What is the story about?
Here’s a bullet-point rundown of USA players whose clubs were in action this week (Monday through Thursday). Players are divided by position groups (which helps my depth-chart-oriented brain to process this information most usefully). Stats are from FotMob.
Strikers
- Damion Downs (22) was not in Southampton’s squad for their 1-4 loss to West Ham United in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday. Downs is rumored to leave Southampton this summer.
- Haji Wright (28) remains out with a muscle injury, missing Coventry’s 4-2 win over Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday. Haji is expected back in early November.
- Samuel Adeniran (27) played the full 120, scored a brace, missed a penalty, created 1 chance, missed 5 big chances, hit the woodwork, completed 0/1 long balls, was dispossessed twice, and won 3/22 duels in LASK Linz’s 5-1 (5-4 aggregate) extra-time win over Celtic in Champions League qualifying on Tuesday. A bit on Adeniran’s winding career journey thus far.
Adeniran’s second:
- Charlie Kelman (24) was not in Charlton Athletic’s squad for their 1-5 loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
- Brandon Vázquez (27) played 12 minutes off the bench, completed 0/1 dribbles, made 1 tackle, and won 1/4 duels in Austin FC’s 0-2 loss to Toluca in Leagues Cup quarterfinal on Wednesday.
- Folarin Balogun missed Monaco’s 4-1 (7-3 aggregate) win over Górnik Zabrze with an injury, expected back in about a week.
Wingers and attacking mids
- On Tuesday, it was revealed that the injury Kevin Paredes (23) suffered over the weekend is serious enough that he is going to be out “months” for his new FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie.
- Brenden Aaronson (25) played 23 minutes off the bench, completed 1/1 dribble, and won 2/2 duels in Leeds’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
- Diego Luna (22) played 73 minutes, created 1 chance, missed 1 big chance, completed 0/1 dribbles, 0/2 long balls, and won 0/3 duels in Real Salt Lake’s 0-3 loss to Club León in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
- Alex Zendejas is out with a knee injury, missing Club América’s 2-0 win over the Columbus Crew on Tuesday.
- Mathis Albert (17) scored a goal and provided an assist for Dortmund U21 against Fulham U21 on Wednesday.
Albert’s assist:
- Taha Habroune (20) played 88 minutes, created 1 chance, completed 2/2 long balls, and won 1/4 duels in the Columbus Crew’s 0-2 loss to América in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Center mids
- Aidan Morris (24) played 33 minutes off the bench, completed 3/3 long balls, made 1 tackle, was dribbled past once, drew 3 fouls, and won 4/6 duels in Middlesbrough’s 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
- Sebastian Berhalter (25) played 57 minutes, created 1 chance, completed 2/2 long balls, made 3 tackles, and won 3/4 duels in Middlesbrough’s 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
- Sergio Oregel (21) played 57 minutes, completed 1/1 dribble, 1/1 long ball, was dispossessed twice, made 1 tackle, and won 2/5 duels in the Chicago Fire’s 1-2 loss to Monterrey in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
- Tanner Tessmann (24) played 76 minutes, created 2 chances, completed 1/2 long balls, and won 3/5 duels in Lyon’s 1-2 (2-3 aggregate) loss to Fenerbahçe in Champions League qualifying on Wednesday.
- Ervin Torres (18) played 78 minutes, created 2 chances, completed 2/2 long balls, was dispossessed twice, made 3 tackles, was dribbled past twice, and won 5/9 duels in Austin FC’s 0-2 loss to Toluca in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday.
- Owen Wolff (21) was not in Austin FC’s squad for their 0-2 loss to Toluca in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday. Wolff is moving to Sporting KC.
- Rokas Pukštas (22) played the full 120 minutes, scored the winning goal in extra time, created 2 chances, completed 1/2 dribbles, 1/3 long balls, made 12 clearances, drew 3 fouls, and won 14/25 duels in Hajduk Split’s 3-2 (5-4 aggregate) win over Raków Częstochowa in Conference League qualifying. It looks like Pukštas is about to sign for Middlesbrough in the EFL Championship, joining fellow Americans Aidan Morris, Sebastian Berhalter, and Max Arfsten. If that move goes through, Pukštas gave a nice farewell kiss to his Croatian club of nearly 6 years, scoring the winning goal to take them into the Conference League.
Fullbacks
- Antonee Robinson (29) played 82 minutes, created 1 chance, missed 1 big chance, completed 1/1 dribble, 3 passes into the final third, 10 line-breaking passes, 2/4 long balls, made 3 tackles, 1 block, 2 clearances, 1 interception, was dribbled past 4 times, and won 4/10 duels in Fulham’s 2-3 loss to Chelsea in the Premier League on Monday.
- Max Arfsten (25) played 57 minutes, created 4 chances (game-high), completed 2/4 long balls, made 1 tackle, 1 clearance, 2 interceptions, and won 3/4 duels in Middlesbrough’s 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
- George Bello (24) played the full 120, created 2 chances, completed 2/6 dribbles, 1/1 long balls, made 1 tackle, 1 interception, and won 6/18 duels in LASK Linz’s 5-1 (5-4 aggregate) extra-time win over Celtic in Champions League qualifying on Tuesday.
- Kristoffer Lund (24) played 61 minutes, created 1 chance, made 4 passes into the final third, completed 1/3 long balls, made 2 tackles, 6 clearances, 2 interceptions, was dribbled past 3 times, and won 4/11 duels in Birmingham City’s 1-6 loss to Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
- Jonathan Gómez (22) was an unused sub for PAOK Thessaloniki in their 2-3 (3-4 aggregate) loss to Brann in Conference League qualifying on Thursday.
- Antonee Robinson (29) was not in Fulham’s squad for their 3-0 win over AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup on Thursday.
Center-backs
- Cameron Carter-Vickers (28) played 90 minutes, completed 0/1 dribbles, 1 pass into the final third, 1/1 long balls, 1 tackle, 2 blocks, 10 clearances, and won 6/8 duels in Celtic’s 1-5 (4-5 aggregate) extra-time loss to LASK Linz in Champions League qualifying on Tuesday.
- Auston Trusty (28) played the full 120 minutes, had the most defensive contributions (22), made 11 passes into the final third, completed 5/10 long balls, made 2 tackles, 4 blocks, 16 clearances, and won 7/10 duels in the Celtic-LASK game.
- DeAndre Yedlin (33) played 60 minutes, made 7 passes into the final third, completed 1/1 long balls, made 1 block, 4 clearances, and won 0/3 duels in Real Salt Lake’s 0-3 loss to Club León in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
- George Campbell (25) played the full 90, completed 1/1 dribble, 4 passes into the final third, 2/5 long balls, made 1 tackle, 2 blocks, 5 clearances, and won 4/6 duels in West Brom’s 2-3 loss to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
- Erik Palmer-Brown (29) played 38 minutes off the bench, made 3 passes into the final third, completed 0/1 long balls, made 8 clearances, 2 interceptions, and won 1/2 duels as Panathinaikos’s won 2-1 (4-3 aggregate) in extra-time win over Czech club Hradec Králové in Conference League qualifying on Thursday.
Goalkeepers
- Gaga Slonina (22) was not in Chelsea’s squad for their 3-2 win over Fulham in the Premier League on Monday, nor for their 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Luton on Thursday.
- Chris Brady (22) played the full 90, conceded a penalty, made 2 saves, conceded 2 goals, and made 4 passes into the final third in the Chicago Fire’s 1-2 loss to Monterrey in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday.
- Diego Kochen (20) was an unused sub for Lyngby in their 1-0 extra-time win over FA 2000 in the DBU Pokalen (Danish Cup) on Wednesday.
- Patrick Schulte (25) played the full 90, made 6 saves, conceded 2 goals, and made 3 passes into the final third in the Columbus Crew’s 0-2 loss to Club América in Leagues Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday.
What were your takeaways? Hit the comments to discuss.
