The road to the group stage of European competition continued rolling along, with the third qualification rounds of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League all kicking off last week.
For the contingent of USMNT-eligible Yanks Abroad, all of the action was in the lower two rungs, with Panathinaikos defender Erik Palmer-Brown, Austria Wien attacker Maurice Malone and Maccabi Haifa’s Kenny Saief seeing the most action, albeit with mixed outcomes.
Following the forthcoming second legs in the coming week, the final play-off round of all three competitions will finalize the field for the group stages, which will be set in late-August’s draw.
Champions League Qualification
The upcoming play-off round will see the central defense duo Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty take on either Kazakhstani team Kairat or Slovakians Slovan Bratislava over two legs on August 20 and 26.
Europa League Qualification
Panathinaikos 0 – 0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Erik Palmer-Brown played the full game in central defense for Greeks Panathinaikos on Thursday, helping the team maintain a scoreless draw heading into the second leg. While the Ukrainians held nearly two-thirds of possession, the American and his fellow defenders limited their visitors to only six total shots, while taking 11 themselves, with eight of those being on-target.
The return leg will take place on Thursday night, in Shakhtar’s temporary home for European competition, the Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium in Krakow, Poland. Palmer-Brown and his teammates can secure advancement with a victory, whereas a loss will see them drop to the Conference League play-off round.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
Europa Conference League Qualification
Baník Ostrava 4 – 3 Austria Wien
Maurice Malone more than did his part to keep the Violets in contention for advancement against Czech team Baník Ostrava, netting an early goal and assisting on another. However, the high-scoring affair still left the Austrians with a one-goal deficit ahead of Thursday’s critical second leg.
Having joined the team on a permanent transfer this summer from Basel, the Augsburg-born dual-nat continued what has been a successful run so far in European qualification with another standout performance.
Malone got his team off to a dream start just past the three-minute mark, with a somewhat flukey goal that left their hosts stunned. Domninik Fitz collected the ball 10 yards inside the Ostrava half, and after taking a touch to control it, poked it through the trio of nearby defenders into Malone’s path.
The American carried it into the right side of the area, and under pressure from defender Michal Frydrych, was tripped up as he began to round the onrushing keeper. The ball, however, appeared to take a fortunate deflection off of his foot as he tumbled, and rolled uncontested over the line for the 1-0 advantage.
His nearby teammates, who had initially raised their arms to claim what was arguably a penalty infraction by Frydrych, quickly switched to celebrating the lead.
The hosts nevertheless fought back, and seemingly put themselves into pole position for a commanding first-leg lead with goals in the 36th, 45th and 49th minutes to gain a 3-1 advantage.
Malone helped the visitors pull one back in the 67th minute, seeing his 12-yard shot barely deflected by Ostrava keeper Dominik Holec’s foot, only to drop into Fitz’s path for an easy finish.
Four minutes after the American was subbed out in the 76th minute, the Austrians pulled even as Manprit Sarkaria jolted behind the hosts’ defense and beat Holec with his low 18-yard shot. However, Ostrava regained the advantage two minutes later when Erik Prekop rose to head in a free kick delivery from Tomas Rigo, to seal the 4-3 home win.
The Austrians will need to overturn the one-goal deficit in Thursday’s home leg in order to maintain hope of reaching the group stage.
Highlights of the game can be seen here.
Notes
Justin Che and Gavin Beavers might see their European adventure come to an end in a few days, as Brøndby will need to overturn a three-goal deficit at home against Víkingur Reykjavík in order to advance. Neither player made it off of the bench during the first leg in Iceland.
Rokas Pukštas stayed glued to Hajduk Split’s bench during their 2-1 win over Albanians Dinamo City.
Konrad de la Fuente was an onlooker from Lausanne’s bench as they easily beat Kazakhstani team Astana by a 3-1 margin, to give themselves a strong position for advancing.
Kenny Saief earned the start for Maccabi Halfa in their first-leg 1-0 road win at Polish team Raków Częstochowa. The four-times-capped USMNT player lined up on the right side of the midfield, but only had 20 touches and one shot before leaving the game in the 64th minute.
Both Aziel Jackson and Leon Flach were 86th-minute subs for Polish team Jagiellonia Białystok in the team’s 1-0 road win at Danes Silkeborg.