Puli Gets His Own Italian Sandwhich 🇮🇹; Wes & Weah Win Coppa Italia 🇮🇹

It has already been a season of Milanese wonder and magic for Christian Pulisic 🇮🇹. But coming out of last weekend, it is also now one of red-and-black history.

Puli bagged a brace in Milan’s 5-1 win over Cagliari on Saturday, his first multi-goal game ever in Serie A (Watch both goals). The two goals put Pulisic on 11 for the season, which makes him the first Rossoneri midfielder to hit double digits since Ballon d’Or winner Kaka scored 10 times in 2005-06.

They were also the first two goals CP11 ever scored as “Christian Harlow,” as he donned a special shirt as a show of appreciation, not to good friend Jack, but rather to his mother, Kelley Pulisic (née Harlow). 

After the game, Milan manager Stefano Pioli shared his perspective on how the 25-year-old from Hershey, Pa. has gotten off to a flying start in Serie A.

🗣 “Christian is a great pro and a great player due to his quality, his decision making, intensity and how he trains. It's impossible to play to your full potential in a first year of Italian football, but he's done well.”

Maximum Puli-ocity has been maintained since Cagliari, as the USMNT star was alternately: swarmed by autograph-seeking fans at a mall, getting massive shouts-out from the one and only Jürgen Klopp, and having roast beef sandwiches named after him by Italian eateries. Certainly the most perfect of off-the-pitch hat tricks ever achieved by an American Abroad. ✍️👓🥪

The only downside to Puli’s week? That he’ll have to say farewell to beloved teammate, and erstwhile Beard Daddy, Olivier Giroud, who’s off to LAFC at the end of this season. 

“Lucky to have graced the pitch with this guy,” Pulisic posted to Instagram in appreciation of his Milan and Chelsea teammate. Which is how most of us feel, getting the chance to watch Keystone Kaka barnstorm across Italian pitches week in and week out. Lucky.

🚨BREAKING: Wes and Weah Win Coppa Italia With Juve 🚨

Juventus did what Liverpool could not. Knock Atalanta out of a cup competition. And in a final, no less.

Weston McKennie 🇮🇹 (25; Little Elm, TX) got the start, and Tim Weah 🇮🇹 (24; Rosedale, NY) was an 81st-minute sub, in Juventus’ 1-0 win over Atalanta in Wednesday’s Coppa Italia championship match. McKennie — a.k.a. Juve’s “Creator in Chief” — had a hockey assist on what wound up being the match-winner (Watch), and finished the competition as assists leader, with three. The two then hoisted hardware, before sharing a post-match singalong.

Quite a night for these two USMNT-ers — and American football overall — in the Stadio Olimpico. Never take these days for granted, our national team players triumphing in the most storied domestic cup competitions on the continent.

Real-Life Ted Lasso Gets His Canadian Bacon On:

It still remains to be seen whether this one winds up being more John Candy or Nick Mohammed. But whatever the end result of this stirring CONCACAF plot twist, Copa America 2024 just got a whole lot spicier.

After being heavily linked to the lead role with South Korea — not to mention the USMNT job before that — former Leeds boss Jesse Marsch came flying in from the top rope on Monday and was announced as the new head coach of the Canadian Men’s National Team. Or rather, the “MLS Canada Men’s National Team Coach.” 🙄 (MLS going to win the World Cup one way or another, damnit.)

With managerial experience at Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull Leipzig, and then-Premier League side Leeds, many U.S. fans were hoping the personable 50-year-old would take the wheel after the USMNT’s controversy-laden 2022 World Cup left the position temporarily up for grabs. Yet Gregg Berhalter was “rehired” for the role, leaving one of America’s most experienced European club managers on the outside looking in.

Fast forward 11 months, and Racine, Wisconsin’s finest has turned up as an international coach after all, and with a talented, World Cup-tested squad that includes European club stars Alphonso Davies (Bayern), Jonathan David (Lille), and Tajon Buchanan (Inter Milan).

Either way, it’s great to see a member of the Bob Bradley Coaching Tree in charge of one of the 2026 World Cup hosts, even if it wasn’t the nation most expected.

News and Notes:

• First round of Stroopwafels on us. PSV announced on Friday that they have made Malik Tillman’s (21; Nürnberg, GER) loan move permanent. The soon-to-be-erstwhile Bayern loanee has nine goals and 11 assists so far this season, his first with the Eindhoven side. 🙌

• Sergiño Dest 🇳🇱 (23; Almere, NED) took to social media to announce that his ACL surgery “went well,” news that comes on the heels of PSV announcing that they would not make his loan move from Barcelona permanent due to the knee injury suffered in April. Yet there have been recent reports from Dutch media that PSV may still try to buy Dest’s rights, just for less than the $10.9 million buy option currently in place. 👀

• A potential replacement for Dest at right back in this summer’s Copa America, Joe Scally 🇩🇪 (21; Lake Grove, NY) tallied his fourth assist of the season for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Foals’ 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday (Watch). Encouraging sign ahead of this summer’s Copa America.

• With his loan spell at Nottingham Forest coming to a close on Sunday, ESPN took an in-depth look at why Gio Reyna’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (21; Bedford, NY) move to the Premier League side did not go as planned, as well as what lies ahead for the skill-kissed USMNT attacker. Using sources at both Forest (“He is a lovely kid”) and Dortmund, the report is very much worth a read.

• Fresh off of being named Crystal Palace PFA Community Champion for the 2023-24 season, Chris Richards 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (24; Birmingham, AL) put together another strong outing in the Eagles’ 3-1 win at Wolves on Saturday.

• Coming on as an 81st-minute sub, Tyler Adams 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (25; Wappingers Falls, NY) saw his first game action since March 30 in Bournemouth’s 2-1 loss to Brentford on Saturday.

• Folarin Balogun 🇫🇷 (22; London, ENG) had an assist in Monaco’s 2-0 win at Montpellier on Sunday (Watch). The victory guaranteed that Balo and Les Rouge et Blanc will be playing Champions League football next season. 🙌

• Josh Sargent 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (24; O’Fallon, MO) had to sub off due to injury in the 84th-minute of Norwich City’s scoreless draw with Leeds in the first leg of their Championship Promotion Playoff, but manager David Wagner seemed optimistic about Sargent’s chances of playing in Thursday’s second leg. 🗣 “I hope and think he will be fine.”

• Congrats are in order for Niko Gioacchini 🇮🇹 (23; Kansas City, MO) and Como 1907, as I Lariani achieved promotion to the Italian top flight for the first time in 21 years on Friday, thanks to a 1-1 draw with Cosenza, along with third-place Venezia falling 2-1 at Spezia. Watch Rog’s toast to the Northern Italian side here. 🍺

• Big love to Dante Polvara 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (23; Pleasantville, NY), who scored his first-ever league goal (third in all comps) for Aberdeen in the Dons’ 4-0 win at Hibs on Sunday (Watch).

• After helping Celtic clinch their 12th title in 13 years on Wednesday, USMNT CB Cameron Carter-Vickers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (26; Southend-on-Sea, ENG) is reportedly drawing transfer interest from Turkey.

• Ein Prosit to Fabian Hürzeler 🇩🇪, as the 31-year-old manager born in Houston, Texas — and nicknamed “American Julian Nagelsmann” — led FC St. Pauli back to the Bundesliga after a 13-year absence on Sunday with a 3-1 win over VfL Osnabrück, after which delightful chaos ensued. 🍻

Parting Shots:

We wrap this ASU with a massive moment for teen striker Damion Downs 🇩🇪, as the 19-year-old born in Werneck, Germany to an American father and German mother scored a 93rd-minute winner for FC Köln in their 3-2 win over Brenden Aaronson and Union Berlin on Saturday (Watch). It was Downs’ second goal in his last 112 minutes of action, and the victory keeps the Billy Goats alive in the Bundesliga relegation scrap heading into Saturday’s final matchday of the season.