Christian Pulisic's season ended the way Milan's did: with a missed chance and a familiar feeling of regret. The 27-year-old was back in the matchday picture for the final stretch of Serie A, but Milan dropped a 2-1 home result to Cagliari and finished fifth, missing Champions League qualification for a second consecutive season.
Pulisic was on the bench for Milan's last three league fixtures. He played 31 minutes against Sassuolo, missed the defeat by Atalanta because of a glute muscle strain and then came on for 14 minutes against Genoa, where he registered an assist. In the final match against Cagliari at San Siro, he entered at 46 minutes as Milan tried to rescue a result that would have secured fourth place. Instead, Alexis Saelemaekers put Milan ahead in the second minute and the home side still lost 2-1.
The numbers explain why the ending felt so flat. Pulisic began the season with 10 goals in all competitions, but he did not score after the turn of the year. He finished with four assists, including two in the second half of the campaign, as his output fell sharply from the promise he showed early on. Milan needed one win to clinch fourth place and return to the Champions League, and the pressure on the attack was obvious once the lead slipped away.
Massimiliano Allegri offered a broader explanation for the slump, saying Pulisic had been sacrificed positionally, struggled with injuries and has not always been on the same page as Rafael Leao. That does not erase the fact that the American forward's most productive stretch came early and that the back half of his season produced no goals at all. For Milan, the problem was not just one player. It was a team that entered its final league game with everything in reach and left San Siro with another season outside Europe's top competition.
Elsewhere, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie ended their seasons more happily, while Auston Trusty added more silverware for Celtic. McKennie's importance to the USMNT midfield also grew because Tanner Tessmann was absent from the squad. For Pulisic, though, the closing weeks in Italy were a reminder that a bright start can still finish in disappointment when the scoring dries up and the stakes rise.
