The U.S. men’s national team’s Johnny Cardoso scored his first-ever goal in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, his impactful strike serving as a go-ahead goal for Atletico Madrid in their 4-1 win over Club Brugge, the tie ending with Madrid winning 7-4 on aggregate.
Cardoso’s goal gave Atleti a 2-1 lead on the day and a 5-4 advantage on aggregate, putting the Spanish side ahead in the tie early in the second. The play began when Giuliano Simeone received the ball from Marc Pubill, Simeone then making his way down the left flank and sitting on the edge of the penalty area before whipping a cross towards the far post. Brugge’s Brandon Mechele was on the receiving end and headed the ball away, which Cardoso ran towards outside the box.
The midfielder first controlled the ball with his head and sent it to his feet before letting it take a bounce, finally hitting the ball as it came back up. His powerful strike sailed through traffic and past Brugge goalkeeper Simon Mignolet before landing in the back of the net.
Watch the strike below.
His goal ensured the knockout tie would eventually tip fully in Atleti’s favor, with Alexander Sorloth completing a hattrick in the final 15 minutes of play after scoring the game’s opening goal in the 23rd minute.
It is both Cardoso’s first goal in the Champions League and his first since joining Atleti in the summer, and comes at a very important juncture in his season. He has just 19 appearances for the Spanish club after dealing with a series of injuries but has regularly played in the new year, building match fitness as final preparation is underway for players and coaches alike ahead of the World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Cardoso is a USMNT hopeful with 22 caps, but just as injuries have disrupted the early months of his time with Atleti, he has been out of the national team fold for several months. He was last with the group during their run to the Concacaf Gold Cup final, but he played only 11 total minutes during the competition, all in the group stage, as fitness issues hampered his ability to take part in the rest of the tournament.
Cardoso boosts World Cup chances
Cardoso’s uptick in form is the latest in a bundle of good news for USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino in recent weeks, with midfielder Tyler Adams and forward Ricardo Pepi recently making their way back to the pitch after sustaining injuries early this winter. It means that Pochettino will likely have his entire player pool available for selection ahead of March’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal, and the U.S.’ final matches before the World Cup roster will be finalized in late May. Regular minutes at the club level are a prerequisite for Pochettino as he makes his squad selections, and for Cardoso, his playing time with Atleti will prove crucial as the countdown to the World Cup continues. For a young player who has been unlucky with injuries, his outings with Atleti will help him make his World Cup case, illuminating his strengths as a player and demonstrating a level of usefulness to the national team ahead of an all-important tournament.
Cardoso is not regarded for his passing ability, average at best amongst defensive midfielders in LaLiga. He makes up the difference in a handful of other categories, though – he handles the more rugged parts of the job well, ranking in the 93rd percentile for tackles and 96th when compared to other players in his position in Europe’s top five leagues. Though his goalscoring abilities are a smaller part of his game, his attacking skills are also impressive for a deep-lying player; the combination of his skills was on full display against Brugge. The goal is the highlight of his performance, but he completed two recoveries before the final whistle, each of them important as Brugge chased an equalizer that never came.
The 24-year-old, though, can be mistake-prone at times. He was the Atleti player marking Joel Ordonez’s goal in the first half, a step behind the opponent as Pubill’s attempted deflection landed on the Brugge player’s head instead. Cardoso’s poor passing ability was also on display in one of the USMNT’s pre-Gold Cup friendlies against Turkiye, a potential foe in the World Cup group stage, providing a perfect opening for Arda Guler to score the equalizer before a 2-1 defeat for Pochettino’s side.
He will need to work to cut that element out of his game as he reaches his peak years, perhaps resigning him to a spot on the USMNT’s bench at the World Cup should he make the cut. It likely puts him behind Adams in the pecking order; the Bournemouth midfielder is essentially the U.S.’s longtime favored player in that position. Even during a few injury-filled years himself after the 2022 World Cup, no one has ever gotten close to filling Adams’ void or trying to unseat him in the process. There is unlikely room for them to share the pitch, either – Cardoso and Adams have not started a match together since Pochettino took over, though the sample size is small considering both of them have been in and out of the squad through injury.
Pochettino’s midfield continues to shift as the head coach experiments with his options, handing a wide variety of players a chance to impress in national team colors in his 16 months on the job. Cardoso has thrust his name into the conversation but he will have a few rivals for a limited number of roster spots, a list of names that includes the likes of Lyon’s Tanner Tessman and the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Sebastian Berhalter.
