What Christian Pulisic's ugly penalty miss for AC Milan tells us about his role at the club this season

Christian Pulisic missed a crucial penalty in AC Milan's key Serie A game against Juventus on Sunday at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. The USMNT captain had the opportunity to open to scoring, when in the 53th minute of the game, the Rossoneri were awarded a penalty, but the American striker wasted the chance from the spot, sending the ball over the crossbar in the biggest chance of the whole match. 

Despite the big mistake, which is only his second penalty miss in his professional career after the one earlier this year against Torino on Feb. 22, Pulisic is considered the most important player of this team, and the penalty confirmed it once again. 

AC Milan are going through a big revolution under manager Massimiliano Allegri, who made his comeback at the club this summer with the aim of rebuilding a team that last season ended up in eighth place, out of all the European tournaments. 

Since the first day, Allegri played Pulisic in a different role, as a striker in the 3-5-2 deployed by the Italian coach. The American striker, who started against Juventus alongside Mexican striker Santiago Gimenez again, already scored six goals in the opening eight games between Serie A and Coppa Italia this season and is showing week after week how important he is for the team. AC Milan, despite maybe not having the stars they used to have in the roster a few years ago, gave Pulisic the status he deserved. After being probably the best player on the roster over the past two seasons at the club, Pulisic is the leader of this team. 

Allegri's new tactical idea for Pulisic allows the American star to move around the attack, and he's often asked to come back and start the attack from deep. On Sunday, against Juventus, when the game was stuck in the first half in particular, Pulisic was the player going back to try something different, when the other midfielders like Luka Modric and Youssouf Fofana couldn't find the right spaces. Juventus managed to contain AC Milan's forwards, who were often forced to drop back to regain their positioning, making it a particularly challenging game for the strikers.

This is why it becomes ever more important the fact Pulisic was the one taking the responsibility to kick the penalty, especially with a player like Modric on the pitch. Pulisic is now the star of AC Milan, something really important considering this is the season ahead of the 2026 World Cup, when he is set to captain his team, likely representing the most important moment of his national team career up to now.