Americans at home: Lennon comes through, Busio was big, and Akinola steps up

MLS was back with a full slate of weekend games as the domestic league opened the month of October. The week featured the now regular appearance of young players contributing goals and assists for their respective club teams. Here’s the highlighted performances from the week.

Dike does it again

Orlando City seems to have found a striker to step in for Dom Dwyer. Darryl Dike is the new DD in Orlando and the forward found the net again as OCSC beat NYRB 3-1.

Chris Mueller also got an assist in the match as the Red Bulls struggled away from home in the match.

Ben Olsen not getting fired even for embarrassing things not related to losing soccer games

I’m glad Olsen is still in the league, we need these mediocre managers who have had the rest of the league pass them by to balance when MLS analysts say that MLS is the Bundesliga now.

On top of that, DC lost at home to Atlanta United 4-0 and made Brooks Lennon look like an MLS player of the week contender with a pair of assists and a goal.

George Bello and Miles Robinson each started and went 78 minutes, Emerson Hyndman grabbed an assist, and even Adam Jahn did something good and scored in the game.

Good ole heads up play from Djordje

The Chicago Fire have been buoyed by the resurgence of Robert Beric and Djordje Mihailovic has certainly played a part in moving things along for the team. The 21 year old now has four assists on the year in 647 minutes and his fourth came to a solid read on a really bad play out of the back by Montreal.

A goal for Ayo, another injury for Jozy

Making his third straight start, Ayo Akinola lined up on the left wing for Toronto FC in the team’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union. Also, note that Jozy had to come off in the 53rd minute of the game.

Two assists for Busio

Oh, hey, look another American central midfielder having a breakout season. Gianluca Busio has established himself as a starter for Sporing Kansas City at just 18 years-old. The midfielder had a two assist game for SKC as he set up both of Alan Pulido’s goals in the side’s 2-2 draw with Houston.

The first assist was particularly nice in finding space between defenders. Pulido may have done most of the work, but this is a great ball to find the striker.

Morris with assist number seven

Jordan Morris is in the middle of a career year. The American winger is poised to set a career mark in assists and could top his rookie year 12 goal total as well. He got his seventh assist against the Vancouver Whitecaps over the weekend. That’s the same number he had in 2019, but he’s done it in 1000 fewer minutes at this point of the season.

Somehow San Jose won again

The San Jose Earthquakes have not been very good in 2020 but they’ve won a few games here and there. This weekend they beat the LA Galaxy 2-1 although Sebastian Lletget put LA up 1-0 on a right place in the right time goal.

San Jose answered back on a goal from Marcos Lopez assisted by Nick Lima.

I don’t know how much Lima had to do with the goal, but wow - that’s a nice goal. Jackson Yueill went the full 90 and the Biceps from Ceres, Cade Cowell, came off the bench for 17 minutes.