U.S. Men’s National Team striker Josh Sargent had gone 10 straight Bundesliga matches without a goal, but he snapped that drought in dramatic fashion on Saturday.
Sargent scored a long-distance beauty in Werder Bremen’s 4-1 win, coming off the bench to deliver the 77th-minute blast to help Bremen climb to 12th place in the Bundesliga.
JOSH SARGENT. WOW! pic.twitter.com/mHoFMrsOnJ
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 23, 2021
The goal is Sargent’s first since a DFB Pokal strike in a 3-0 victory against Hannover on December 23, with his last Bundesliga goal coming in an October 31 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Sargent saw his run of consecutive Bundesliga starts halted on Saturday, with Werder Bremen manager Florian Kohfeldt giving Davie Selke the start in his place. Selke scored a 10th-minute penalty to help reward that decision, but when he was forced out due to a first-half injury, Sargent entered the match in the 32nd minute and helped Bremen build on its lead.
Sargent and Schalke return to action on Saturday against Schalke in a clash that will also have the subplot of Sargent potentially facing off against fellow American striker Matthew Hoppe, who has scored five goals in his past three matches heading into Schalke’s Sunday clash with Werder Bremen.
Maybe Hoppe and Josh gives a legit 2 man striker system? Not since Joey and CD in the early 00’s have we had dual threats from real strikers. We have had to rely an awful lot on hybrid forward-mids. Or at least they could give the US a legitimate Plan B for the target-hold up striker. Let’s wish for success to both in the best US league – Der Bundesliga
Fabulous goal. Created the space on the turn and struck with venom.
Next weeks clash will likely put of full display the differences between Sargent (drops deep to help link play) and Hoppe (a poacher in/around the 6).
Both have their advantages and disadvantages…but both are young and will hopefully continue to develop and round into strong all around strikers.
Also one guy scores goals while the other one doesn’t, in a lot more many games compared to the guy in only 3 games of scoring
Hoppe’s done it for 3 games, let’s maybe wait until the end of the season before we start to form opinions of him.