There will be an all-American battle between Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie on Saturday evening at the Allianz Stadium when AC Milan take on Juventus.
Pulisic has been nothing short of a revelation for Milan since he joined from Chelsea last summer, seemingly rediscovering his confidence playing on the right side of the attack and scoring some very important goals.
He has 13 goals and eight assists in 45 appearances across all competitions for the Rossoneri which is above and beyond anything he managed to achieve at Chelsea. It seems Milan got a bargain, and they will build the attack of the future around him.
On Saturday in Turin, Pulisic will come up against someone he knows well in McKennie during Juve-Milan. Both players spoke on the ESPN FC channel about what it is like playing in Serie A.
“I was actually surprised by how difficult a lot of the games are in this league. I think it was a big test for me,” Pulisic said.
“I think a lot depends on the fact that I am given the opportunities here. I have had a lot of time on the pitch to show what I can do and sometimes I have been given a creative role and also a lot of freedom, which has been a huge part of getting that confidence back and growing it.”
McKennie was asked how long they have known each other, to which he replied: “We met in California together with 80 other players. I was sitting behind him. We also thought about how to celebrate goals and we became friends.
“He was afraid of the elevator and he accompanied me on the stairs. We have known each other for a long time and we are always been close. It’s crazy that we play in Italy for two rival teams.”
He has improved incrementally, step by step. The next step is to go from being a solid player to a very good (“great” seems to be a stretch, but is not out of the question) player. He needs to show up more in the games against great teams. He rarely plays poorly in these matches, but he also doesn’t impose himself. But then absolutely nobody on this current team is stepping up consistently in the matches against great teams. On the national team, he has been a big game player. His next step of improvement is to do it for Milan.