Insight

Stars and stripes

The sight of American players gracing the Champions League stage has become the norm. But what kind of influence are they having on the European game?

WORDS Simon Hart

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

Read the full story
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To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

“You want to prove that when Americans enrol their kids in Soccer, there could be a great outcome”
By

Marsch’s career in Europe includes lessons gained as new Manchester United coach Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at Leipzig, prior to taking the Salzburg job. However, the first time he met the German was when he was applying for the top job at New York Red Bulls, when Gérard Houllier was also part of the interviewing team. “Ralf didn’t say a word; he let Gérard do all the talking. And I think, after about 30 or 45 minutes, he liked what he was hearing from me. So he took over the interview from Gérard and started challenging me about things like pressing. He could see that we had similar ideas about how to play the game. Once I got the job, and I really got into depth with him about how they tactically do things at Red Bull football… it’s a bit radical. Watching films and talking about things, working on the tactical board, my first reaction, was, ‘I don’t know if this can work!’ But the more I thought about it coming together, the more I started to fall in love with these ideas.”

Marsch, who until recently was head coach at Leipzig, can also point to influences from US college soccer that have shaped the way he works. At Princeton Tigers he played under future US national coach Bob Bradley; he later returned there as assistant coach for a year, in between head coaching roles with Montreal Impact (now CF Montréal) and that New York Red Bulls role. “One of the nice things about university is that with the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior system, it’s a natural leadership cycle. So you come in as a freshman – you don’t know anything, you’re an idiot – but by the time you’re the senior, you’re the boss, right?  

“It’s a cycle that breeds leadership. In professional football the cycle’s a little longer and there are maybe too many people. In Europe we maybe don’t do enough to encourage real leadership; trainers feel like they have to do everything, that that’s what a real leader is. Almost everywhere you go, the coaches will say, ‘Yeah, we have no real leaders.’ But I don’t think many coaches leave room for leadership – for their coaching staff or for their players – and thus they don’t really develop any leaders.”

Additionally, as assistant coach at Princeton, Marsch would look at and learn from other sports. “I used to go watch rowing practice at five in the morning; I used to watch squash training, fencing, basketball,” he explains. The rowers in particular provided a lesson he has transferred to football. “When you watch them train and compete, they go and they compete to total exhaustion – where they’re almost going to pass out in the boat. And I thought, ‘If I could get a football team to train at this level, to play at that level of commitment, what are the possibilities of what we can become?’ I have little phrases like ‘Empty the tank,’ and I talk about how to manage mental fatigue and push your body’s limits more and more and more. And I think that’s benefitted  a lot of the players that I’ve been able to coach.”

As for basketball, there was a lesson taken from the Princeton coach Mitch Henderson. “One of the things that Mitch challenged me on was that basketball is all about set plays, so they have very succinct tactics. And he asked me about set pieces like corner-kicks, free-kicks: ‘Why do you serve the same kind of balls? Why do you always have the same kind of movements? Why aren’t there enough variations?’ At first I tried to fight him on this topic. Then the more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘He’s right: why don’t we have more  deception and creativity?’”

There are other examples of American ideas in the Champions League. The Moneyball approach introduced at Liverpool under their owners, the Fenway Sports Group, has paid dividends in recent seasons. Chelsea, meanwhile, offer an example in Joe Edwards. One of Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coaches, he cites the importance of six weeks spent in the US in 2017, observing coaches at NFL and NBA clubs, notably the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. 

“The resounding point I came away with was that we’re working in a team sport and so are they, but they place more emphasis on individual development being an ongoing process,” he says. “I’d been part of an academy background where that’s the norm. Every kid in the academy has an individual programme because that is the sole purpose of the academy: to produce individuals. But when they cross the road into first-team environments and it’s about the team, and the result is everything, sometimes you get six months into the season and this player or that player has just been lost. A few key skills that would take their form from an OK level to a high level are not being worked on.” 

It is worth noting that, on his return to west London, Edwards took over the Chelsea U19s and led them to back-to-back UEFA Youth League finals. In an ever more global game, the American way is carrying ever more weight, it seems – on and off the pitch. 

Insight
Sprechen sie Deutsch?

How Jesse Marsch had to adapt to being an American in Austria

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a young coach cutting his teeth abroad is getting to grips with the language – and Jesse Marsch was no different. “When I made the move to Salzburg, it was the most nervous I had ever been in my career,” he says. “It was because I knew I was going to do everything in German. I was going to have to find a way to lead effectively in a second language that I was still only 40% fluent in, at best.” 

As a half-time team talk at Anfield vividly demonstrated, he was able to establish an effective middle ground. With Salzburg trailing 3-1 against Liverpool, the American employed his very best Gerglish to tell his side exactly what he thought of their first-half performance and how they were going to turn things round after the break. “Das ist ein Champions League spiel und wir müssen… get stuck in,” was one of the highlights (with a few expletives thrown in for good measure). 

The message got through: within 15 minutes Salzburg were level against the reigning champions – and were unfortunate to ultimately lose 4-3. 

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Insight

Stars and stripes

The sight of American players gracing the Champions League stage has become the norm. But what kind of influence are they having on the European game?

WORDS Simon Hart

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

Read the full story
Sign up now to get access to this and every premium feature on Champions Journal. You will also get access to member-only competitions and offers. And you get all of that completely free!
“You want to prove that when Americans enrol their kids in Soccer, there could be a great outcome”
By

Marsch’s career in Europe includes lessons gained as new Manchester United coach Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at Leipzig, prior to taking the Salzburg job. However, the first time he met the German was when he was applying for the top job at New York Red Bulls, when Gérard Houllier was also part of the interviewing team. “Ralf didn’t say a word; he let Gérard do all the talking. And I think, after about 30 or 45 minutes, he liked what he was hearing from me. So he took over the interview from Gérard and started challenging me about things like pressing. He could see that we had similar ideas about how to play the game. Once I got the job, and I really got into depth with him about how they tactically do things at Red Bull football… it’s a bit radical. Watching films and talking about things, working on the tactical board, my first reaction, was, ‘I don’t know if this can work!’ But the more I thought about it coming together, the more I started to fall in love with these ideas.”

Marsch, who until recently was head coach at Leipzig, can also point to influences from US college soccer that have shaped the way he works. At Princeton Tigers he played under future US national coach Bob Bradley; he later returned there as assistant coach for a year, in between head coaching roles with Montreal Impact (now CF Montréal) and that New York Red Bulls role. “One of the nice things about university is that with the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior system, it’s a natural leadership cycle. So you come in as a freshman – you don’t know anything, you’re an idiot – but by the time you’re the senior, you’re the boss, right?  

“It’s a cycle that breeds leadership. In professional football the cycle’s a little longer and there are maybe too many people. In Europe we maybe don’t do enough to encourage real leadership; trainers feel like they have to do everything, that that’s what a real leader is. Almost everywhere you go, the coaches will say, ‘Yeah, we have no real leaders.’ But I don’t think many coaches leave room for leadership – for their coaching staff or for their players – and thus they don’t really develop any leaders.”

Additionally, as assistant coach at Princeton, Marsch would look at and learn from other sports. “I used to go watch rowing practice at five in the morning; I used to watch squash training, fencing, basketball,” he explains. The rowers in particular provided a lesson he has transferred to football. “When you watch them train and compete, they go and they compete to total exhaustion – where they’re almost going to pass out in the boat. And I thought, ‘If I could get a football team to train at this level, to play at that level of commitment, what are the possibilities of what we can become?’ I have little phrases like ‘Empty the tank,’ and I talk about how to manage mental fatigue and push your body’s limits more and more and more. And I think that’s benefitted  a lot of the players that I’ve been able to coach.”

As for basketball, there was a lesson taken from the Princeton coach Mitch Henderson. “One of the things that Mitch challenged me on was that basketball is all about set plays, so they have very succinct tactics. And he asked me about set pieces like corner-kicks, free-kicks: ‘Why do you serve the same kind of balls? Why do you always have the same kind of movements? Why aren’t there enough variations?’ At first I tried to fight him on this topic. Then the more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘He’s right: why don’t we have more  deception and creativity?’”

There are other examples of American ideas in the Champions League. The Moneyball approach introduced at Liverpool under their owners, the Fenway Sports Group, has paid dividends in recent seasons. Chelsea, meanwhile, offer an example in Joe Edwards. One of Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coaches, he cites the importance of six weeks spent in the US in 2017, observing coaches at NFL and NBA clubs, notably the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. 

“The resounding point I came away with was that we’re working in a team sport and so are they, but they place more emphasis on individual development being an ongoing process,” he says. “I’d been part of an academy background where that’s the norm. Every kid in the academy has an individual programme because that is the sole purpose of the academy: to produce individuals. But when they cross the road into first-team environments and it’s about the team, and the result is everything, sometimes you get six months into the season and this player or that player has just been lost. A few key skills that would take their form from an OK level to a high level are not being worked on.” 

It is worth noting that, on his return to west London, Edwards took over the Chelsea U19s and led them to back-to-back UEFA Youth League finals. In an ever more global game, the American way is carrying ever more weight, it seems – on and off the pitch. 

Insight
Sprechen sie Deutsch?

How Jesse Marsch had to adapt to being an American in Austria

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a young coach cutting his teeth abroad is getting to grips with the language – and Jesse Marsch was no different. “When I made the move to Salzburg, it was the most nervous I had ever been in my career,” he says. “It was because I knew I was going to do everything in German. I was going to have to find a way to lead effectively in a second language that I was still only 40% fluent in, at best.” 

As a half-time team talk at Anfield vividly demonstrated, he was able to establish an effective middle ground. With Salzburg trailing 3-1 against Liverpool, the American employed his very best Gerglish to tell his side exactly what he thought of their first-half performance and how they were going to turn things round after the break. “Das ist ein Champions League spiel und wir müssen… get stuck in,” was one of the highlights (with a few expletives thrown in for good measure). 

The message got through: within 15 minutes Salzburg were level against the reigning champions – and were unfortunate to ultimately lose 4-3. 

Insight

Stars and stripes

The sight of American players gracing the Champions League stage has become the norm. But what kind of influence are they having on the European game?

WORDS Simon Hart

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

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To young Americans, it must sound like ancient history to hear there was a time when the only way for a soccer-mad youngster to watch elite European football was via VHS tapes. But that is precisely how John Harkes – the first American to play in a Wembley final, for a victorious Sheffield Wednesday side against Manchester United in the English League Cup 30 years ago – would get his football fix. From his home in New Jersey, he’d watch recordings of Liverpool’s great team of the 1980s. 

Back in the present, fans of football Stateside only have to turn on CBS’s Champions League coverage to find examples of the American dream in action. Last season they saw Chelsea’s Christian Pulišić become the first American to appear in and win a Champions League final; on the Manchester City bench that night was Zack Steffen, the US international goalkeeper. 

A quarter of a century since Jovan Kirovski became the first American to play in the Champions League group stage, with two substitute appearances for Borussia Dortmund, the footprint of US footballers in Europe is growing fast. This season the trend has continued, starting on Champions League Matchday 1 when Jordan Siebatcheu hit Young Boys’ added-time winner against Manchester United on his group stage debut. Aside from Siebatcheu, eight other Americans have tasted action in the 2021/22 group stage: Brenden Aaronson (Salzburg), Tyler Adams (Leipzig), John Brooks (Wolfsburg), Sergiño Dest (Barcelona), Weston McKennie (Juventus), Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), Timothy Weah (LOSC) and Pulišić.

A far cry from Harkes’ day, when he and the rest of the US squad travelled to Europe to gain experience with a series of friendlies against European clubs ahead of Italia ’90. That included a game against Juventus, where the aforementioned McKennie is starring in the Juventus midfield. Adams, his fellow national-team midfielder, articulates the potential knock-on effect as he recalls the impact of seeing a then 17-year-old Pulišić playing for Dortmund. 

“A lot of times in the past we’ve had talented players but they weren’t necessarily playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world,” he says. “This goes back to when Pulišić broke onto the scene for Dortmund. He started to give people the idea that we can take chances on Americans, because they’re proving that they can handle the biggest stages in the world. 

“Now, more than ever, we have so many talented players. Never have we had that before, where you can say, ‘Wow, I’m going to turn on the TV and there are going to be so many players playing for the biggest teams in the world in these huge games.’ In that sense we’re the nucleus now, going forward. There’s a high expectation that comes with that because you want to prove to so many Americans that when they enrol their kids in playing football and soccer, there could be a great outcome to that.”

As a boy, Adams had a poster of Thierry Henry on his bedroom wall. Indeed, he was the New York Red Bulls ballboy who gave the Frenchman the ball before he scored direct from a corner against Columbus Crew in 2012. If that was Henry bringing some late-career lustre to the MLS, just as Champions League stalwarts such as Andrea Pirlo, David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimović have done, the flow of talent in the other direction is becoming ever more significant. 

And that doesn’t just apply to players: consider manager Jesse Marsch, who in 2019 became the first American to coach in the Champions League, with Salzburg. “The thing I said at the time was, ‘That’s great, but the best way to honour that opportunity is to work as hard as I possibly can and do everything to make sure that the team is prepared for the biggest moments.’ We were eyeing the best opponents in the world and thinking about what those games would require, and how we would push our level every day to achieve that so that we were fully prepared.”

“You want to prove that when Americans enrol their kids in Soccer, there could be a great outcome”
By

Marsch’s career in Europe includes lessons gained as new Manchester United coach Ralf Rangnick’s assistant at Leipzig, prior to taking the Salzburg job. However, the first time he met the German was when he was applying for the top job at New York Red Bulls, when Gérard Houllier was also part of the interviewing team. “Ralf didn’t say a word; he let Gérard do all the talking. And I think, after about 30 or 45 minutes, he liked what he was hearing from me. So he took over the interview from Gérard and started challenging me about things like pressing. He could see that we had similar ideas about how to play the game. Once I got the job, and I really got into depth with him about how they tactically do things at Red Bull football… it’s a bit radical. Watching films and talking about things, working on the tactical board, my first reaction, was, ‘I don’t know if this can work!’ But the more I thought about it coming together, the more I started to fall in love with these ideas.”

Marsch, who until recently was head coach at Leipzig, can also point to influences from US college soccer that have shaped the way he works. At Princeton Tigers he played under future US national coach Bob Bradley; he later returned there as assistant coach for a year, in between head coaching roles with Montreal Impact (now CF Montréal) and that New York Red Bulls role. “One of the nice things about university is that with the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior system, it’s a natural leadership cycle. So you come in as a freshman – you don’t know anything, you’re an idiot – but by the time you’re the senior, you’re the boss, right?  

“It’s a cycle that breeds leadership. In professional football the cycle’s a little longer and there are maybe too many people. In Europe we maybe don’t do enough to encourage real leadership; trainers feel like they have to do everything, that that’s what a real leader is. Almost everywhere you go, the coaches will say, ‘Yeah, we have no real leaders.’ But I don’t think many coaches leave room for leadership – for their coaching staff or for their players – and thus they don’t really develop any leaders.”

Additionally, as assistant coach at Princeton, Marsch would look at and learn from other sports. “I used to go watch rowing practice at five in the morning; I used to watch squash training, fencing, basketball,” he explains. The rowers in particular provided a lesson he has transferred to football. “When you watch them train and compete, they go and they compete to total exhaustion – where they’re almost going to pass out in the boat. And I thought, ‘If I could get a football team to train at this level, to play at that level of commitment, what are the possibilities of what we can become?’ I have little phrases like ‘Empty the tank,’ and I talk about how to manage mental fatigue and push your body’s limits more and more and more. And I think that’s benefitted  a lot of the players that I’ve been able to coach.”

As for basketball, there was a lesson taken from the Princeton coach Mitch Henderson. “One of the things that Mitch challenged me on was that basketball is all about set plays, so they have very succinct tactics. And he asked me about set pieces like corner-kicks, free-kicks: ‘Why do you serve the same kind of balls? Why do you always have the same kind of movements? Why aren’t there enough variations?’ At first I tried to fight him on this topic. Then the more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘He’s right: why don’t we have more  deception and creativity?’”

There are other examples of American ideas in the Champions League. The Moneyball approach introduced at Liverpool under their owners, the Fenway Sports Group, has paid dividends in recent seasons. Chelsea, meanwhile, offer an example in Joe Edwards. One of Thomas Tuchel’s assistant coaches, he cites the importance of six weeks spent in the US in 2017, observing coaches at NFL and NBA clubs, notably the San Antonio Spurs basketball team. 

“The resounding point I came away with was that we’re working in a team sport and so are they, but they place more emphasis on individual development being an ongoing process,” he says. “I’d been part of an academy background where that’s the norm. Every kid in the academy has an individual programme because that is the sole purpose of the academy: to produce individuals. But when they cross the road into first-team environments and it’s about the team, and the result is everything, sometimes you get six months into the season and this player or that player has just been lost. A few key skills that would take their form from an OK level to a high level are not being worked on.” 

It is worth noting that, on his return to west London, Edwards took over the Chelsea U19s and led them to back-to-back UEFA Youth League finals. In an ever more global game, the American way is carrying ever more weight, it seems – on and off the pitch. 

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How Jesse Marsch had to adapt to being an American in Austria

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a young coach cutting his teeth abroad is getting to grips with the language – and Jesse Marsch was no different. “When I made the move to Salzburg, it was the most nervous I had ever been in my career,” he says. “It was because I knew I was going to do everything in German. I was going to have to find a way to lead effectively in a second language that I was still only 40% fluent in, at best.” 

As a half-time team talk at Anfield vividly demonstrated, he was able to establish an effective middle ground. With Salzburg trailing 3-1 against Liverpool, the American employed his very best Gerglish to tell his side exactly what he thought of their first-half performance and how they were going to turn things round after the break. “Das ist ein Champions League spiel und wir müssen… get stuck in,” was one of the highlights (with a few expletives thrown in for good measure). 

The message got through: within 15 minutes Salzburg were level against the reigning champions – and were unfortunate to ultimately lose 4-3. 

Insight
Sprechen sie Deutsch?

How Jesse Marsch had to adapt to being an American in Austria

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a young coach cutting his teeth abroad is getting to grips with the language – and Jesse Marsch was no different. “When I made the move to Salzburg, it was the most nervous I had ever been in my career,” he says. “It was because I knew I was going to do everything in German. I was going to have to find a way to lead effectively in a second language that I was still only 40% fluent in, at best.” 

As a half-time team talk at Anfield vividly demonstrated, he was able to establish an effective middle ground. With Salzburg trailing 3-1 against Liverpool, the American employed his very best Gerglish to tell his side exactly what he thought of their first-half performance and how they were going to turn things round after the break. “Das ist ein Champions League spiel und wir müssen… get stuck in,” was one of the highlights (with a few expletives thrown in for good measure). 

The message got through: within 15 minutes Salzburg were level against the reigning champions – and were unfortunate to ultimately lose 4-3. 

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