Brenden Aaronson went up against his toughest opponent yet in his UEFA Champions League career and helped Red Bull Salzburg earn a favorable home draw in knockout play.
Aaronson assisted once in Wednesday’s 1-1 Round of 16 first leg draw with Bayern Munich, continuing his good run of form since returning to competitive action. The U.S. men’s national team attacker helped Matthias Jaissle’s side go toe-to-toe with the Bundesliga giants, giving them hope for March’s second leg in Munich.
Aaronson helped Red Bull Salzburg take a surprise lead at home, flicking a pass onward to substitute Chukwubuike Adamu in the 21st minute. Adamu drilled home his shot into the right corner of Sven Ulreich’s goal before celebrating with his teammates.
It was Aaronson’s first assist of this season’s tournament after scoring twice in last fall’s qualifying stage.
Aaronson almost came close to doubling Salzburg’s advantage not long after taking the lead, but his curling effort in the box was repelled away by a diving Ulreich.
Bayern Munich had to fight until the last minute to claim an equalizing goal and Julian Nagelsmann’s side received it in the 90th minute through Kingsley Coman’s finish. Coman was left alone at the back post and made no mistake, finishing confidently past Philipp Kohn into the bottom corner.
Aaronson finished with another 90 minutes under his belt this season, completing two dribbles, and winning five duels in the match. The 21-year-old now has appeared in 29 matches across all competitons for Red Bull Salzburg, totaling four goals and eight assists.
Up next for Aaronson and his teammates are league matches against Wolfsberger and LASK to close out February’s schedule.
It was always obvious that Aaronson has very quick feet. He also has great vision. Both were traits that he exhibited when he played for the Union, I would say his vision has become a bit better. He also manages to win a lot of 50-50 balls against bigger, stronger players; as he gets stronger, that should only improve. He has been remarkably injury free. I thought 3 years ago he would flourish in Europe and he has not disappointed. Finally, his work rate is very high.
That assist he got was he managed to flick his foot in front of a defender to get the ball through, when it looked like it would be an easy interception by the defender. His dribble in the box before he unleashed a great shot was in front of 3 Bayern defenders none of whom could get a foot in to touch the ball away.
Right now I think he is a player that GB cannot avoid finding a spot for in any important game.
so good to see others watching him too. up until about the 65th minute he was excellent against that loaded team, and he got banged around for it throughout the 2nd half. sure he had a sore couple of days afterwards. Also, having watched every Salzburg throughout the CL this year, Okafor’s injury not the worst thing imo. he’s talented and a threat but he’s also selfish and maybe not the most willing team defender to put it a nice way. It has been cool to see Aaronson’s teammate’s come to not only accept him but respect him. who knows what happens from here but he’s going to play a big one in Munich. that’s pretty cool, and barring injury, make some money this summer on transfer.
I thought he was plum tuckered out in the last 15 mins–I wonder how many meters he ran in the first half? Great performance.
He was very good in the first half against Bayern, but faded in the second half. Gave the ball away virtually every time he touched it.
I’d like to see him play centrally with the national team, underneath the striker. He’s a very good passer with great vision and also actually makes good passes forward, behind the defense. Other than maybe Reyna, we don’t have anyone else that can play as a 10. Play a midfield of Adams, McKennie, Aaronson behind Pulisic, Striker, Weah/Reyna.
You guys wanna see an american player play and actually make an impact on their team watch RB Salzburg. Aaronson is getting better too a great team will get him soon, guaranteed. His team almost always needs him for the full 90 that’s how you know he’s good.
Aaronson’s development over the last year- the speed of his improvement has been the most pleasant of surprises to me… my favorite story. An absolute joy to watch this guy play.