Weston McKennie was the only American with reason to celebrate after the latest round of Champions League games, as a dismal week saw Christian Pulisic ignored, Gio Reyna and Cameron Carter-Vickers miss out, and several more on the losing end.
Most Yanks had a difficult second round of Champions League group-stage games, with James Sands seeing red in Rangers’ heavy loss at Napoli, and Gio Reyna’s promising return to Dortmund’s staring XI marred by a late Citeh come-back.
Matt Turner made his competitive debut for Arsenal in their road win in the Swiss capital while Henry Wingo and Ferencvaros overcame the odds to pull off a remarkable victory against their Turkish visitors.
Giovanni Reyna and Weston McKennie were the bright spots for Americans in the first round of Champions League group-stage action, with the BVB starlet notching two assists, and the Juventus midfielder providing his team’s only offensive output.
USMNT and Arsenal keeper contender Matt Turner found out the opponents for his best chance at playing time before heading to Qatar, with two games against PSV and Richard Ledezma being one of the overall highlights of the Europa League group stage.
Sam Vines and Royal Antwerp collapsed at home against their Turkish opposition Thursday, ending their European run and ensuring that no Americans will to play in the group stage of the Europa Conference League.
A remarkable draw for the UEFA Champions League saw the unlikely scenario of the ten participating Americans, nearly all of whom stand a strong chance to play, distributed across all eight groups in the competition.
Malik Tillman’s steal and assist were the key factor as Rangers beat PSV to reach the group stage, while Josh Cohen and Maccabi Haifa also overcame their Serbian opposition in dramatic fashion to earn a spot at the European adults’ table.
Sam Vines set up the late equalizing goal for Royal Antwerp on Thursday, as they did what was needed in the first leg of their Europa Conference League play-off to stay on equal footing heading back to Belgium.
Josh Cohen and Maccabi Haifa put themselves in pole position to advance past Red Star while the Yanks at Rangers still have everything to play for after their draw against PSV.
