Bayer Leverkusen scored early and often in Saturday’s road triumph over Wolfsburg, a result that saw U.S. men’s national team midfielder Malik Tillman deliver his best performance yet as a member of the team.
Malik Tillman had a say in two of Bayer Leverkusen’s goals in a 3-1 victory in Bundesliga play. Tillman earned SBI Americans Abroad Player of the Week honors in the process.
Tillman set up Jonas Hofmann for Leverkusen’s opening goal before slotting home his third league goal of the campaign to wrap up the three points. The 23-year-old only played 64 minutes on the day, but left the match with valuable confidence as Kasper Hjulmand’s squad moved up to second place in the Bundesliga standings.
Tillman now has four goal contributions in 11 appearances across all competitions this season.
He will now aim to carry his productive performance over to a midweek UEFA Champions League trip to Manchester City. Bayer Leverkusen are 1-2-1 in four UCL matches so far this campaign and know a victory against the fourth-ranked Citizens could lead to a spark up the table.
Here is a closer look at this week’s top Americans Abroad performances:
Gianluca Busio
Make it back-to-back goalscoring performances for American midfielder Gianluca Busio.
Busio scored Venezia’s opening goal on Saturday in an eventual 2-0 road win over Padova. The former Sporting KC homegrown midfielder logged a strong 90 minutes in the result, creating the most chances (3) and passes (60).
Consecutive victories for Venezia have them sitting fifth in the Serie B standings.
Tim Weah
Over two months since his last Marseille goal, Tim Weah was on the scoresheet in Ligue 1 play for the first time this season.
Weah logged his first league goal of the campaign as Marseille rolled past Nice 5-1 on Friday. The USMNT winger/wingback logged a full 90 minutes in the match, delivering a confident finish into the top-left corner for a then 4-0 Marseille lead.
Now Weah and Marseille will turn their attention towards UCL play this week.
Christian Pulisic
AC Milan picked up a major derby win on Sunday with Christian Pulisic playing the hero once again,
Pulisic scored the Rossoneri’s winning goal in a 1-0 Milan Derby triumph over rivals Inter. The USMNT attacker played 78 minutes, scoring off of a rebound in the second half.
It marked Pulisic’s third goal in his eighth-career match vs. Inter.
Jonathan Tomkinson
Saturday marked a memorable day for Jonathan Tomkinson.
Tomkinson scored his first senior goal as Cheltenham Town defeated Bristol Rovers 1-0 in League Two action. The 23-year-old logged 90 minutes in the result as Steve Cotterill’s squad moved out of the relegation zone.
Tomkinson has made seven appearances for the club since joining as a free agent signing.
What did you think of this weekend’s slate of Americans Abroad action? Is there anyone else deserving of a shout on this list?
Share your thoughts below.
Miami making Cincinatti look like a pub team in Cincinatttis house.
And Union bow out, so glad we were put through a whole season of Bedoya and Vassilev so the worlds best 16 yr old could sit on the bench just so they could lose in the quarterfinals.
I do believe you called that.
I’m sure “the world’s best 16 year old,” with his earth shattering career numbers of 0 goals and 0 assists, in all competitions, would have solved all of the Union’s problems, especially since he was so positively impactful when he was subbed on in the 83rd minute.
Well, the world’s best 16-year-old is definitely playing like a Union player already. A defender was trying to clear the ball and there’s Cavan riding the guy like Zoro and yanking him to the ground, despite the fact that he was half the guy’s size.
He might need to overcome that or he’s going to be a serious card collector when he gets to Europe. Even a Championship side would look at the Union right now and go: “too much, lads. Too much.” I’ve seen gentler teams in the Copa Libertadores, and those South American squads do everything short of hitting a guy over the head with a chair WWE-style.
Papi: Tijuana let Mora play thru his youthfulness last year at 16 and now at 17 he’s their best player. Sullivan immediately came on and put a ball into a dangerous spot in the box. He made several good runs that his teammates missed, likely because they don’t play together enough. Union chose to play journeyman all season in order to win the supporters shield. When they got to the playoffs their lack of star quality left them wanting. We’ll never know where’d they’d be had the let Sullivan figure it out. Maybe worse maybe better.
I think Iloski made a mistake choosing them over SDFC. With SDFC he was a goal scoring machine but the Union seem to value him only for assists despite the fact that he had the best shot on goal vs. NY.
Johnnyrazor,
“Tijuana let Mora play thru his youthfulness last year at 16 and now at 17 he’s their best player.”
Your example / argument using Mora is significantly flawed. Barca played Ansu Fati at 16 and he looked like the next big thing. Soon thereafter he got injured and was shipped out. Point being…it is an inexact science. For every Mora, there are 10 Fati’s, and even 50 more that you have never heard of.
“Sullivan immediately came on and put a ball into a dangerous spot in the box. He made several good runs that his teammates missed, likely because they don’t play together enough.”
Not true. Embellish much?
I watched the game. That is categorically false and revisionist history on your part…specifically conjured up to fit your narrative.
Sullivan came on in the 83rd minute, touched the ball 4 times, and lost possession on 3 of those 4 touches.
“Union chose to play journeyman all season in order to win the supporters shield. When they got to the playoffs their lack of star quality left them wanting.”
Philly lost vs NYCFC because they couldn’t finish their chances…and they had plenty. That is a distinct possibility anytime a one-game playoff occurs. Had Philly finished their chances, they would have moved on.
Star quality was to blame for Philly’s demise, huh? San Diego FC moved on…what star quality does San Diego FC have?
“We’ll never know where’d they’d be had the let Sullivan figure it out. Maybe worse maybe better.”
Figure it out??? This is professional soccer. People’s livelihoods are on the line every day. There is no, “let Cavan figure it out.”
What we do know at this point in time…Cavan is not good enough to start, or play a major role, for the Union. In pro soccer, “it’s not whether you are old enough, it’s whether you are good enough.”
Sam Adeniran with 2 assists for LASK against Sturm Graz. George Bello assisted on the other.