American midfielder Aidan Morris became the newest face in the English Football League Championship on Saturday, helping Middlesbrough to a first opening day victory since 2014.
Morris started and played 90 minutes as Michael Carrick’s men defeated Swansea City 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium. It marked the 22-year-old’s first competitive appearance for the English second-tier squad since moving from the Columbus Crew this summer.
Emmanuel Latte Lath’s 25th minute penalty kick goal was all Middlesbrough needed to claim three points at home against the visiting Swans.
Morris, who featured in the heart of Carrick’s midfield, completed 89% of his passes, won three duels, and made five defensive recoveries. The former MLS Cup winner rarely put a foot wrong as Middlesbrough kicked off its season with three points and a clean sheet.
He was the 1,000th player to feature for Middlesbrough in the club’s history, voicing his excitement about the honor postmatch.
“It was pretty cool, this is such a special club so to be able to help reach them reach that number is pretty cool,” Morris said. “The atmosphere was amazing, after playing in the States for a long time, being able to play in front of something like this is something you dream about. It was a special day for me.”
“[Playing in the Championship] takes 90 minutes and more,” he added. “We could’ve won the game by more than one goal, but then you see the chances that they get at the end of the match. You need full concentration for 90 minutes but I think the atmosphere and energy from the fans was amazing and got us over the line.
Middlesbrough will next visit fellow EFL Championship side Leeds United on Wednesday in the EFL Cup first round.
The showdown will pit Morris up against fellow U.S. men’s national team midfielder Brenden Aaronson, who scored the tying goal Saturday in Leeds United’s 3-3 draw vs. Portsmouth.
“Really pleased with him, not surprised because he has settled in great and that is why we were interested in him,” Carrick said about Morris. “First one is out of the way for him, but happy for him.”
“All of these games are super important and new to me so I am buzzing for it [trip to Elland Road],” Morris said. “That game will be fun.”
The Championship is really hard to watch. Bunch of guys running around like chickens with their heads cut off. 1 or 2 EPL level players per team but most are just hard-running types who seek to hurt people so they can’t score. Really brutal league to watch.
The technical level is better in MLS with their higher quality top end players, but the Championship have deeper squads in regards to run of the mill players.
I wouldn’t watch it unless attacking American players are playing in those matches.
Thank you…I’ve been seeing the same thing for awhile. Every time I watch them I sort of have that sardonic Deadpool “MAXIMUM EFFORT!!!!” meme going on in my head. They’re not subtle, they’re not even that tactical, and the way the refs let them kick the crap out of each other and put everything short of a rugby tackle on another player is…offputting. It really kills displays of skill talent. The way they play, it’s obvious they’re all constantly auditioning for a spot in the Prem. Either that, or someone is holding their families hostage and will soon start sending them toes and fingers in the mail if the player doesn’t play well. Whatever, Championship players distinctly come across as Not Having Fun, and as teams playing with a genuinely unhealthy level of job stress.
They do still have deeper rosters than MLS and spread their salaries out more evenly across their rosters, but MLS has actually now passed the Championship in terms of payrolls. MLS’s total payroll for this year is more than half a billion dollars – $520 million, while the Championship’s is just £315 million – or $403 million US. Mind, MLS has 29 teams to the Championship’s 24, but MLS now spends an average of $17.3 million per team, the Championship $16.8 million. The Championship will probably end up ahead on average as their transfer-window spending spikes the last week or so of August, but it does show you the leagues are very comparable.
The money’s also not distributed nearly as evenly in the Championship. Those averages are heavily propped up by Leeds and Burnley, just down from the EPL, who have substantially larger payrolls than even Miami, but the minnows just up from League One have payrolls less than half the size of the smallest-spending MLS squads, too. So the top of the Championship is likely better than the top of MLS…but the bottom half of the Championship would likely not be competitive in MLS either.
Another interesting factoid: the team Morris left, Columbus, has a larger payroll by more than a million dollars than Middlesbrough. And Columbus is one of the smaller payrolls (21st) in MLS…whereas Middlesbrough’s is the ninth-largest in the Championship. Which definitely shows you the gap between the haves and have-nots that’s so prevalent in Euro leagues.
That’s really good. I do think he was missed for the Olympic team.