20230809 American States United

Congrats to Christian Pulisic for scoring his first goal in an AC Milan shirt Tuesday — a follow-up off a saved pen (WATCH). Granted, it’s a preseason goal, but it’s never a bad idea to check these boxes early in order to ease the pressure one faces once the games start counting. 🇺🇸✅⚽️

Turner Sees the (Nottingham) Forest Through the Trees:

There’s a beautiful moment from Arsenal’s Community Shield shootout win over Manchester City on Sunday that’s garnering shares on social media. It’s a video that captures the exact moment the winning penalty is scored by the Gunners, and focuses on victorious goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s response. In the video, Rambo celebrates for a beat, but then moves purposefully across the pitch, avoiding the throngs of onrushing teammates who are looking to congratulate him, in order to seek out one player in particular to celebrate the moment with: Matt Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (29; Park Ridge, NJ). You can watch it here.

Within that moment, Ramsdale knew Turner was leaving Arsenal for Nottingham Forest — a move that has since been completed — so to be able to send out his close teammate with a trophy lift obviously meant quite a bit to the Arsenal No. 1. But watch the video closely, and you’ll see something more; there’s a look of genuine friendship on both of their faces as they embrace. Not always the case between two players competing for the same starting role, especially two players as ambitious and driven as Turner and Ramsdale. But certainly the case here.

Which speaks to the kind of high-character person Turner is. (Very much Ramsdale as well, but this being American States United, we’ll choose to focus on the footballer from this side of the pond.)

One thing we've learned about Matt Turner from watching him and speaking with him over the last 18 months here at MiB (WATCH HERE) is that this is a gent who is not afraid of challenge and competition. He craves it. A player who didn't start playing football until 16 years of age and was continually overlooked, yet managed to climb the goalkeeping ranks from the bench at Fairfield University up to a starting role with the New England Revolution, before moving on to the mighty Arsenal, the club he grew up rooting for from afar in New Jersey.

Yet even then, after making his dream move to Arsenal, he admitted to us just how badly he ached for Premier League minutes. Some predicament. To be caught between playing for the club you dreamed of playing for as a kid. A dream that must have felt as far-fetched as yours or mine. But making that dream come true, only to realize that to secure the US No.1 spot he had to leave to find regular playing time. Hence the move to Nottingham Forest.

Matt is a beautiful gent. A really noble soul. We cannot wait to see what he does with this opportunity. We know he will throw everything he has at it. All hail, Bergen County Buffon.

More: Matt Turner's first interview after signing with Nottingham Forest

USMNT Overseas Support Network:

Waiting for Turner’s arrival at Nottingham Forest is none other than USMNT teammate and fellow goalkeeper Ethan Horvath 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (28; Highlands Ranch, CO). While Horvath spent last season on loan with Luton Town, he’s back at the City Ground for now, having started against PSV in the preseason.

In a quirky but cool phenomenon, Turner and Horvath now join a surprisingly robust list of American duos overseas, becoming the latest pair of Americans to use the Buddy System this season in Europe’s top leagues.

A quick scan of U.S. duos looks like this:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson at Fulham

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ethan Horvath and Matt Turner at Nottingham Forest

🇩🇪 Brenden Aaronson and Jordan Pefok at Union Berlin

🇮🇹 Yunus Musah and Christian Pulisic at AC Milan

🇮🇹 Weston McKennie and Tim Weah at Juventus

🇳🇱 Ricardo Pepi and Malik Tillman* at PSV

(* - Tillman to PSV not yet completed, but all reports are pointing to him signing a long term deal with Bayern, and then going out on loan to the Dutch side with an option to buy.)

Americans Abroad Transfer Updates:

With Turner’s Forest move completed, the number of Americans still on the European transfer market continues to drop, yet there are certainly still a few key names remaining.

AS Monaco have joined Inter Milan in pursuit of Folarin Balogun 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (22; London, ENG), with the French club reportedly readying another bid for the U.S. striker after having their initial offer rejected by Arsenal. Looking like a dogfight between these two clubs.

According to Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea are actively working on a deal for Tyler Adams 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (24; Wappingers Falls, NY). The West London club is prepared to trigger his relegation release clause, and personal terms are already being discussed. Not giving us Pulisic flashbacks or anything. Not at all. 😵‍💫

Fab is also reporting that Chelsea goalkeeper Gaga Slonina 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (19; Addison, IL) will go out on loan to Belgian side KAS Eupen … Konrad de la Fuente 🇪🇸 (22; Miami, FL) has completed a loan move to Spanish second-tier side Eibar from Olympique Marseille … Reggie Cannon (25; Grapevine, TX) is rumored to be drawing the interest of FC Köln and Rayo Vallecano after leaving Portuguese side Boavista over unpaid wages … Sergino Dest 🇪🇸 (22; Almere, NED) is sadly still in limbo with Barcelona, though reports out of Spain are stating that he’s drawing interest from MLS. Worth watching: Dest sat down with CBS Sports Golazo to discuss what’s next for him.

News and Notes:

• Recently recovered from offseason knee surgery, Cameron Carter-Vickers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (25; Southend-on-Sea, ENG) started and played the full 90 in Celtic’s season-opening 4-2 win over Ross County.

• Josh Sargent 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (23; O’Fallon, MO) got the start and played the entire match up top for Norwich City in their season-opener as well, a 2-1 win over Hull City.

• Duane Holmes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (28; Columbus, GA) is off to a very fast start with new club Preston North End. After getting the assist in their league-opener — a 1-1 draw with Bristol City — he had a goal (WATCH) and an assist in their League Cup match against Salford City, a 2-2 draw that saw Preston exit the competition on penalties.

• Hajduk Split’s Rokas Pukstas 🇭🇷 (18; Stillwater, OK) has suffered a knee injury, with some saying he’s out for two months while others have called the injury “minor”.

• Bryan Reynolds 🇧🇪 (22; Fort Worth, TX) has signed a four-year deal with Westerlo in Belgium, and started their second league match of the season Sunday, a 1-0 loss to Club Brugge.

Parting Shots:

Haji Wright 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (25; Los Angeles, CA) completed his move to Coventry City on Friday, then promptly came off the bench for the Sky Blues on Sunday in their Championship season-opener. Wright nearly had a goal in his debut (WATCH), which saw him realize his dream of playing English football. "Moving to England played a massive part (in the move),” Wright said in an interview with the club website. “It’s always been one of my dreams to play in England and I know how competitive the Championship is and we have a lot of ambition to hopefully go up one day, so I’m excited to join the Club." 🙌