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Americans abroad

Americans abroad: Pulisic, Balogun, and Pepi stand out, while others struggle

ASN's Brian Sciaretta is here with his weekly column on Americans abroad, with a lot of ground to cover - both good and bad. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
December 10, 2025
7:05 AM

IT’S WEDNESDAY AND THAT means one thing here at ASN – a look at the world of Americans abroad with a weekly column. The past week has been mostly quiet with a lot of injuries, suspensions, limited minutes, and unused substitutions. There are always high points to distract from the bad, but overall, it has been a decidedly mixed season in Europe for Americans.

This past week was a good representation of that. Big goals from Ricardo Pepi and Folaring Balogun in the Champions League along with Christian Pulisic having a banner sub appearance and another solid outing from Chris Richards made for great headlines, but after that it was lackluster.

On the other hand, with it being December, we are now starting to hear transfer rumors.

 

Pulisic’s brace lifts AC Milan

 

Pulisic has scored a lot of goals and turned in big performances. A December game against a midtable opponent doesn’t make for a big stage, but it’s also the stage that defines great players. Great players are quality even when games are routine.

On Monday, Milan was trailing Torino 2-1in the 67th minute when Christian Pulisic entered the game. One minute after coming on, Pulisic equalized. Then 10 minutes later, he bagged a winner. He only began the game on the bench because he was feeling ill with flu-like symptoms earlier in the week.

This season, Pulisic now has seven goals and two assists in 446 minutes in Serie A.

It is probably a good thing that Pulisic is not playing European soccer in the run up to the World Cup. It limits the chances for him to be tired or injured heading into this tournament.

When just looking at his time on the field, he’s been dominating Serie A. It’s just the best American player doing his thing at an elite level for one of the world’s most historical teams.

 

Campbell on the move to Brugge?

 

It hasn’t been a good start to the season for Cole Campbell. He was rumored to be moving to Stuttgart in the summer, but the move never happened. He wasn’t earning minutes and Borussia Dortmund released him to play for the U.S. team at the U-20 World Cup where he never was able to get going. Since his return, he has not played for the first team and only occasionally was making the bench.

Now we have a report from HLN in Belgium, which says Campbell is on the verge of moving to Club Brugge which currently sits third in the Belgian First Division. This is likely due to the potential transfer of Christos Tzolis as Brugge is likely to receive very lucrative offers from top clubs for the Greek winger.



At this point, any move that gets Campbell on the field is a positive step. The hope is that Club Brugge has a plan for Campbell and rates him. But the U-20 World Cup showed Campbell needs work. The upside is there, and the fact he has elite speed is promising. But it’s up to Campbell to respond to the coaching he receives and learns from his time on the field. It is no guarantee that he will, but moving to Belgium is a needed step down.

Campbell needs to be careful. He was scouted at Brugge in recent weeks or months, but Club Brugge recently fired their coach last week and replaced him with Ivan Lecko. Does Lecko rate Campbell the same? No one has the answer to that yet.

For the U.S. team, Campbell is likely one of the players who will be in the pool for the 2028 Olympics and he participated in the U.S. U-21 camp in November – which will grow into the U-23 team for 2028.

 

Pepi’s quest for playing time

 

Ricardo Pepi continues to make life very hard for PSV manager Peter Bosz. Bosz likely prefers a variety of other options, and PSV has played well this season even without Pepi on the field. But Pepi continues to score at an impressive rate – which he has done ever since joining the club.

The former FC Dallas product had a great week which began on Saturday with a start against Heerenveen. PSV won the game and Pepi scored his fifth goal of the Eredivisie season in 511 minutes.

Then on Wednesday, Pepi scored his third goal in the Champions League this season when he came off the bench to pull one back in what was eventually a 3-2 loss to Atletico.  

Eventually, Bosz is going to have to decide whether to make Pepi the sole starter or sell him for a lot of money.

While Pepi didn’t feature much in his return to the USMNT in the November window, he might still beat out Balogun for the starting job on that team too. He has a lot of tools and ways to score. While Balogun is better at getting behind defensive lines, Pepi is more well-rounded and can score in the air.

 

Balogun scores in 3rd straight UCL game

 

On Tuesday, Folarin Balogun scored in his third straight Champions League game for Monaco when he was in the right place at the right time in a scramble following a 68th minute corner kick. That was enough to lift Monaco to a 1-0 win over Galatasaray.



Balogun sat out this weekend’s 1-0 loss to Brest in Ligue 1 with a minor knock but was able to go 86 minutes against Galatasaray. He limped off but the substitution looked precautionary.

It is shaping up as an interesting comparison between him and Pepi for the U.S. team. There is no doubt they are watching each other and feel pressure to continue to perform.

 

Banks impresses in Augsburg win

 

With an impressive 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen, Augsburg won for the second time in three games to climb two points out of the bottom three in the Bundesliga. Despite the recent managerial change, U.S. teenage central defender Noahkai Banks continued to start for Augsburg. Given his inexperience and young age, his leash is likely short with the interim manager.

Banks was shaky at the start of the game but grew into the match well and was very good in the second half.

Next weekend, Augsburg travels to face Eintracht Frankfurt in another tough match.

Do not count Banks out of making the 2026 World Cup team for the United States. Pochettino likes him and brought him into the squad in September. Since then Banks has only continued to play for Augsburg. It hasn’t always been great, but he’s learning very quickly.

If he continues to improve by February, he is in a good position to be the “surprise” pick of the World Cup roster. Regardless, he has a bright future with the United States.

 

The Bad News

 

You can divide the bad news for American players this past week between injuries and players who didn’t play well.

The injury list contained many of the usual suspects: Antonee Robinson, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Caleb Wiley, Damion Downs, Rokas Pukstas, Johnny Cardoso, Aidan Morris, -with Tanner Tessman (who missed Lyon’s 1-0 loss to Lorient) joining the list this week. Tyler Adams was suspended for Bournemouth’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea.

Cardoso managed to return to the bench for Atletico in Wednesday's Champions League win.

On the performance side, things weren’t much better.

Tim Weah did not have a good week. He was held invisible against his former club, Lille, in a 1-0 loss then in the Champions League on Tuesday, he was subbed out at the half of a 3-2 win over Union SG.

Malik Tillman did not do anything positive in 81 minutes for Bayer Leverkusen in its 2-0 loss to Augsburg.

Yunus Musah managed a cameo for Atalanta on Tuesday when he played the final two minutes of a 2-1 win over Chelsea in the Champions League. He was an unused substitute on Saturday in a 3-1 loss to Hallas Verona. Musah is a good example of why players need to be careful with the moves they make leading into a World Cup year. His lack of minutes will likely cost him a spot on the World Cup team given how well many other central midfielders are playing.

Auston Trusty started for Celtic in Wilfried Nancy’s debut as coach but Celtic lost 2-1 to surprising leaders Hearts to fall further into second place. Hearts was willing to have Trusty be the Celtic player with the most touches as he wasn’t threatening starting the team’s possessions. It is tough to gauge where he stands with Pochettino and the rise of Banks certainly makes him on the edge of the player pool for the national team.

Paderborn lost for the third straight game and has tumbled from first to fourth in the 2.Bundesliga. Recent U.S. U-21 midfielder Santiago Castaneda was benched for Paderborn and went as an unused sub.

John Tolkin and Holstein Kiel are only two points clear of the 2.Bundesliga relegation zone after a 1-1 draw with Eintracht Braunschweig. It is not a good situation for Tolkin and it highlights the dangers of joining a team in the relegation zone midway through the season, as he did last year with Holstien Kiel.

Josh Sargent broke his long scoreless skid for Norwich with a goal on Saturday in a 3-2 loss to Watford but was subbed out in the first half on Tuesday in a 1-1 draw with Sheffield United following an aerial challenge. Sargent needs to do whatever he can to get out of Norwich in January. This isn’t even an issue involving the U.S. national team. For his own sake, he’s beyond being a team sinking to relegation. But here is to hoping he doesn’t have another bad injury.

James Sands and St. Pauli fell further into the relegation zone following a 1-1 draw with Cologne (where Kristoffer Lund only played the final two minutes. Sands is only at St. Pauli on loan from NYCFC. It is hard to see that option being picked up if they go down.

 

Terrence Boyd retiring

 

Last week, Terrence Boyd announced he will retire at the end of the current 3.Liga season with Waldhof Mannheim. Interesting timing for Boyd to announce such a move has he has five goals in his last four games, including the winning goal on Saturday in a 2-1 victory over Saarbrucken. Waldhof Mannehim now sit seventh and are three points out of the promotional playoff.

Boyd, who turns 35 in February, never scored for the U.S. national team but he was one of the most likeable players in the USMNT pool a decade ago, before serious knee injuries setback his career.

Here’s to hoping he goes out playing great soccer in a promotion race.

 

Notes from Europe

 

Weston McKennie had a nice assist for Juventus in a 2-1 loss away to a very good Napoli team. Unfortunately, he also had an assist for Napoli in a mistake that led to the host’s winning goal. Aside from those two moments – good and bad - , it was a quiet game.

Still, McKennie remains in good physical shape and still brings difference making to the table. At some point, his constant up and down situation at Juventus is tiresome.

Brenden Aaronson played the final 25 minutes for Leeds United in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool and Leeds scored all three goals after he came into the game. It doesn’t always work out, but Aaronson’s energy can be contagious at times. Leeds is now two points clear of the relegation zone.

Chris Richards started and was once again quality in a 2-1 away win over Fulham. He is in the best spot for a defender right now, consistently good. He should win U.S. Soccer’s Male Player of the Year for 2025.

Haji Wright returned from injury on Tuesday when he started for Coventry in a 1-1 draw with Preston North End. It was a disappointing result for Coventry, but they still sit comfortably atop the Championship table. But it was welcome news to see Wright back.

In the Bundesliga, Borussia Monchengladbach continued their climb into the middle of the table (taking advantage of a run of games against weaker teams) with a 1-0 win over last-place Mainz. Gio Reyna made his first start of the season and played fairly well, but played 69 minutes. It was good for him to build up stamina and take another step forward. Joe Scally played the entire game on the right side of a back three and was strong. Both players are on the bubble of the USMNT right now, but this game was a small step forward for that.

Bryan Reynolds started, scored, and had a very good game for Westerlo in a 4-0 romp over Anderlecht. It was the best game Westerlo have had in a long time. On the other side, Griffin Yow only played the final few minutes and has been having a difficult first half of the season.  

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