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UCL update

McKennie and Pulisic start off Champions League campaigns with a bang

The Champions League had a great start for two young Americans as Weston McKennie picked up an assist for struggling Schalke and Pulisic scored a winner for Dortmund on his 20th birthday. In England, other Americans were in action in the Championship. 
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
September 18, 2018
10:20 AM
THE 2018/19 CHAMPIONS League opened with a bang for American players as Christian Pulisic scored a winner for Dortmund and Weston McKennie assisted for Schalke. It’s a tournament where American success stories are typically few and far between but Tuesday was an impressive step.

Pulisic’s winner


On his 20th birthday, Christian Pulisic was on the bench for Borussia Dortmund’s Group A Champions League game against Club Brugge – who had American goalkeeper Ethan Horvath on its bench.

With the game scoreless in the 69th minute, Dortmund manager Lucien Favre put the Hershey native into the game to bring offense. In the 85th minute, Pulisic delivered. Without question, there was a lot of luck involved in his goal but he still got into a dangerous position to take advantage of a lucky bounce.

It was his second Champions League goal.



Next up in the Champions League, Dortmund will host Monaco on October 3. In its game today, Monaco lost to Atletico Madrid 2-1.

McKennie’s assist


Dallas native Weston McKennie earned the start for Schalke in its Champions League opener against Porto.

Schalke have had a rough start to the Bundesliga losing its first three games and the Champions League offered an opportunity to get away from a poor month on the domestic from. In the game, Schalke struggled for offense but found the opener thanks to a very nice assist from Weston McKennie in the 64th minute who played his best game of the young season.



Unfortunately for Schalke, Porto equalized in the 75th minute and the game finished 1-1.

It doesn’t get any easier for Schalke which face Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga on Saturday. It returns to the Champions League on October 3 when it visits Lokomotiv Moscow which lost to Galatasaray 3-0 in its opener.


Americans in the Championship


There were plenty of Americans in action in the English Championship on Tuesday.

Cameron Carter-Vickers made his first start on his loan to Swansea but he could not do enough to prevent a 1-0 loss to Stoke City.

It was the battle of United States national team fullbacks as Wigan Athletic hosted Hull City. Antonee Robinson got the start at left back for Wigan and Eric Lichaj was at right back for Hull. Both went the distance and Wigan got the 2-1 win.

Robinson was extremely active in the game as he made 79 touches and completed 72% of his passes. He has had a strong start to the season and newly promoted Wigan moved into seventh place.

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