The biggest American story of the week did not come from the Champions League or one of Europe’s top five leagues.
Cavan Sullivan followed an excellent midweek performance with the best MLS game of his young career, scoring twice and adding an assist as Philadelphia demolished San Diego. The 16-year-old is no longer merely flashing unusual talent. He is consistently producing against senior competition, which makes his potential place in the first USMNT roster of the new cycle a legitimate discussion rather than wishful thinking.
There were encouraging developments among the established players as well. Christian Pulisic finally made his season debut for AC Milan and immediately helped change a game. Sergiño Dest scored his first Champions League goal for PSV, while Alex Freeman made his debut in the competition with 45 minutes at Borussia Dortmund. Malik Tillman added an assist in Germany and Yunus Musah continued his encouraging start at Milan.
The biggest concern came from Gianluca Busio, who assisted Venezia’s opening goal against Fiorentina but was forced off before halftime with a right hamstring injury. Weston McKennie also remains unavailable for Juventus.
Stock Watch
Up
- Cavan Sullivan
- Christian Pulisic
- Sergiño Dest
- Malik Tillman
- Yunus Musah
Mixed
- Ricardo Pepi
- Antonee Robinson
- Chris Richards
- Brenden Aaronson
- Cole Campbell
- Tim Weah
- Mark McKenzie
Concern
- Gianluca Busio
- Benjamin Cremaschi
Encouraging role developments: Alex Freeman, Tyler Adams, Johnny Cardoso, Bryan Reynolds
Up: Cavan Sullivan, Christian Pulisic, Sergiño Dest, Malik Tillman and Yunus Musah.
Sullivan is the obvious headliner after producing two assists Wednesday and then two goals and an “MLS assist” Sunday. Pulisic turned his first 45 competitive minutes of the season into an assist and three chances created. Dest scored in the Champions League, while Tillman set up Leverkusen’s late equalizer at Augsburg. Musah did not start for Milan this weekend, but his halftime introduction alongside Pulisic helped completely change a match Milan trailed 2-0.
Encouraging role developments: Alex Freeman, Tyler Adams, Johnny Cardoso and Bryan Reynolds.
Freeman followed his first La Liga start with his Champions League debut, playing the entire second half at left back against Dortmund. Adams started again for Bournemouth and nearly scored with a powerful second-half shot in the 2-2 draw against Brentford. Cardoso came off the bench as Atlético Madrid broke open a close match and beat Real Sociedad 3-0, while Reynolds continues to work his way into Rennes’ rotation.
Mixed: Ricardo Pepi, Antonee Robinson, Chris Richards, Brenden Aaronson, Cole Campbell and Tim Weah.
There are positives throughout this group. Pepi started PSV’s Champions League opener before rotating to the bench Sunday. Robinson helped Fulham earn an impressive clean sheet at Liverpool. Richards played another 90 Premier League minutes, Aaronson scored in the Carabao Cup at Chelsea and Campbell nearly scored against Bayern before an offside call wiped it away.
Weah continues to start every match and captain Marseille, which is an excellent reflection of his standing inside the club. The results have been considerably less encouraging, with Marseille losing three straight league games after its opening win.
Concern: Gianluca Busio
Busio had actually started well against Fiorentina, providing the assist for Venezia’s opening goal, before a right hamstring injury forced him off after 44 minutes. The severity remains to be determined.
Spotlight Players
Christian Pulisic, AC Milan
Pulisic finally got onto the field for Milan after spending the first three Serie A matches as an unused substitute while working his way back from the injury issues that followed the World Cup.
He entered at halftime Saturday with Milan trailing Lazio 2-0 and had an immediate effect. Ruben Amorim made three changes at the break, introducing Pulisic, Yunus Musah and Diego Moreira, and Milan suddenly looked like a different attacking team. The first half had been slow and disjointed. After halftime, Milan began moving the ball more quickly and getting more runners around the Lazio defense.
Pulisic generated a good look in the 57th minute when his shot from the edge of the box forced a save from the Lazio keeper.
The in the 65th minute he helped create the breakthrough, starting the sequence with a backheel before continuing his run into the penalty area and eventually controlling a poor pass in the box and clipping a cross toward the back post. Moreira met it with a difficult volley to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Two minutes later Moreira scored again to tie the game.
In the 79th minute Pulisic drove on a dribbling run from midfield into the box before laying the ball off to a teammate for a dangerous shot.
He finished the half without misplacing a pass and created three chances, the most of any player in the match despite playing only 45 minutes. A pretty emphatic response after beginning the season on the bench.
The Italian reaction reflected the impact. Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport both gave Pulisic a 7/10, behind only Moreira’s 8 among the Milan attackers. Musah also received a 7 from both papers, with the halftime substitutes clearly viewed as the players who changed the game.
It is still too early to determine exactly where Pulisic fits in Amorim’s preferred lineup. Milan has changed its attack and Pulisic missed most of the preseason, so there was legitimate reason to bring him along carefully rather than treating three games on the bench as a crisis.
Pulisic demonstrated why it was difficult to imagine him remaining outside the rotation for long. He gave Milan another player comfortable receiving between the lines, attacking the penalty area and making the final pass rather than simply circulating possession around the defense.
With an four-game international window just around the corner, it is a good sign Pulisic is healthy enough to play again, and his first 45 minutes looked nothing like a player who needed another month to rediscover his form.
Cavan Sullivan, Philadelphia Union
Just a few months ago it would have been a stretch to advocate for Sullivan to get a call into a USMNT camp as he was barely playing for Philadelphia. Over the past two months he has flipped that conversation on its head by playing like one of the best players in MLS. Now it’s a legitimate question if he deserves to start in one or more of the upcoming friendlies.
On Wednesday against Cincinnati, Sullivan played 75 minutes in Philadelphia’s 5-0 win and recorded two assists while creating five chances and completing three dribbles, both game highs. Cincinnati played most of the match with ten men, so there was some reason to discount the scale of the result. Sullivan still consistently found ways to exploit the extra space rather than merely disappearing into a team-wide rout.
Then came Sunday night in San Diego.
Sullivan opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time with a ridiculous backheel finish, redirecting Indiana Vassilev’s low cross off the far post and into the net.
The second goal showed something different. Sullivan received on the left side of the box in the 62nd minute, attacked from a difficult angle and drove the finish through goalkeeper Duran Ferree.
Five minutes later he helped create another, lifting a pass over the San Diego defense for Frankie Westfield, whose cutback found Bruno Damiani.
Two goals, another created. Another 5-0 Philadelphia win.
Sullivan now has five goals and six assists across his last seven MLS games. More importantly, the production is coming in different ways. He is not simply camping around the penalty area waiting for chances to fall to him. He is creating through combination play, beating players with his first touch and dribble, seeing passes early and increasingly making dangerous runs without the ball.
There still needs to be some perspective here.
Sullivan is 16 years old. Seven great MLS games do not mean he should immediately be penciled into the USMNT starting lineup, and Mauricio Pochettino has been understandably cautious about promoting young players simply because everyone is excited by their potential.
But he is doing everything he can to earn it with his play in the field.
The hype has existed for years.
Now the performances are starting to justify it.
Alex Freeman, Villarreal
Freeman’s Champions League debut did not come in an easy situation.
Villarreal went into halftime tied 0-0 at Borussia Dortmund before Iñigo Pérez turned to Freeman, asking the 22-year-old American to play the entire second half at left back rather than his more familiar position on the right.
By the end, Dortmund had won a chaotic half and the game 3-2.
While the end result wasn’t fantastic for Villarreal, the encouraging part was how comfortable Freeman looked participating at that level.
He played 45 minutes, created a chance and generally avoided the kind of technical mistakes that can make a young fullback look overwhelmed when the speed of a Champions League
game increases. More importantly, he handled the assignment while playing on the opposite side from his preferred position.
Freeman began Monday’s league match against Real Betis on the bench. Santiago Mouriño got the start at right back before Freeman replaced him in the 76th minute with Villarreal trailing 2-1. There was not much opportunity to change the game as Betis had taken control after halftime and Villarreal struggled to create meaningful chances despite chasing an equalizer.
Freeman barely played during Villarreal’s opening league games. He then received nearly half an hour against Alavés, made the first La Liga start of his career against Deportivo and now has Champions League minutes at Signal Iduna Park.
Freeman’s unusual physical profile has never been difficult to see. He is big enough to defend more physically than most fullbacks, fast enough to cover space and aggressive enough going forward to provide another runner on the outside. The World Cup demonstrated those traits could translate internationally.
The remaining question was whether a Champions League-level club would trust him enough to let him develop them against elite opposition.
Villarreal is starting to do that.
Freeman still needs to win a regular position rather than becoming a versatile defender used whenever the schedule requires rotation. But the difference between August and September is meaningful.
A few weeks ago we were waiting for him to get onto the field.
Now he is getting Champions League minutes.
Sergiño Dest, PSV
Dest continued his excellent start to the season in PSV’s first European test.
PSV opened its Champions League campaign Thursday against Shakhtar Donetsk and fell behind just before halftime. Three minutes into the second half, Dest equalized.
It was his first Champions League goal for PSV and another example of how unusual his attacking role can become when PSV has extended possession.
Dest may be listed as a right back, but he full license to get forward in the attack when PSV controls the ball. He can overlap down the sideline, carry inside into midfield or continue his run all the way into scoring positions. Shakhtar had to account for another attacker appearing from the defensive line, and this time Dest provided the finish himself.
He played the full 90 in the 1-1 draw and created another chance beyond the goal.
It wasn’t a spotless performance as Dest was also involved around the turnover that preceded Shakhtar’s first-half goal, a useful reminder that the same aggressiveness that makes him dangerous can occasionally leave PSV exposed when possession breaks down.
That tradeoff has followed Dest throughout his career.
A healthy Dest playing confidently is still one of the most distinctive players the US has.
Premier League
Tyler Adams, Bournemouth
Adams made another Premier League start as Bournemouth drew Brentford 2-2.
He started and played 81 minutes as Bournemouth generated 20 shots and probably did enough to win. Adams nearly scored himself with a powerful effort from outside the box that forced a save.
Adams was involved in a Bournemouth midfield that consistently won enough possession to keep Brentford defending and helped prevent the visitors from turning their limited possession into many real chances.
The frustrating part was the result. Bournemouth twice led and still failed to win.
For Adams, however, this looks like progress. The first couple of weeks were primarily about proving he could handle meaningful minutes after the World Cup. He now looks much closer to being a normal Premier League starter again.
Antonee Robinson, Fulham
This was easily Robinson’s most encouraging performance of the season.
Fulham went to Anfield after losing its first three league games and earned a 0-0 draw. The local assessment of Robinson was considerably more positive than it had been during the opening weeks.
Fulham-focused site Fulhamish praised the team’s defensive resilience and specifically noted that Robinson was caught out far less frequently than during the opening weeks. He also combined well down the left and had one of Fulham’s better first-half chances, getting onto a back-post header but sending it wide.
That is significant because Jedi’s early-season question has not really been physical form. Álvaro Arbeloa is asking the Fulham fullbacks to operate differently in possession, with more responsibility receiving and combining inside rather than simply using Robinson as an
overlapping runner. The first few games often left him in awkward locations when Fulham lost the ball.
Against Liverpool, those problems were much less obvious. After several weeks where the tactical fit looked uncomfortable, this was the first real evidence that he may be adjusting.
Chris Richards, Crystal Palace
Richards played another full match in Palace’s 3-2 loss to Ipswich.
The game was significantly altered by Axel Disasi’s red card, which forced Palace to defend with ten men before Ipswich eventually won it in the 90th minute. Richards finished with eight clearances, three interceptions and a last-man tackle without being credited with an error leading directly to a goal.
After a difficult first few weeks, this was closer to a normal Richards performance even if the team result was poor.
Zavier Gozo, Crystal Palace
Gozo is not yet playing enough to draw much from the individual performances, but his role continues moving in the correct direction.
He came off the bench for the final 17 minutes of Palace’s 3-0 League Cup win over Middlesbrough, then on Saturday he replaced Jørgen Strand Larsen in the 84th minute against Ipswich, giving him his second Premier League appearance.
It’s a positive sign that Pierre Sage is continuing to include him.
Brenden Aaronson, Leeds
Aaronson produced one of his better moments of the young season in the Carabao Cup, scoring shortly after halftime to give Leeds a 2-0 lead at Chelsea.
Unfortunately, everything collapsed immediately afterward as Chelsea responded with six goals in the final 40 minutes and won 6-3. Aaronson also missed a couple of good opportunities, so this was not a complete breakout performance.
LeedsUnited.news gave Aaronson a 6/10. The outlet praised his usual work rate and the finish, while noting that he continued to lose possession too easily.
Still, getting on the scoresheet against Chelsea is a needed positive after a disappointing opening stretch in league play.
La Liga
Johnny Cardoso, Atlético Madrid
Cardoso remained on the bench for Atlético’s Champions League loss at Liverpool, but received a more meaningful opportunity over the weekend.
He came on during the second half at Real Sociedad with the match still scoreless. Diego Simeone also introduced Koke and Jonathan David, and Atlético quickly took control before eventually winning 3-0.
Simeone specifically praised the impact of his substitutes afterward. That does not suddenly place Cardoso ahead of Morten Hjulmand or Pablo Barrios in the midfield hierarchy, but it is another incremental step after a slow start to the season.
Into the Calderón gave Cardoso a 5/10. Their assessment was basically that he was tidy without doing much to change the match, and they specifically noted a disappointing shot after he found an opportunity around the box.
The more interesting part of their evaluation was the depth-chart context.
Morten Hjulmand has arrived and Pablo Barrios is playing well. Cardoso remains a useful option, but right now he looks like midfield depth rather than somebody forcing his way into Diego Simeone’s first-choice group.
Serie A
Yunus Musah, AC Milan
Musah deserves some of the credit for Milan’s comeback at Lazio as well.
He entered alongside Pulisic and Moreira at halftime with Milan down 2-0, and the midfield immediately became more athletic and aggressive.
Musah helped create Milan’s equalizer in the 67th minute, winning back possession just outside the Lazio box and then sending in a dangerous cross that ultimately set up the strike.
He was composed on the ball throughout the half and did a better job finding some incisive, line-breaking passes.
The Italian papers liked him even more than the raw statistics did. Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport both gave Musah a 7/10, placing him alongside Pulisic and behind only two-goal Moreira among Milan’s best performers.
The early trend remains the same. Milan is asking Musah to contribute as an actual central midfielder rather than simply as a runner who happens to play in midfield and he has responded well. Hopefully he will be back in the fold for Pochettino at the end of the month.
Gianluca Busio, Venezia
Busio’s afternoon began well and ended badly.
The Venezia captain created the opening goal against Fiorentina, finding Akor Adams before the striker finished to give Venezia an early lead.
Then, shortly before halftime, Busio suffered a right hamstring injury and immediately had to leave the field.
He walked off but was visibly limping and required help from the medical staff. Further testing will determine the severity.
That is a frustrating development after an excellent start to the season.
Busio had established himself as Venezia’s captain and primary midfield organizer, exactly the type of expanded responsibility that could have pushed him back toward the national-team picture.
Hopefully the absence is brief.
Weston McKennie, Juventus
McKennie again missed Juventus’ weekend match because of the muscle problem that has interrupted the beginning of his season.
Luciano Spalletti described him as unlikely to be available before the Sassuolo match, continuing a frustrating stretch for a player who had started the opener.
At this point it’s looking unlikely he will be available for the US in September.
Bundesliga
Malik Tillman, Bayer Leverkusen
Tillman started the weekend on the bench at Augsburg but made his opportunity count.
Leverkusen trailed 2-1 late when Tillman helped create the equalizer, finding Patrik Schick for the 89th-minute goal that salvaged a point.
It was not his largest role of the season, but producing after entering from the bench is useful for a player trying to establish himself as an automatic starter at a Champions League club.
Noahkai Banks, Augsburg
Banks remained part of an Augsburg defense that entered the weekend unbeaten and sitting at the top of the Bundesliga.
Leverkusen eventually rescued the 2-2 draw, but Augsburg again looked perfectly comfortable competing with a more talented opponent.
Banks even contributed going forward late, setting up Mert Kömür for a stoppage-time shot that forced a save.
His international decision remains the obvious caveat, but the club résumé continues getting stronger.
Cole Campbell, Elversberg
Campbell came extremely close to another major moment.
Starting against Bayern Munich, he had one early attempt deflected behind before apparently scoring an equalizer shortly before halftime. Campbell beat Jonas Urbig from the left side of the box, only for VAR to rule the goal out for a narrow offside.
He was replaced at halftime and Elversberg eventually lost 2-1.
The disallowed goal still provided a glimpse of his potential.
A month ago the primary question was whether Campbell could get regular Bundesliga minutes.
Now he is starting against Bayern and nearly scoring.
Joe Scally, Borussia Mönchengladbach
Scally’s unlikely return to the Gladbach lineup has continued, although Saturday was miserable for nearly everyone wearing that shirt.
Freiburg won 5-0, with Gladbach reduced to ten men early in the second half. Scally remained on the field through the collapse and picked up a late yellow card.
The result was bad enough that Gladbach dismissed manager Eugen Polanski afterward.
Scally has at least gone from being pushed toward the exit to starting again.
What happens under the next coach is now the much larger question.
Mathias Albert, Borussia Dortmund
Albert remains tantalizingly close to Dortmund’s first-team rotation without actually breaking into it.
He was on the bench for both the Champions League win over Villarreal and Saturday’s 3-0 Bundesliga victory over Paderborn but did not enter either match. He was also unused in Dortmund’s previous league game at Hoffenheim. L
Being consistently selected for Dortmund’s first-team bench at 17 remains impressive.
Eventually, though, development requires playing.
Ligue 1
Folarin Balogun, Monaco
Balogun’s situation remains concerning, but it appears he is not simply frozen out.
Monaco-focused reporting indicated that Balogun returned to collective training after his proposed Everton transfer collapsed, but he still did not make the squad against Strasbourg.
The failed move and questions surrounding his knee obviously complicate the picture. So does the performance of the players currently available. Paris Brunner scored Monaco’s equalizer against Strasbourg.
Gio Reyna, Strasbourg
Reyna did not reproduce the goal-scoring performance from the previous weekend, but its still encouraging that he started again and went 80 minutes against a tougher opponent as Strasbourg drew 1-1 with Monaco
He didn’t have nearly the impact on the game he did in past weeks, struggling to find spots to attack as Monaco had more of the ball.
Strasbourg-area outlet Alsa’Sports/Direct Racing aggregates ratings from Direct Racing, L’Équipe and regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace. Reyna received 5, 4 and 4, for a 4.33 average, lowest among all Strasbourg starters. The outlet explicitly put him at the bottom of its rankings as Strasbourg’s attacking players struggled.
Still, establishing a consistent role is a good sign for Reyna, who has struggled to stay healthy and earn minutes in recent years.
The question is whether he can become a player his club expects to start every weekend.
Strasbourg increasingly looks like it does.
Tim Weah, Marseille
Weah started, played 90 minutes and wore the captain’s armband again in Marseille’s 1-0 loss at Rennes.
He put one shot on target but otherwise had limited attacking influence from right back as Marseille failed to score.
Marseille-focused outlet Le Phocéen still gave him a 3/10. It was specific in criticizing Weah’s choices in attack, his combinations on the right and his defensive positioning.
Most importantly, it implicated his positioning on Rennes’ winning goal, observing that Mousa Al-Tamari and his pace immediately caused problems. He eventually got behind Weah before heading the ball back across goal for Adrien Thomasson to finish.
Weah himself took responsibility afterward and acknowledged he needed to defend the play better.
The interesting split in his season remains unchanged. Individually, being entrusted with the captaincy and starting every match is excellent evidence of his standing with the coaching staff. Collectively, Marseille has now lost three consecutive league matches after its opening victory.
Mark McKenzie, Toulouse
McKenzie played the full match as Toulouse recovered from two goals down to draw Lorient 2-2.
McKenzie was not responsible for either Lorient goal and continues to start every week.
For a center back on the edge of the national-team rotation, sometimes the relevant development is simply stability.
Tanner Tessmann, Lyon
There is almost nothing to evaluate from Tessmann’s actual performance.
He entered Lyon’s 0-0 draw with Paris FC in the 87th minute.
The reduction in his role is concerning. Tessmann started both legs of Lyon’s Champions League playoff earlier this season. His Ligue 1 involvement has since shrunk to scattered late substitute appearances.
That is going in the wrong direction.
Tessmann has already shown he can handle meaningful European games.
Now he needs his club to actually give him some.
Bryan Reynolds, Rennes
Reynolds received his most meaningful league opportunity yet at Rennes, replacing Przemysław Frankowski in the 68th minute with Rennes leading Marseille 1-0 and helped close out the victory.
Twenty-two minutes is enough to show a change in his role without pretending he suddenly had a standout performance.
Earlier in the season Reynolds was getting two-minute cameos or staying on the bench.
Eredivisie
Ricardo Pepi, PSV
Pepi started the Champions League draw against Shakhtar and played 83 minutes, creating one chance but failing to score.
He then rotated to the bench against Sparta on Sunday before entering after an hour.
There is no reason to overreact to a little rotation during a three-game week, particularly when Pepi started the Champions League match.
Still, the next few weeks are worth watching.
VoetbalPrimeur gave him a 4.5/10 and called him almost invisible.
The more important criticism was about his involvement. Dutch coverage argued that he was too static and did not do enough to move Shakhtar’s center backs or make himself available during PSV’s buildup.
Pepi entered the season as PSV’s first-choice striker and started regularly during the opening stretch. Maintaining that status requires more than merely getting into scoring positions. He needs to convert enough of the chances PSV’s attack creates that Peter Bosz has no reason to reconsider the hierarchy.
For now, the job still looks like his.
Unlike last season, though, Pepi now has something meaningful to defend.