Aron Johannsson’s rocket

Injuries have not been kind to Johannsson this season, as chronicled in detail here. Following the World Cup, he needed two surgeries which kept him out of action until November and he has only played in one national team game since the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Johannsson has been playing much better in recent weeks but his 88th-minute game-winning goal on Sunday caught many by surprise. Everyone knows he is a great finisher inside the box, but what is sometimes forgotten is his ability to shoot from distance.

With AZ Alkmaar and NAC Breda tied 2-2 late in the game, Johannsson hit this bomb from 35-plus yards out. The remarkable  strike was his seventh of the year— a good number given the amount of time he missed.

Chandler: One and Done

Eintracht Frankfurt dominated Hoffenheim on Saturday and U.S. national team right back Timothy Chandler got on the score sheet when he nodded Bastian Oczipka's cross home in the in the 34th minute.  

Chandler's goal gave Eintracht a 3-0 lead and the team coasted to a 3-1 win, moving into 11th place in the Bundesliga. It was Chandler's first goal of the season—he has scored exactly one goal in each of his  five Bundesliga seasons.

Cameron helps Stoke trounce Tottenham

Stoke City moved into ninth place in the Premier League on Sunday when it trounced an exceptionally poor Tottenham 3-0. Geoff Cameron started at right back and while he had some iffy giveaways, his pass completion percentage was a solid 75%. Defensively he was a rock and little got by him on his side of the field.

Although the Massachusetts native has struggled to get on the field at times this season, in recent weeks he reclaimed his starting spot and is the last man standing among American-born field players earning regular minutes in the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, or Serie A.

Michael Orozco and Puebla

While he sometimes flies under the radar, Michael Orozco has been playing well recently and on Saturday he and his Puebla teammates came up with a crucial away draw against Santos Laguna. The 2-2 result gave Puebla the point it needed to avoid relegation.

Between this season's Apertura and Clausura Orozco started 31 games, played 2700 minutes, and was an anchor on the team’s backline.

Gladbach: Germany's Best in 2015

The numbers tell the story: Borussia Monchengladbach has been the best team in Germany since the Bundesliga resumed from its annual winter break. The team has not lost in 12 games and its 2015 record is an outstanding 11 wins, 1 loss, and 3 draws. This includes an away win over Bayern Munich, a victory over Wolfsburg, and Saturday's win against Bayer Leverkusen. With just two league games remaining, one more win will clinch a spot in the group stages of the Champions League.

Monchengladbach remain undefeated in the Bundesliga when Fabian Johnson starts—and the German-born American midfielder has been a regular starter since the winter break. Being a regular starter for the hottest team in Germany is a rare accomplishment for an American player.

Rhett Bernstein enjoys career game

San Diego native and former Brown University defender Rhett Bernstein has spent the bulk of his career in the lower leagues in Norway. Last season, however, Mjondalen earned an unlikely promotion to Norway’s Tippeligaen and Bernstein, 27, got his first taste of top-flight soccer in Europe.

On Saturday, Bernstein had a game he will never forget, scoring twice off set pieces and assisting on another goal to lift Mjondalen to a 4-3 win over Tromso. The central defender rarely gets on the score sheet and those goals were actually the first two of his career.

UPDATE: Bernstein scored two more goals today, May 12, against Rosenborg, which brings his two-game tally to four goals. 

Stabaek continues to cruise

Bob Bradley’s Stabaek won its fifth consecutive game on Saturday, this one a 2-0 road win over Valerenga. Even more impressive, all five wins have come via shutout.

Stabaek has displayed a lockdown defense all season, having conceded just three goals in seven matches. The team has not allowed an opponent to score a Tippeligaen goal in the last 465 minutes.

Club expectations were modest at the beginning of the season and not even the most optimistic of fans would have imagined the club would be in second place at this juncture.

American midfielder Cole Grossman is enjoying more success than he had in MLS—where minutes were occasionally tough to come by. In Norway, he has become a key contributor for Bradley.

Morales and Ingolstadt fail to clinch

Ingolstadt has a chance to clinch its first-ever Bundesliga berth on Sunday when it hosts RB Leipzig. That's the glass-half-full version. The pessimist's take: The club squandered an opportunity to clinch promotion two days ago when it lost to Bochum by a 3-1 score line.

That said, Ingolstadt and U.S. international Alfredo Morales are all but certain to earn promotion to the Bundesliga. In fact, it would take a phenomenal set of results for it not to happen.

All the club needs is a single draw in either of its final two matches. And even if Ingolstadt lost its final two games, third place Kaiserslautern would need to win its remaining two and make up a six-goal differential to overtake Ingolstadt and earn automatic promotion.

Notes from Around Europe

• Eric Lichaj was named Nottingham Forest’s Player of the Month for April. Will this award—and his steady play in England—catch the eye of Jurgen Klinsmann? TBD.
• John Brooks left Hertha Berlin’s 2-0 loss in the 54^th minute after suffering a hip injury. The initial report is that he is questionable and will be evaluated ahead of next weekend’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt. Hertha is only three points above the relegation zone with two Bundesliga games remaining.
• In Ireland, American forward Jay Keegan scored for Galway United in the 27th minute in the club’s 2-0 win over Derry City. The three points lifted newly promoted Galway into eighth place in Ireland’s top flight. It was the second goal of the season for the Stormville, N.Y., native. 

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