Brenden Aaronson is on fire to start 2026.
Aaronson scored for the second-straight match on Wednesday, netting twice despite Leeds United’s 4-3 Premier League loss to Newcastle United. He now has four goals on the season for the Lilywhites.
Aaronson opened the scoring for Daniel Farke’s squad in the 32nd minute, slotting home from outside of the 18-yard box. A Newcastle giveaway led to Aaronson racing upfield before drilling a shot into the bottom-left corner.
Harvey Barnes equalized for the Magpies four minutes later though, making it 1-1 from St. James Park.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin regained Leeds United’s advantage in first-half stoppage time, scoring from the penalty spot.
Eddie Howe’s men would peg Leeds United back a second time, as Joelinton’s flick on header made it 2-2 before the hour mark.
Aaronson looked to have had the last laugh, delivering the go-ahead goal with 11 minutes to play. Ilia Gruev played Aaronson upfield on the right wing before the American attacker dribbled and struck a right-footed shot off of the left post and in.
It marked Aaronson’s first multi-goal performance since scoring twice for Red Bull Salzburg against Sturm Graz in September 2021.
However, Newcastle United would flip the script again, using a penalty kick equalizer from Bruno Guimaraes and a winning goal from Harvey Barnes to take all three points.
Aaronson was called for handball on the cross that led to Guimaraes’ tying goal. He was later substituted off before stoppage time.
Newcastle would hang on for a key home victory while Leeds United stayed eight points clear of the relegation zone despite the defeat.
Aaronson admitted his disappointment in Leeds throwing away leads on three different occasions, but knows they can’t afford to hang their heads for long.
“We are all upset,” he said in a club interview. “We know that we let this slip away a little bit but you always have to take the positives. To come here and to go up three times in a row and almost tie and win the game shows how good this team is. We need to just keep going from here.”
Up next for Aaronson and his teammates is a FA Cup trip to second-tier side Derby County on Sunday.
Interesting. We’ve seen this guy before…briefly. Right before he went to Leeds he was absolutely dominant for RB Salzburg and had given Bayern fits in a Champions League match, the point it emerged Bayern was tracking him…and his form for the USMNT was such there was a case to be made he was in the best form of any US player in the pool. And then along came Leeds with $30M in hand and suddenly he was in the Premier League, where he even started well and had some promising initial outings.
And then the Prem started physically beating him down, and his form and his confidence nose-dived. So we’ll see if this run of sparkling form lasts.
I still don’t hate it. The more he punches through the Prem wall the more belief he’s going to have, and that always seemed to be his biggest problem.
Brendan has never finished like this. Typically his xG is 2 to 3 pts higher than his actual goals, even at Salzburg. In 2023 his xGot was lower than his xGot which means his shooting was worse than you’d expect someone in his shooting position to have. This year he already has more shots on target than all of that first EPL season. Good attackers like Pepi often outperform their xG it’s unheard of for Aaronson. Does that mean he’s turned a corner or that this is just a hot streak?
Keep it up Brendo! The US needs difference makers that can come in to a game. Dude is on fire.
Gotta keep your hands down though bud.
It seems Leeds is now positioning Aaronson better to utilize his strengths, and here’s hoping it stays that way. There is a role for that type of players on the USMNT.
It is shaping up to be an interesting March window. Reyna has found his stride at BM, and earned a starting spot. Cardoso is starting to get more minutes at Athletico Madrid, potentially filling a void with Adams injured. The MLS contingent will be starting a new season, fighting for a role. The bench for 2026 may turn out to be our deepest yet.
So will Leeds fans stop being so toxic towards him now? I doubt it.
He’s been voted fans man of the match the last two matches and probably again for this match. Twitter seemed to be a lot of “I told you trolls he was good” with a small smattering of he cost us the game with the handball. I didn’t check the locations on the twitter accounts so they might have been American Leeds fans. Perri the GK seems to be the new target. He’s atleast on the uptick it appears.
In a span of 3 weeks, I think this kid just punched his ticket to the world cup lol