On This Day in 2020, the Midfielder Doubled Juventus' Lead With an Outrageous Scissor Kick in the Champions League
The summer of 2020 had been one of upheaval and opportunity. After three seasons establishing himself as a Bundesliga regular at Schalke 04, Weston McKennie found himself at a crossroads. The pandemic had ravaged football's economics, and Schalke—a club already in precarious financial straits—needed to generate revenue. When Juventus came calling with a loan proposal, the calculus was simple enough: a chance to play for one of Europe's historic giants, to learn from Andrea Pirlo in his first season as manager, to share a locker room with Cristiano Ronaldo. On August 29, the deal was announced. McKennie would become Juventus' first American player, joining Serie A on a season-long loan worth €4.5 million with performance incentives that could trigger a permanent €18.5 million transfer. The pathway from Schalke's royal blue to Juventus' black-and-white stripes had materialized quickly, but the burden of proof would be even quicker.
The early months in Turin had been a study in gradual integration. McKennie made his Serie A debut on September 20 against Sampdoria, playing the full 90 minutes in a comfortable 3-0 victory. His Champions League introduction came two weeks later—a 75th-minute substitute appearance in a humbling 2-0 home defeat to Barcelona that exposed Juventus' vulnerabilities and suggested the gulf between the two sides was considerable. By early December, McKennie had begun to carve out a role in Pirlo's rotation, notching his first assist against Spezia and becoming the first American to start a Champions League match for an Italian club against Ferencváros. On December 5, he scored his first goal for the club—a towering header in the Derby della Mole against Torino that salvaged a 2-1 comeback victory. The celebration had barely subsided when attention turned to Tuesday night and the return fixture at the Camp Nou.
The arithmetic was unforgiving. Barcelona sat atop Group G with 15 points from five matches; Juventus had 12. To leapfrog their opponents and claim first place—thereby avoiding potential juggernauts like Bayern Munich or Liverpool in the Round of 16 draw—Juventus needed to win by at least three goals while scoring a minimum of three times. It was the kind of margin that seemed fantastical given how thoroughly Barcelona had dominated the reverse fixture in October. Yet both clubs limped into the match shrouded in mediocrity. Barcelona, despite their perfect Champions League record, had accumulated just 14 points through 10 La Liga fixtures—a pace that would see them finish ninth if sustained. Juventus had lost only once all season, but their performances had been unconvincing, grinding out results without the authority expected of Italian champions. Neither team resembled the titans they once were. And that, perhaps, made anything possible.
The atmosphere inside the Camp Nou on December 8 was muted, constrained by pandemic restrictions that left vast swaths of empty seats. Still, the weight of the occasion pressed down on both sides. This was Ronaldo's first meeting with Barcelona since departing Real Madrid in 2018, the latest chapter in his eternal rivalry with Lionel Messi. For McKennie, it was an opportunity to prove he belonged on this stage, that his loan move had been more than a financial convenience. Pirlo, under mounting scrutiny, handed the American a starting role and trusted him to deliver in Juventus' most consequential match of the group stage.
The opening 13 minutes passed with Juventus asserting control, probing Barcelona's backline with confidence that belied their underdog status. Then came the breakthrough. Ronaldo drove into the penalty area, tangling with Ronald Araújo before both players tumbled to the turf. Barcelona's protests were immediate and furious, but the referee pointed to the spot. Ronaldo stepped up and fired the penalty straight down the middle, sending Marc-André ter Stegen the wrong way. 1-0. The visitors had drawn first blood, but they needed more—much more.
Seven minutes later, McKennie delivered the moment that would define his season. The move began with Aaron Ramsey muscling his way inside from the left flank, threading a pass to McKennie on the edge of the penalty area. The American's first touch was economical, a quick lay-off to Juan Cuadrado advancing on the right wing. Cuadrado, the Colombian wizard who had already begun to develop an intuitive understanding with McKennie, delivered a looping cross toward the six-yard box. The ball hung in the air for what felt like an eternity, arcing toward the middle of the box as McKennie sprinted to meet it.
What happened next was pure instinct translated into technique. McKennie launched himself into the air, his body horizontal to the ground, and connected with a scissor kick that sent the ball rocketing past ter Stegen before the goalkeeper could react. The volley, struck cleanly from six yards out, nestled into the net with emphatic finality. 2-0. The Camp Nou—what little of it was occupied—fell silent. McKennie's teammates mobbed him near the corner flag as the reality sank in: Juventus was not only winning; they were one goal away from the margin they needed.
The goal was McKennie's second in three days, his first in the Champions League, and only the second of his professional career in Europe's premier club competition. But the numbers told only a fraction of the story. This was a 22-year-old American, in his first season with Juventus, delivering a moment of outrageous quality on one of football's grandest stages. The technique required to execute a scissor kick—the timing, the body positioning, the audacity to even attempt it—marked McKennie as something more than a workhorse midfielder. This was a player capable of brilliance when the stakes demanded it.
"I've got a special mental connection with Juan," McKennie would say afterward, acknowledging the understanding he and Cuadrado had begun to cultivate. "I've been lucky to score my Champions League goal against Barcelona—it has been special." The understatement was quintessentially McKennie, a player who let his performances speak louder than his words.
Barcelona, shellshocked and disorganized, never recovered. Messi tested Gianluigi Buffon twice before halftime, but the 42-year-old Italian legend—starting in place of the injured Wojciech Szczęsny—stood firm, defying age and expectation. Six minutes into the second half, Ronaldo doubled his tally with another penalty after Clément Lenglet was penalized for handball following a VAR review. 3-0. The mission was complete. Antoine Griezmann's header struck the crossbar, and Leonardo Bonucci thought he had added a fourth only to see it ruled out for offside, but the outcome was never in doubt. Juventus had produced the performance they needed precisely when they needed it, and McKennie had been at the heart of it.
The final whistle brought validation on multiple fronts. Juventus leapfrogged Barcelona on head-to-head record to claim top spot in Group G, avoiding the loaded second-place draw that awaited their opponents. For McKennie, the goal cemented his status within Pirlo's squad and triggered the performance clauses in his loan agreement, virtually guaranteeing his permanent transfer the following summer. He had become the first American to score a Champions League goal for an Italian club, joining a lineage of U.S. internationals who have made their mark in Europe's elite competitions. More than that, he had delivered when the spotlight was brightest, against one of the world's most storied clubs, with technique that would dominate highlight reels for years to come.
McKennie's scissor kick would reverberate beyond that December night. The permanent transfer was confirmed the following summer for €18.5 million, a fee that would prove a bargain given his contributions. The 2020-21 season would bring inconsistency for Juventus—Pirlo's tenure lasting only one year—but McKennie's role as a versatile, dynamic midfielder became indispensable. He finished the campaign with five goals and three assists across all competitions, numbers that underscored his growing importance. For U.S. Soccer, it was another data point in the generational wave cresting across Europe: Christian Pulisic at Chelsea, Sergiño Dest at Barcelona, Gio Reyna at Dortmund, and now McKennie thriving in Turin.
But on that cool December evening in Catalonia, none of the future mattered. What mattered was the moment itself—the audacity of the attempt, the perfection of the execution, the magnitude of the stage. McKennie had arrived at Juventus on loan, an experiment with uncertain outcomes. He left the Camp Nou as a Champions League match-winner, the author of one of the season's most memorable goals, and a symbol of American soccer's ascendance on the global stage. The scissor kick had not just doubled Juventus' lead; it had announced that Weston McKennie belonged among Europe's elite. And he had done it in the most spectacular way imaginable—one perfect strike, six yards out, against Barcelona.
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