first three games of the EFL Championship season.

What’s next?

A number of England-based USMNT players are in action this week in the Carabao Cup. The squad’s star player, Josh Sargent, and Norwich face Richards’ Crystal Palace on Tuesday (3 p.m. ET). Robinson and Fulham also travel to NFL icon Tom Brady’s Birmingham City, now in League One, on Tuesday (3 p.m., CBS Sports Network).

On Thursday, Real Betis and their USMNT midfielder Johnny Cardoso will play a Europa Conference League qualifier against Ukrainian first division club FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih (3:00 p.m., ESPN+).

Finally, Pulisic and Musah hope to help AC Milan get back on track in Serie A on Saturday when they face Lazio (2:45 p.m., Paramount+).

(Top photos: Getty Images)