Americans at home: we’ve reached peak Zardes

MLS was back to a slate of weekend games and its midweek match onslaught as the league tries to fit something of a full season into 2020. That meant that there was plenty of opportunity for Americans to make their mark in the league and they delivered. There were some new names that hight the highlights as well as some tried and true players. Of course, there was also a legendary moment by a legend in the making.

Let’s get this one out of the way

Just take it in.

How? How does this always happen to Zardes. The man gets goals off of impossible deflections, on accident, creates assists on wayward passes off of his back... Whatever anyone thinks about him, it might be worth keeping someone who just has the most incredible stupid luck in the world on the national team forever. The forces of randomness have a particular exertion on the game of soccer and they are strongly drawn to Zardes. It’s an intangible that an underdog team like the USMNT needs.

A goal for Morris, an assist for Roldan

That’s how the scoring started for the Sounders as they beat RSL 2-1 midweek. Roldan may have been going for a dummy but just missed it. Regardless, it’s a goal and Jordan Morris continues his dominant season for Seattle.

Elsewhere in the match, Corey Baird had a quiet night failing to register a shot in 66 minutes.

Goals for everyone in LA

Portland and LA teamed up for a 9 goal performance on Wednesday with three Americans of note finding the net in the match.

Jeremy Ebobisse notched a brace as the Timbers came away with a 6-3 win with his first coming on a stellar free kick.

Number two came thanks to the LA defenders giving up on the play while asking for an offside call and Ebobisse putting David Bingham to sleep with some nice footwork.

Julian Araujo did put LA within one goal early, but Portland never seemed to be unable to find the net in the game. Still, this is a great finish from a player with a lot of potential if he can develop his game beyond, doing something incredible in the attack and always seem to be about 10 seconds away from a straight red card when defending.

Brenden to Bedoya

We all know we’ll be missing Brenden Aaronson come next year in MLS, but for now we can enjoy him picking apart defenses in the domestic league. This is a nice move to set up a score for Ale, but the defender here makes it wayyyyy to easy for him to pick this pass.

Also of note, Mark McKenzie went the full 90 to keep the cleansheet in the 3-0 win over FC Cincinnati and Frankie Amaya played 62 minutes.

A breakout year for a promising dual national

The USMNT has been pretty successful at finding dual nationals that want to play for team USA, but this one might not go their way. Ayo Akinola of Toronto FC has both US and Canadian citizenship and it seems like he might choose Canada as his national team. Still, anything could happen and while we wait for his official choice, we can enjoy him doing things like this.

Oh my, Omir

The NY Red Bulls have struggled this year but seem to be coming alive now that Chris Armas has departed. Midweek the team took on Inter Miami and while the big news from that game is Gonzalo Higuain scoring, NY almost spoiled the night for the Argentine. The Red Bulls grabbed the lead in the 53rd minute thanks to this effort from the American midfielder.

A big game for a new name

I’m fairly sure Danny Musovski hasn’t had his name in this article before. Frankly, I was a little surprised he wasn’t a member of the 1964 Chicago Bears or something, but he had a big game this weekend. The LAFC forward had a brace and an assist in the club’s 3-1 win over Seattle. The 24 year-old American had played in USL after being drafted by San Jose in 2018, but this year is his rookie campaign in MLS since moving to LA. Bob Bradley’s team can score goals in bunches, so while this might be a one off, it could also be the start of something special.

His first came on a set piece in the 15th minute.

He then put the game away for LA in the 84th to put the home team up 3-1.

Another teenager makes an impact for the Red Bulls

If you can count on one thing every year in MLS, it’s the Red Bulls pulling someone, perhaps anyone even, up from their USL squad and that player making a difference in their debut. This year that person was Caden Clark who is not in fact a lacrosse player for Duke. Clark played for 67 minutes against Atlanta United in a game that was... well, bad. But it will be memorable as the 17 year-old did this in the 47th minute.

Other Americans of note in the game were George Bello and Kyle Duncan each playing the full 90.