Gregg Berhalter and his national team are currently based in Texas, preparing for their clash with Jamaica in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal, which will be held at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Thursday night.
AC Milan’s young midfielder Yunus Musah faced the press yesterday and spoke about his rookie season at the Italian Serie A giants as he settles into life in Italy. The 21-year-old New Yorker returned to Italy, where he spent many of his childhood years, after leaving La Liga side, Valencia last summer.
“It’s been an easy transition to play for the team because I’ve lived there before,” he said. “I already spoke the language, so that made it easier to settle down, to be able to speak to the manager right away, my teammates and everyone.”
Early into his Milan adventure, the US Soccer Young Player of the Year in 2022 feels that things are going well for him.
“I’m really happy with how the season’s been going with such a big team like this,” he continued. “I managed to play a lot of games in the beginning and in the Champions League against some top teams like PSG .”
“I got to play in La Liga a lot (94 games in three seasons), learning a lot from the manager and playing alongside big players. [Now] I’m recently coming on in the games. I’m enjoying myself in this debut season, working on and off the field to improve [and] I’m hoping that in the future I’m playing more.”
Still being very young, Musah has a lot of time to perfect his game with the opportunity to learn and grow. He is in the perfect place to do just that with the 19-times Serie A champions, and a team full of internationals. It is definitely a challenging team to break into and maintain a starting XI position.
“I feel like I’ve been through situations where I wasn’t playing as much, but I always felt like if I put my head down and worked and whenever I come on [I’m there to] help the manager out, help the team out. It helps us all that I’m able to play different positions as well, so when it’s time to fill different rolls I’m able to do that.”
“We have a strong squad [and] we have a lot of talented players in the middle, so there’s a lot of competition. We can’t all start and play so it’s hard for the manager to choose who plays. So yeah, I’m just ready whenever it’s my time.”
The 33-times capped American, who is already a two-time Nations League winner, also praised his club and international team mate, Christian Pulisic.
“I’m really happy with the way I see Christian playing at the moment,” he told the media. He’s scoring a lot of goals and affecting the play a lot in our team. I’d say he’s been our best attacking player this season. I’m really happy for him; he’s doing so well. And he’s happy there.”
“I see he’s enjoying it and he has been having one of his best seasons so yeah, I’m really happy to see a fellow American doing such things.”
The Americans will look to defend their Nations League title deep in the heart of Texas on Thursday evening. The two Italian-based team standouts will be hoping to enter the field of play together once again.
