By FRANCO PANIZO
First appearance one week. First start the next. First goal after that.
Aron Johannsson crossed off another item from his Werder Bremen to-do list on Sunday, as he scored the opener in a 2-1 home win over Borussia Moenchengladbach. Johannsson opened his club and Bundesliga account in the 39th minute of the match, converting a penalty kick that gave Werder Bremen a 1-0 lead. The goal was canceled out shortly thereafter, but Werder Bremen was able to pick up all three points after scoring eight minutes into the second half.
While Johannsson grabbed headlines for finding the back of the net, Tim Howard also entered the spotlight for his stellar performance in Everton’s goal on Saturday. Howard demonstrated quick memory loss by moving past last weekend’s costly error with a six-save showing that helped earn Everton a scoreless draw with Tottenham. The strong outing is sure to serve as a boost in confidence for Howard, who is returning to the U.S. Men’s National Team picture this week after a year-long sabbatical.
A trio of firsts provided even more encouraging developments across Europe. Tim Ream started his first league game for Fulham in a 3-1 triumph over Rotherham United on Saturday, and John Brooks got the nod for the first time this season in Hertha Berlin’s 3-1 defeat to Borussia Dortmund on Sunday. Gedion Zelalem, meanwhile, played from whistle to whistle in his first league start for Rangers, which routed Queen of the South, 5-1.
Timmy Chandler was another player to earn his first start of the season this weekend, but things did not end well for him. Chandler suffered a meniscus injury in the first half of Eintracht Frankfurt’s 4-1 win over Stuttgart on Saturday, and had to be replaced at halftime. There is no exact word on how long the veteran right back will be out for, but Eintracht Frankfurt revealed Sunday that Chandler will need an operation to repair the damage.
Here is how the Americans Abroad did this weekend:
ENGLAND
Premiership
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes, and made six saves in Everton’s 0-0 draw vs. Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
- Brad Guzan started, played 90 minutes, and made one save in Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
- DeAndre Yedlin did not dress in Tottenham Hotspur’s 0-0 draw vs. Everton on Saturday.
- Geoff Cameron started and played 90 minutes in Stoke City’s 1-0 loss vs. West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
- Lynden Gooch dressed but did not play in Sunderland’s 2-2 draw vs. Aston Villa on Saturday
Championship
- Jonathan Spector started and played 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 2-0 win vs. Milton Keynes Dons on Saturday.
- Eric Lichaj started and played 90 minutes in Nottingham Forest’s 2-1 loss vs. Cardiff City on Saturday.
- Danny Williams started and played 90 minutes in Reading’s 3-1 win vs. Brentford on Saturday.
- Andrija Novakovich did not dress for Reading.
- Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes in Fulham’s 3-1 win vs. Rotherham United on Saturday.
- Emerson Hyndman did not dress for Fulham.
- Cody Cropper dressed but did not play in Milton Keynes Dons’ 2-0 loss vs. Birmingham City on Saturday.
SCOTLAND
- Gedion Zelalem started and played 90 minutes in Rangers’ 5-1 win vs. Queen of the South on Sunday.
GERMANY
Bundesliga
- John Brooks started and played 90 minutes in Hertha Berlin’s 3-1 loss vs. Borussia Dortmund on Sunday.
- Fabian Johnson did not dress in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 2-1 loss vs. Werder Bremen on Sunday. He is recovering from a calf injury.
- Timmy Chandler started, played 45 minutes, and received a yellow card in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 4-1 win vs. VfB Stuttgart on Saturday.
- Aron Johannsson started, played 70 minutes minutes, and scored a GOAL in Werder Bremen’s 2-1 win vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBQNcyF0Yw4]
- Alfredo Morales started and played 90 minutes in FC Ingolstadt 04’s 1-0 win vs. FC Augsburg on Saturday.
2. Bundesliga
- Terrence Boyd did not dress in RB Leipzig’s 1-1 draw vs. FC Union Berlin on Friday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Bobby Wood started and played 80 minutes in FC Union Berlin’s 1-1 draw vs. RB Leipzig on Friday.
- Andrew Wooten started and played 90 minutes in SV Sandhausen’s 4-1 loss vs. SC Freiburg on Friday.
- Caleb Stanko did not dress in SC Freiburg’s 4-1 win vs. SV Sandhausen on Friday.
FRANCE
- Alejandro Bedoya started and played 90 minutes in FC Nantes’ 2-0 loss vs. Bordeaux on Sunday.
NETHERLANDS
- Rubio Rubin came off the bench and played 18 minutes in FC Utrecht’s 2-0 win vs. FC Groningen on Saturday.
- Desevio Payne did not dress in FC Groningen’s 2-0 loss vs. FC Utrecht on Saturday.
NORWAY
- Zarek Valentin started and played 90 minutes yellow card in FK Bodo/Glimt’s 3-1 win vs. Sarpsborg 08 on Sunday.
- Danny Cruz did not dress for FK Bodo/Glimt.
- Cole Grossman started and played 90 minutes in Stabaek IF’s 2-1 loss vs. Odd on Sunday.
- Ethan Horvath did not dress in Molde FK’s 2-2 draw vs. Lillestrom on Sunday.
- A.J. Soares started and played 90 minutes in Viking FK’s 2-0 win vs. Sandefjord on Saturday.
- Rhett Bernstein started and played 90 minutes in Mjondalen IF’s 4-2 loss vs. Stromsgodset on Sunday.
- Erik Hurtado came off the bench and played 20 minutes for Mjondalen IF.
MEXICO
- Michael Orozco started, played 90 minutes, and received a yellow card in Club Tijuana’s 2-1 win vs. Morelia on Saturday.
- Paul Arriola did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Alejandro Guido did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Joe Corona started and played 27 minutes in Veracruz’s 2-1 win vs. Monterrey on Friday.
- Greg Garza did not dress in Atlas’ 1-1 draw vs. Pachuca on Saturday.
- Jose Torres dressed but did not play in Tigres UANL’s 5-1 win vs. Queretaro on Friday.
- Edgar Castillo started and played 90 minutes in Monterrey’s 2-1 loss vs. Veracruz on Friday.
- Ventura Alvarado dressed but did not play in Club America’s 2-0 win vs. Cruz Azul on Saturday.
- Jonathan Bornstein started and played 90 minutes in Queretaro’s 5-1 loss vs. Tigres UANL on Saturday.
- Gabriel Farfan did not dress in Jaguares de Chiapas’ 4-1 loss vs. Chivas de Guadalajara on Sunday.
- Miguel Ibarra dressed but did not play in Club Leon’s 3-1 win vs. Toluca on Sunday.
- William Yarbrough dressed but did not play for Club Leon.
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What do you think of these performances? See Johannsson going on a scoring tear? Does Howard still have enough in the tank to reclaim the USMNT’s starting goalkeeper spot?
Share your thoughts below.
Exactly right quozzel. Happens all the time with strikers coming back from injury, new to the team or in a rut. Could get you cut from the team if you miss horrendously (chicharito)
Interesting that they let him take the PK
Psychological tactic. Get him on the board, get him into the scoring column, take some of the heat off him.
Know a lot of coaches who do that to warm up a striker.
That did wonders for Chicharito.
Zelalem had an assist and Payne is out injured.
I don’t think that’s accurate. Zelalem had assists in the cup game, but not this weekend.
http://talksport.com/football/hes-better-andrea-pirlo-already-arsenal-fans-are-getting-excited-about-gedion-zelalem
Yeah, he had another assist.
Yeah, no.
http://us.soccerway.com/matches/2015/08/30/scotland/first-division/queen-of-the-south-fc/rangers-fc/2047459/
so who do we believe? i am looking at multiple reports showing an assist.
Does it matter?
What is important is that it looks like GZ is getting off to a good start.
Just watched the game. Zelalem definitely assisted on the third goal.
corona staerts and gets 27 minutes, Chandler starts and gets 45….. anyone know why?
it seems another tactical change meant Corona off…second week in a row. Chandler went out injured. knee.
Corona was getting beat bad. I was actually glad when he got pulled before he caused some major damage. It was painful to watch.
Any reason why Yarborough and Ventura aren’t playing? Bad form?
Seems JohnnyB is a regular starter now, good for him.
Alvarado seemed to have hit a wall this summer with his form. Some growing pains perhaps as he took on the USMNT pressure.
I believe her started the first game and had a terrible game.
Yarborough. No idea. If he is not a starting keeper in Mexico than why is he being called into the USMNT?
Maybe it is playing nice with MLS teams for the selections? I can see that – why not choose the third keeper outside of MLS in order to not take a Hamid away from DC.
The third keeper is not going to play.
And if Timmy or Brad did get hurt in the next two games then you can bet whoever is the next in line whether that is Nicky, Hamid, Sean, Yarbrough or whoever, will get called in right away.
Keepers are different.
VA was replacing Paolo Goltz who was injured. He’s now back.
WY had a string of horrible games and got benched.
Yarborough lost his spot. VA had his spot, lost it, got it back, but now it appears back up in the air.
VA never “got it back”, he only played because the starting CB was injured, now that everyone is healthy he went back to the bench.