American Players Abroad

Julian Nagelsmann and first-place RB Leipzig will head to North Rhine-Westphalia to take on Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday.

Is Frank Lampard anti-American? Jesse Marsch appeared to make such claims last week, but now the Chelsea boss is hitting back at the accusations.

Marsch, who coaches RB Salzburg, laid some heavy accusations at his fellow coach on a recent podcast. The Wisconsin native essentially claimed Lampard had anti-American bias over his treatment of Christian Pulisic upon his arrival at Chelsea.

DORTMUND, Germany — Borussia Dortmund needed a 78th-minute penalty from Jadon Sancho and a stoppage-time goal from Erling Haaland to beat visitors Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 in their Champions League Group F match on Wednesday.

The Germans, who lost their opener to Lazio, controlled the game from the start but carved out few chances before Vyacheslav Karavaev inexplicably wrestled Thorgan Hazard to the ground for Sancho to score from the spot.

Haaland added a second in stoppage time with a powerful run.

Christian Pulisic put on a display of modern footballing excellence (handball!) in Chelsea’s 4-0 Champions League win over Krasnodar on Wednesday. Chelsea’s one-goal advantage was under siege when Pulisic entered the match in the 71st minute, but the American quickly smashed a shot into Alyaksandr Martynovich’s arm for a penalty, whiffed on an overhead kick, provided a hockey assist on Hakim Ziyech’s goal and finally scored one of his own. 

It was 19 minutes of pure Pulisic Ball. 

João Félix bagged a brace for Atletico Madrid as they survived a scare to complete a 3-2 Champions League Group A victory over Red Bull Salzburg and kick-start their European campaign at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium on Tuesday.

Marcos Llorente had put Atletico ahead in the first half, but goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mergim Berisha swung the fixture in the favour of the visitors early in the second half.

Juventus should not require a slap to wake up even if the atmosphere at grounds is soporific, coach Andrea Pirlo said after the Serie A champions stumbled to a 1-1 draw against Verona on Sunday.

Pirlo said he could understand players might be influenced by appearing in near-empty stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic but added that it was something they would have to adapt to.

Santiago Muñoz’s path to Real Madrid via Newcastle United is beginning! On Sunday, the very close namesake of the famous Goal! film series (Santiago Munez) logged his first Liga MX minutes with Santos Laguna during his side’s 2-1 win over Atlético San Luis. 

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester United remains winless at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season after it was held to a 0-0 draw by Chelsea on Saturday.

United, which had lost its opening two home games of the season, has seven points from five games and is in 15th place, while Chelsea is in sixth on nine points from six games.

There’s no doubt Saturday’s El Clásico was an unusual one. For starters, no fans were allowed in the Camp Nou, as Covid-19 precautions are still keeping stadiums empty. Then there was the fact neither side came into the match among LaLiga’s top two teams in the table, with Barcelona all the way in 10th and Real Madrid coming off two straight defeats. 

And perhaps most notably this side of the pond, for the first time ever, an American was playing in the match.

With a quick tweet of the ref’s whistle and a swift kick from Karim Benzema, 19-year-old Sergiño Dest made history. The fullback became the first American to play in El Clásico on Saturday, starting on the right flank of Barcelona’s defense alongside Gerard Piquè, lining up opposite of Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior.

Kickoff at Camp Nou makes this one .