Jordan Pefok has continued to be one of the in-form American forwards in Europe this season and Sunday’s performance at St. Gallen was the latest example of his confidence in front of goal.
David Wagner’s side walked away with a 3-3 draw at St. Gallen with Pefok scoring twice in the result. The U.S. men’s national team forward now has 13 league goals in 19 appearances, remaining in the race for the league’s Golden Boot award. Pefok delivered goals in the 43rd and 49th minutes, getting on the end of passes from Christian Fassnacht and helping the hosts race out to a 3-0 advantage. However, Young Boys saw its three-goal advantage slip away, missing out on the opportunity to move into second place in the league standings.
Pefok now sits atop the league’s goalscoring charts following Arthur Cabral’s transfer to Fiorentina and will next face second place FC Basel on February 13.
In Germany, John Brooks helped Wolfsburg earn a 4-1 win over Greuther Furth while Gio Reyna made his Bundesliga return for Borussia Dortmund.
In Spain, Yunus Musah and Valencia claimed one point in a draw with Real Sociedad. Sergino Dest appeared off of the bench as Barcelona earned a statement win over Atletico Madrid.
In England, Zack Steffen was in goal as Manchester City advanced to the FA Cup Round of 16. Duane Holmes played the hero as Huddersfield Town advanced past Barnsley.
Elsewhere, Brenden Aaronson played 90 minutes as Red Bull Salzburg advanced past LASK in the Austrian Cup while Erik Palmer-Brown also went the distance for Ligue 1 side Troyes. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Christian Ramirez impressed in Scottish Premiership play. Kyle Duncan and Bryan Reynolds delivered Man of the Match performances in Belgium.
Here is a closer look at this weekend’s Americans Abroad action:
England
FA CUP
Duane Holmes started, scored A GOAL, and played 84 minutes in Huddersfield’s 1-0 win over Barnsley on Saturday.
Zack Steffen started and played 90 minutes in Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Fulham on Saturday.
Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes for Fulham.
Ethan Horvath dressed but did not play in Nottingham Forest’s 4-1 win over Leicester City on Sunday.
Christian Pulisic did not dress in Chelsea’s 2-1 extra time win over Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.
Josh Sargent did not dress in Norwich City’s 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday.
Antonee Robinson is OUT (Travel) for Fulham.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Matthew Olosunde did not dress in Preston North End’s 1-0 win over Hull City on Saturday.
LEAGUE ONE
Lynden Gooch started and played 90 minutes in Sunderland’s 2-1 loss to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
Marlon Fossey started and played 90 minutes in Bolton Wanderers 1-1 draw with Morecambe on Saturday.
Germany
BUNDESLIGA
Timmy Chandler started and played 90 minutes in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 3-2 win over Pellegrino Matarazzo‘s Stuttgart on Saturday.
John Brooks started and played 85 minutes in Wolfsburg’s 4-1 win over Greuther Furth on Sunday.
Tim Tillman started and played 85 minutes for Greuther Furth.
Gio Reyna came off the bench and played 30 minutes in Borussia Dortmund’s 5-2 loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday.
George Bello came off the bench and played 19 minutes in Arminia Bielefeld’s 1-1 draw with Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.
Julian Green came off the bench and played five minutes for Furth.
Joe Scally dressed but did not play for Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Kevin Paredes dressed but did not play for Wolfsburg.
Ricardo Pepi did not dress in Augsburg’s 2-0 win over Union Berlin on Saturday.
Tyler Adams is OUT (Injury) for RB Leipzig.
Chris Richards is OUT (Injury) for Hoffenheim.
2. BUNDESLIGA
Bryang Kayo did not dress in Nuremberg’s 5-0 loss to Ingolstadt on Friday.
3. LIGA
Terrence Boyd started, scored A GOAL, and played 90 minutes in Kaiserslautern’s 2-0 win over FSV Zwickau on Saturday.
Johan Gomez started and played 90 minutes for FSV Zwickau.
Italy
SERIE A
Gianluca Busio came off the bench and played 20 minutes in Venezia’s 2-0 loss to Napoli on Sunday.
Weston McKennie came off the bench and played seven minutes in Juventus 2-0 win over Hellas Verona on Sunday.
Tanner Tessmann dressed but did not play for Venezia.
SERIE B
Andrija Novakovich started and played 69 minutes in Frosinone’s 2-0 win over L.R. Vicenza Virtus on Saturday.
Spain
LA LIGA
Yunus Musah started and played 80 minutes in Valencia’s 0-0 draw with Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Sergino Dest came off the bench and played 19 minutes in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
Matt Miazga dressed but did not play in Alaves 3-1 loss to Elche on Saturday.
Matthew Hoppe dressed but did not play in Mallorca’s 2-1 win over Cadiz on Saturday.
LA LIGA 2
Samuel Shashoua came off the bench and played 21 minutes in Tenerife’s 0-0 draw with Leganes on Sunday.
Shaq Moore dressed but did not play for Tenerife.
France
LIGUE 1
Erik Palmer-Brown started and played 90 minutes in Troyes 0-0 draw with Metz on Sunday.
Tim Weah started and played 70 minutes in Lille’s 5-1 loss to PSG on Sunday.
Nicholas Gioacchini started and played 68 minutes in Montpellier’s 3-1 loss to Saint-Etienne on Saturday.
Konrad De La Fuente did not dress in Marseille’s 5-2 win over Angers on Friday.
Netherlands
EREDIVISIE
Luca De La Torre started and played 45 minutes in Heracles 3-0 loss to Ajax on Sunday.
Cole Bassett dressed but did not play in Feyenoord’s 4-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday.
EERSTE DIVISIE
Richie Ledezma started and played 68 minutes in Jong PSV’s 2-0 win over Helmond Sport on Friday.
Portugal
LIGA PRIMEIRA
Alex Mendez started and played 56 minutes in Vizela’s 2-2 draw with Boavista on Sunday.
Reggie Cannon did not dress for Boavista.
Belgium
PRO LEAGUE
Bryan Reynolds started and played 90 minutes in Kortrijk’s 3-1 loss to Sint-Truiden on Saturday.
Sam Vines started and played 90 minutes in Royal Antwerp’s 2-0 loss to Union St. Gilloise on Saturday.
Kyle Duncan started and played 90 minutes in Oostende’s 3-1 loss to OH Leuven on Saturday.
Mark McKenzie and Genk host Zulte Waregem on Sunday.
Chris Durkin did not dress for Sint-Truiden.
Owen Otasowie did not dress in Club Brugge’s 2-1 loss to Gent on Sunday.
Scotland
PREMIERSHIP
Cameron Carter-Vickers started and played 90 minutes in Celtic’s 4-0 win over Motherwell on Sunday.
Christian Ramirez started, scored A GOAL, and played 90 minutes in Aberdeen’s 2-1 loss to Livingston on Saturday.
Chris Mueller started and played 90 minutes in Hibernian’s 1-0 loss to St. Mirren on Saturday.
Ian Harkes started and played 90 minutes in Dundee United’s 0-0 draw with St. Johnstone on Saturday.
Joe Efford came off the bench and played 45 minutes for Motherwell.
James Sands dressed but did not play in Rangers 5-0 win over Hearts on Sunday.
Sebastian Soto did not dress for Livingston.
Austria
CUP
Brenden Aaronson started, registered AN ASSIST, and played 90 minutes in Red Bull Salzburg’s 3-1 win over LASK on Sunday.
Switzerland
SUPER LEAGUE
Jordan Pefok started, scored TWO GOALS, and played 90 minutes in Young Boys 2-2 draw with St. Gallen on Sunday.
Hungary
NB I
Henry Wingo dressed but did not play in Ferencvaros 3-0 loss to Paksi on Sunday.
Turkey
SUPER LIG
Haji Wright came off the bench and played 15 minutes in Antalyaspor’s 0-0 draw with Besiktas on Sunday.
Tyler Boyd dressed but did not play in Rizespor’s 3-1 loss to Adana Demirspor on Sunday.
Argentina
COPA ARGENTINA
Alan Sonora and Independiente’s scheduled match with Central Norte was postponed on Friday.
Joel Sonora and Velez Sarsfield’s scheduled match with Club Cipolletti was postponed on Friday.
Brazil
GAUCHO
Johnny Cardoso and Internacional visit Ypiranga on Saturday.
Mexico
LIGA MX
Sebastian Saucedo and Pumas visit Club Tijuana on Sunday.
Half the teams in the
Bundesliga, now have a US player on it with Bello’s transfer to Arminia. With an American coach at Stuttgart, that makes 10 Bundesliga clubs, a US player and/or coach is on. I do have to note- Americans are also on the 5 bottom clubs, so there will be Americans in the B2 next season. Since it’s already customary, as Americans to diss leagues and players, we don’t watch. I can bet any kind of money, Americans will say the Bundesliga sucks now, because more Americans are playing in it! ie – like the Jupiler, Scottish Premiership and the Swiss League.
The Scottish Premiership is a crap league outside of 2 clubs (Rangers & Celtic)…Once you get past those 2 there is a drastic drop-off for the rest of the league. Similar to the Austrian league outside of RB.
Jupiler is more competitive week in week out, but still struggles to compete in any of the continental competitions.
The benefit of our players playing in these leagues is the continental competitions, the increased salaries for the players, and the possibilities of catching the eye of a team in a better league (shop window).
We have enough talent abroad & domestically that any of our players not in one of the Big 5 leagues (Bundesliga, EPL, Spain, Italy, France) should be major contributors/stars for their clubs to warrant inclusion with the USMNT A-Team. Players in the Big 5 need to at least be seeing consistent minutes…even if it’s only as a rotational player or super-sub. These players when called still need to perform, otherwise they need to be replaced.
When Green was with Furth in B-2 and was one of their Top players people were asking for his inclusion over Lletget & Roldan who’d failed to contribute. Now that he’s been relegated to the bench for the worst team in B-1 people have stopped asking for his inclusion…instead wanting Luca or Busio. This type of adjustment in the player pool is natural. It’s just Gregg is slow to recognize the change and/or replace “His guys”. He’d rather hold on to his favorites with whom he’s comfortable instead of challenge the players to raise their standard of play or give new faces legitimate chances (again see Luca….why has it taken Gregg so long to put him on the field).
Lost In Space- Is one goal not one point? Scott Kennedy plays in the B2. Doniel Henry plays in Korea. Atiba Hutchinson is 38. Half of Canada’s team played or is playing in the MLS. Not top 5 leagues. These “continental competitions” you speak of are participation trophy tournaments. Players get paid, obviously, who pays the players? When does a 4th place team, deserve a gold medal? Even worse, you have the Europa League, and now the Europa Conference League. “Any of our players not in the Big 5 …should be major contributors/stars for their team…” Says who? ie- You should be a billionaire and famous and not commenting on your favorite sport. You know, that’s projecting your expectations on some one. LOST my friend, People were only asking for Green after Greuther Furth got promoted. I wanted to see Green after USAvFrance ‘18 friendly. My opinion- Green riding pine > out of season Lleget & Roldan. Right now, my starting midfielders are LM- LDT, Green RM- McKennie, Musah until Reyna is back. LDT backs him up at LM. I have Sonora, Mihailovic, Jesus Ferreira are ahead of Busio at LM. Remember, Sargent is one of GBs favorites. Sargent scored against Cuba, and proceeded to be called up repeatedly. USMNT has 3 matches to qualify with Panama, in Orlando. Our last home match needing points again. This is a different group than 4 years ago. I’ve been a USMNT fan since the ‘84 Olympics. (For Context – I was 3!). In over 35 years, I’ve never cared about club futbol. I don’t watch Olympics caring about the athletes day jobs. How well do they compete for the USA is all care about. If my 2 favorite teams are playing at the same time. I’ll watch a USA WCQ over FSU vs Notre Dame. I’m not watching PSG, Juventus, Man City, Liverpool or any billion dollar club over my Seminoles. (I’ll just record it and watch those clubs later).
So the US have ONLY ONE pure striker scoring consistently in Europe but yet he never gets called up to be part of the WCQ group?
He does play in Switzerland. Do people really think Pepi, Sargent, Ferreira, and Zardes couldn’t score in Switzerland? Virtually all their national team players play in bigger leagues. Let’s not forget Caleb Stanko used to be a regular in the Swiss League. Of the top 15 league scorers in the Swiss Super League last season, Pefok had the third most caps. Also, only 3 even had caps and Jordan was the only forward. Switzerland, Ghana, Austria, Serbia, Côte d’Ivoire, Turkey, and Macedonia all had available players on the list.
Zardes and Ferreira? The real question is do you guys think these 2 can score against teams like manchester united? Before you talk down a league like Switzerland make sure you understand MLS cant even beat out liga mx clubs yet. So the answer for your long but lacking opinion is no Zardes and ferreira cannot. And until both of them Garner any interest from european clubs abroad they are what they are, second rate nobody’s playing in a subpar league. Ferreira might make it sometime soon since hes young but Zardes? You really think you can post that without someone noticing what a stupid statement that is lol
If you’re going to start calling people stupid, at least spell “nobodies” correctly.
Can we keep it civil?
I would like to have seen Pefok, but honestly he has not been any better or worse than the others mentioned. Berhalter clearly wants his #9 to be a high energy pressing and link-up type, and that really doesn’t seem like Pefok’s game. Personally I think he merits another look, given no one else has made the position theirs, but Sargent is probably a bigger snub since he is younger and plays in a (much) better league.
Pefok will probably have to look for a transfer and try to expand his game to get a serious look. He hasn’t shown the hold-up play, distribution and pressing during transition that fit into the Nate tactics. He may have reached his ceiling with Young Boys.