2 Serie A giants, 4 USMNT starters: AC Milan-Juventus was a 'special moment for U.S. soccer'

Gregg Berhalter stood pitchside Sunday at one of soccer's great cathedrals, savoring what he called a "historic evening." He had never been to Milan's San Siro. A showdown between AC Milan and Juventus finally convinced him to make the nine-hour, transatlantic trek.

But Berhalter, the U.S. men's national team head coach, did not just come to see Italy's oldest rivalry. He came because four USMNT players took part in it.

He stood mere feet away from the famous field at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, some 45 minutes after all four Americans — Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah for Milan, Tim Weah and Weston McKennie for Juve — were named in starting lineups.

He listened to the booming pregame chants that, four decades ago, would hum through his family's TV in New Jersey. He'd watch Serie A games on Rai 1 as a kid, and “there was no Americans on the field then," he remembered. So, in an interview with CBS Sports, as his four players waited in the tunnel, he reflected on the significance of their presence.

“It’s a special moment for U.S. soccer," Berhalter said.

It hardly mattered that, over the coming 90 minutes, none of the four played particularly well in a 1-0 Juve win. It mattered to the players, of course — and especially to a crestfallen Pulisic, who was sacrificed for a center back in the 43rd minute after Malick Thiaw's red card reduced Milan to 10 men. But Berhalter saw the bigger picture that fans back home had heralded all week.

This, four starters in European soccer's game of the week, was yet another emblem of American progress.

Even Italians recognized it. Gazzetta Dello Sport sought out Berhalter for an interview. Its headline dubbed Sunday the "San Siro d'America." The league itself produced Harry Potter-themed graphics and videos, featuring the four Americans, to promote the match and commemorate the occasion.

They are not the first Americans to play on Europe's grandest stages, nor in Serie A. But never before have four USMNT stars stepped onto a stage of this size all at once. One short decade ago, Michael Bradley's solitary, trailblazing progress at Roma felt like the biggest story in American soccer. In recent years, his USMNT successors have migrated to Europe at unprecedented ages and rates.

That four of the best ended up at Milan and Juve is partially a coincidence. McKennie has been in Turin since 2020. Weah joined him this summer, as Musah and Pulisic both signed for Milan (from Valencia and Chelsea). For Pulisic, the move was, in a way, a step down from English Premier League. The EPL has become the preferred destination for most high-profile players, as Serie A and other European competitors have declined. In that sense, Sunday wasn't quite evidence that four USMNTers have reached club soccer's pinnacle.

But it was nonetheless momentous, and especially cool for longtime stateside followers of the sport, to see Pulisic and Musah standing shoulder-to-shoulder as pre-match pomp — replete with Serie A's classical anthem and a card mosaic — neared its climax.

It was unexplainably cool to see Musah throwing a shoulder into Weah, and Weah tackling Musah, and Weah setting up McKennie for one of the game's better chances.

Weah even registered an assist on the game's only goal, Manuel Locatelli's deflected strike in the 63rd minute.

And all of it was significant, because none of it was fluky. These were not one-off starts for fringe players. These were four established Americans, aged 20-25, dueling in a realm that once felt distant and foreign but no longer does.

There are now USMNT players scattered across Europe, at Champions League and Europa League clubs, in the Premier League and lesser-known top flights. That a few would meet head-to-head is no longer surprising nor a groundbreaking development.

But that four would meet at San Siro, representing clubs that have won a combined 55 Italian titles and nine European cups?

"To think about these two traditional clubs, and now to have four American players," Berhalter mused, " ... we’ve come a long way.”