Tag Archives: MLS is Back Tournament

Diego Rossi Wins MLS is Back Tournament’s Golden Boot Award

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It’s Diego Rossi’s golden moment…

The 22-year-old Uruguayan professional footballer and Los Angeles FC forward has won the MLS is Back Tournament’s Golden Boot award.

Diego Rossi

Rossi scored seven goals in five tournament matches to earn the trophy.

The highlight of Rossi’s tournament performance came on Saturday, July 18 in LAFC’s 6-2 victory over El Tráfico rival LA Galaxy when he scored four times, becoming the 13th player in MLS history to achieve the feat.

Rossi’s five combined goals and assists in that match tied the all-time league record, becoming the first player to accomplish this twice in his MLS career.

He also scored a goal in LAFC’s opening 3-3 draw against the Houston Dynamo on July 13 and scored a brace in the club’s 4-1 victory over Seattle Sounders FC on July 27 in the knockout round.

By winning the Golden Boot, Rossi has earned $10,000 for the LAFC Academy through the ‘Audi Goals Drive Progress’ program, a multi-year initiative launched by Audi and dedicated to expanding the breadth of academy resources through contributions toward player education, housing and transportation.

Of Rossi’s seven goals, five came in the tournament’s group stage and count toward the regular season. The Uruguayan leads the league in the race for the 2020 MLS Golden Boot with six regular season goals entering return to play in home markets.

Frankie Amaya Scores First Career Goal in FC Cincinnati Win Over Atlanta United

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It’s a Major League Soccer first for Frankie Amaya…

The 19-year-old Mexican American soccer player scored his first career goal in the 76th minute, and FC Cincinnati took advantage of nine-man Atlanta United team to pull off a stunning 1-0 victory Thursday in the MLS is Back Tournament near Orlando.

Frankie Amaya

The win was the first of the season for Cincinnati (1-0-3, 3 points), and an even bigger upset within Group E at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Cincinnati lost its opener 4-0 to rival Columbus, but prevailed thanks to an undisciplined Atlanta side that finished the match with nine men.

Amaya showed his strength and accuracy with a bending strike from just outside the center of the box, beating an outstretched Brad Guzan into the far-left corner for the game’s lone goal.

For Atlanta (2-0-2, four points), the loss could be a crushing blow to its hopes of reaching the knockout round. Playing without injured star Josef Martinez (torn ACL), Atlanta opened the tournament with a 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls.

This marked the first time in club history that Atlanta has failed to score in back-to-back regular-season MLS contests. It obviously did not help that they played most of the match a man down.

Atlanta went down to 10 men when midfielder Jake Mulraney was sent off in the 26th minute for a pressing foul that also happened to be his second yellow card of the match. However, Atlanta’s Pity Martinez had a point-blank chance late in the first half, but Cincinnati keeper Przemyslaw Tyton was up to the task.

It appeared Martinez was set for a penalty shot in the final seconds of the first half after being fouled deep in the box. However, a VAR check ruled he was offside before the infraction.

Cincinnati eventually stepped up the pressure. When Adrien Regattin found Amaya amid some traffic, the talented youngster drilled his left-footed attempt into the goal, and enough for FCC to record its first league victory since Sept. 14.

Atlanta dropped to nine men when JJ Williams was slapped with a red card late in stoppage time.

Amaya was the first overall draft pick of the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, and the first first-overall pick to be born in the 2000s. Amaya played one year of college soccer for UCLA and prior to UCLA, played club soccer with Pateadores SC, a premier youth club in Southern California.