Ventura Alvarado on the Rise

In a remarkable turn of events, Club America defender Ventura Alvarado has taken advantage of the absence of Paul Aguilar—reportedly due to a fight with his coach—to move into the starting lineup for the Liga MX playoffs. The 22-year-old Phoenix native has seized the day with two very strong games in a 3-0 aggregate win over Monterrey in the semifinals. As a result, Alvarado will likely start in the Liga MX finals against Tigres—which boasts Americans Jose Torres and Herculez Gomez.

Alvarado has never played for the United States or Mexico and still maintains that he will play for the first team who calls him up. That decision could be coming to an end sooner than later has he is in a position to be the starter on a powerful Club America team that is favored to win the Liga MX Apertura.

This year has seen many young Americans rise through the ranks with their clubs. Rubio Rubin, Emerson Hyndman, and Joe Gyau have all earned their first caps recently, and don’t be surprised to see Alvarado follow in their footsteps and also make an strong rise in the ASN 100 (where he is currently unranked).

Bedoya scores a brilliant goal

Nantes might have lost to PSG by a 2-1 score Saturday but Nantes actually had a 1-0 lead in the 8th minute thanks to a wonderful goal scored by Alejandro Bedoya. Zlatan Ibrahimovic would score two goals for PSG to win it but that did not take away from Bedoya’s beauty— a 28-yard right-footed laser that is a strong candidate for the best American goal of 2014.

More Americans See More Playing Time

Even when there weren’t wins, the playing time report from abroad is promising. Jozy Altidore earned a rare start for Sunderland in a scoreless draw with Liverpool. John Brooks looks as if he now has a grip on the starting job at Hertha. Fabian Johnson did not crack the Starting XI but he did earn minutes off the bench at Borussia Monchengladbach. Twenty-year-old Israeli-American Kenny Saief earned his first start of the year for Gent. And Rubio Rubin continued to gain experience with another start for Utrecht in a 4-2 loss to Heracles.

Chandler and Cameron Get Big Wins

Timothy Chandler is quietly turning things around at Eintracht Frankfurt after starting the early parts of the season on the bench. On Saturday, the German-born American went the distance for Eintracht in its 5-2 demolition of relegation battlers Werder Bremen. It was the third straight win for Eintracht, which moved up to seventh place in the Bundesliga. Chandler was solid in the win as he defensively shut down Werder’s side of the field while also moving effectively into the attack.

Geoff Cameron, however, notched the most impressive win over any American on the weekend when Stoke City defeated Arsenal 3-2 on Saturday to snap a three-game losing streak. The Massachusetts native played both defensive midfield and central defense in the game—he was much stronger in the middle of the field—as he helped take the game to Arsenal.

O’Brien, Johannsson also get on the board

Bedoya’s golazo will grab the most attention but he was not the only American to find the back of the net over the weekend.

After missing most of the early season, Aron Johannsson scored his second goal of 2014-15 when his 25th-minute goal gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 lead over Go Ahead Eagles. Johannsson has now scored 31 goals in 66 games for the Dutch club since joining in January 2013. The win was the fourth in a row for AZ, which moved into fourth place of the Eredivisie and trails third place Feyenoord—its opponent on Sunday—on just goal differential.

In the Austrian Bundesliga, Long Island native Conor O’Brien also scored an important goal when his 89th-minute penalty gave Wiender Neustadt a valuable 2-0 win over SCR Altach (the former club of Josh Gatt) as it tries to move out of the relegation zone in the Austrian Bundesliga. The club now trails Admira only on goal differential to moving out of last place in the league.

Terrence Boyd tears ACL

While it was a great weekend for most Americans in Europe, Terrence Boyd suffered a serious injury, putting a huge black mark on the celebrations. Carried off the field on a stretcher, Boyd suffered a torn ACL to the same knee he injured over the summer. That time it was only a partial tear but this time it appears much more serious.

The likely prognosis is that Boyd’s season will be done and he will also have no chance of playing in the Gold Cup for the United States this summer. The best chance he will probably have is to simply prepare for next season with RB Leipzig.

Boyd is known for his charisma and his enthusiasm for both the game of soccer and the U.S. national team. To see him suffer an injury like this is a huge disappointment.

Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.