Brenden Aaronson has enjoyed playing at Elland Road this season.
Aaronson scored his fifth goal at the historic stadium on Saturday as Leeds United rolled past relegation-threatened Oxford United. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder has scored six goals in total this season and also assisted once in Saturday’s result.
Daniel James struck early for the hosts, giving Leeds United a 1-0 lead after nine minutes.
Aaronson set up Jayden Bogle for Leeds’ second goal of the match in the 57th minute. It marked his second assist of the EFL Championship campaign.
Aaronson extended Leeds’ lead in the 67th minute after slotting home inside of the box. Manor Solomon’s through ball pass hit Aaronson in stride before the 24-year-old hit the back of the net.
Solomon iced Leeds’ largest win of the season, keeping them in second place behind Sheffield United.
Aaronson created the most chances (4) of any player on the field, logging 74 minutes of action.
Leeds United will conclude 2024 with back-to-back road matches against Stoke City (Dec. 26) and Derby County (Dec. 29).
Chris Richards started for QPR for the first time in a long time. Although Arsenal scored 5, I don’t think he was responsible for any and was about the only defender not substituted out. One time when he went forward he did a good job at the end line of Arsenal and got a free kick in a dangerous position. Unfortunately for QPR the resulting free kick was poor. Generally from what I could see, he played pretty well.
Wrong London club.
An under the radar story is Concacaf announced Thursday that the powerhouse invited team for the 2025 Gold Cup will be … Saudi Arabia! Wow that will increase the level of competition for the US, Canada, and Mexico. It was always going to be tough with the Club World Cup to get a European team in and with other regions working in World Cup qualifying but this is pure money grab. No different than the Qatar partnership. Saudi Arabia would be ranked 6th amount likely qualifiers for the GC sandwiched between Costa Rica and Jamaica. Herve Renard is back for another go as manager so maybe they’ll make some more waves.
“No different than the Qatar partnership.”
The good thing about Qatar in the Gold Cup was that they were a wild card, no one really knew what to expect. Also the Saudi’s are likely to be pretty cohesive like Qatar was.
You will likely get some of that in the World Cup. I would have preferred Japan, Argentina, South Korea, Australia or France but that never seemed likely.
The timing of the Gold Cup is going to always make it a bad tournament. FIFA is based on the European schedules. Africa and Asia play their confederation championships during the European seasons so their best players are in season. S. America plays at the same time as the Euros. That is why Nations League is the top tournament for CONCACAF. Having to stay fit for three weeks after the long European season ends and then getting almost no break before preseason if your team does well is not good for the players. The only good solution is play it during Euros. Like it or not, soccer revolves around the European schedule.
Tele57, what’s interesting is that the big stars from Africa all go to the Cup of Nations, even though it is played in January. GC rolls out in July and clubs are like “sorry we’ve got a friendly with the Vietnamese League runners up on the 25th you should probably be in camp.”
JR
“the big stars from Africa all go to the Cup of Nations, even though it is played in January.”
The difference is the scale and the quality of the players involved.
Not so much currently but African players have been vital, foundational players for many of the top teams in Europe for a very long time. And a lot of those teams did not want to alienate their African players.
Some of those teams even built their rosters around having to make up for the African tournaments. So they are used to the idea.
In comparison, historically CONCACAF players have not had the same impact on those teams in terms of quality or quantity. That is changing but it may take some time before it reaches the level of consciousness that the African tournaments have in the minds of those clubs.
Brendo having a pretty good season. Looks likely to be destined for the Premier League with Leeds next season.
That’s what they thought last season.
V and 2tone last year after 22 matches,
Leeds (3rd) 42 pts +15 (-10 pts of automatic promotion)
This season:
Leeds (2nd) 45 pts +26 (+1 pt of automatic promotion)
So they are slightly better than last year, but as V points hardly “destined”.