USMNT teammates Christin Pulisic and Yunus Musah had their first start together for AC Milan as they recovered from a pair of recent disappointments, while Weston McKennie and Tim Weah once tag-teamed in a losing effort for Juventus.
AC Milan 1 – 0 Hellas Verona
Starting together for the first time in the Rossoneri uniform, Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah put in solid performances to help their team ride an early goal by Rafael Leao to a much-needed victory over Hellas Verona.
Barely one week after last weekend’s 5-1 shellacking by city rivals Inter and four days after their disappointing home draw against Newcastle to open Champions League group-stage play, a victory over relative minnows Hellas was must in order to stop any potential early slump dead in its tracks.
While the win itself was unnecessarily narrow and generally unconvincing, the result will be a small boost and foundation upon which they can build in their ongoing breakneck schedule of games.
Stefano Pioli opted to hand Musah his first start, deploying him on the right side of a four-man midfield, essentially forming part of the wide link together with Pulisic.
In his 90 minutes, the 20 year-old midfielder had 67 total ball contacts, completed 87% of his 39 passes, forced a save with his lone shot, created one further chance, won three out of five tackles, eight out of 13 duels, and earned a yellow card.
His international teammate Pulisic also forced a save with his lone shot late in the second half, completed 20 out of 27 passes, completed one of his three attempted dribbles, drew two fouls, and also drew a yellow in the 76th minute, shortly before he was subbed out for Tommaso Pobega.
The lone goal of the game came after only eight minutes and was likely an early gut-punch to the visitors. Pulisic applied heavy pressure on a Hellas player near the midfield stripe to force desperate, low-chance attempt to slide the ball over to a nearby teammate. Olivier Giroud was able to get in the way and hit a one-touch, side-footed pass to initiate a run between the central defenders by Leao.
The Portuguese maestro stormed up the middle, shifted to his left to pull the opposing keeper’s momentum, then perfectly struck a low shot back to the lower right corner for the 1-0 lead.
This early strike could have sent the visitors into a downward spiral, but they recovered and nearly equalized at the 20-minute mark, when Michael Folorunsho’s header was barely saved by Rossoneri keeper Marco Sportiello.
Pulisic nearly willed a second goal for the hosts out of thin air with 19 minutes remaining, receiving the ball on the right flank, evading a trio of defenders as he surged and spun in the area, and forcing Lorenzo Montipo into fine, diving block.
With just over four minutes remaining, Musah broke free on the right and tried to power his tightly-angled shot past Motipo, but the keeper once again came up big with a nice block.
The result still leaves Milan in second place, three points behind their city rivals. They will be back on the field on Wednesday for a midweek visit south to Cagliari, then host Lazio three days later.
Sassuolo 4 – 2 Juventus
As per usual, Weston McKennie and Tim Weah formed the great American wingback tag-team for Juventus on Saturday, with the latter replacing the former at the hour mark in the humiliating loss by Juventus at Sassuolo.
In his hour on the field, McKennie had just 36 touches, although he only misplaced one of his 19 passes, while creating one chance and accurately striking three out of five long balls and crosses. After replacing his compatriot at the hour, Weah was similarly subdued, completing eight out of 10 passes, hitting both of his crosses on-target, but not posing any real threat to the opposing goal.
While the opening goal by Sassuolo’s Armand Laurienté in the 12th minute was a gift from Wojciech Szczesny, who bobbled a looping shot straight at his chest, Matias Vina returned the favor nine minutes later by turning a far-post cross towards McKennie into his own net to put the game on even terms.
Sassuolo legend Domenico Berardi restored the home lead in the 41st with a laser-focused blast from the edge of the area to the lower left, however Federico Chiesa threaded the needle with his shot in the narrow space between Alessio Cragno’s outstretched glove and the left post to seemingly secure at least a 2-2 draw for the Old Lady.
However a late collapse handed the result to the hosts. First Andrea Pinamonti headed in a poorly-blocked shot from Szczesny in the 82nd minute following a long attempt by Henrique, then Juve defender Federico Gatti gave the hosts another gift on behalf of his teammates, this time errantly deflecting a last-second free kick from Szczesny into an open net for the final 4-2 scoreline.
The result leaves Juventus in fourth following five games, and they will next host Lecce on Tuesday, before visiting the mighty Atalanta on the weekend.
Notes
Kristoffer Lund played the second half for Palermo on Friday night in their heartbreaking, narrow 1-0 loss at home against Cosenza. The recently-capped USMNT debutant subbed in at left back, completed 19 out of 21 passes, created one chance and won three out of four duels. While the promotion hopefuls had looked set to ride out an already disappointing scoreless with their visitors, an injury-time goal by Cosenza sealed the result.
Both Tanner Tessmann and Gianluca Busio started in Venezia’s three-man midfield as they earned a point in a scoreless draw at Brescia on Saturday. Busio played the full 90 minutes on the right side, taking two shots while setting up a pair of chances amidst his 78 ball contacts. Tessmann only played 67 minutes, subbing out three minutes after his first yellow card of the season. Apart from the infraction, he did complete more than 90% of his 33 passes, took three shots and set up one chance.
Andrija Novakovich started and played the first 53 minutes for Lecco on Saturday in their surprising scoreless draw at third-place Modena. The American took three shots and set up two chances, but was replaced early in the second half by Nicolo Buso, who had little impact after taking the field.
