Dike’s Smashing Return 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿; Gio Generates Transfer Interest 🇩🇪

"The way he celebrated says many things about how much he has been suffering, how important it was to score, how important he is in the dressing room. To have Dike as a striker is always a positive.”

—West Bromwich Albion manager Carlos Corberan, on Daryl Dike’s goal and the importance of his comeback for the Baggies

Dike’s Smashing Return:

We at ASU could not be more thrilled for Daryl Dike 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. There is little better in life, and in football, than when good things happen to good people — or in this case, great things to wonderful people. And that’s what we had the opportunity to witness over the weekend when the 23-year-old national team striker from Edmond, Okla. returned to the pitch for the first time in nine months.

Fighting his way back from yet another — fourth according to Transfermarkt — injury setback, Dike started Sunday’s FA Cup match for West Brom against Aldershot Town. Which would have been enough of an occasion to celebrate, given the severity of his most recent injury (a ruptured Achilles tendon). But Dike managed to do so much more in his first game back. After being heavily involved in the attack as the Baggies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, the ball found its way to Dike off a corner kick in the 27th minute and the USMNT forward pounced on the opportunity, slamming the ball home with an authoritative side volley to score his first goal since March 2023.

The finish itself was impressive enough (WATCH THE GOAL HERE), but even more memorable was the emotion on display afterwards. A genuinely lovely moment for a player who has overcome numerous challenges over the course of his young career, yet has maintained a positive attitude throughout.

Dike spoke with West Brom TV about how much the moment meant to him after the 4-1 win.

🗣 "When you have a big injury like that, you have moments where doubts come into your head or things are difficult. But when you have good teammates, when you have a good mindset, and a family around you pushing you and supporting you, it lifts you back up. When you get moments like that, it makes it all worthwhile.”

With the win, West Brom next face either Brentford or Wolves in Round 4 of the FA Cup. The Baggies are also in fifth place in the Championship, well within the promotion playoff spots past the halfway mark of the season, something that Dike is well aware of.

“I just want to finish the whole season healthy and hopefully shoot us back up to the Premier League. If I can contribute then that’s the goal.”

🎧 VAMOS: Dike talks to Herculez Gomez about physical, emotional toll of being hurt

Weah Worldie Leads to Juve Joy:

Daryl Dike wasn’t the only USMNT star to score his first goal of the season this past week. Tim Weah 🇮🇹 (23; Rosedale, NY) slammed home an absolute worldie (WATCH) in Juventus’ Coppa Italia win over Salernitana last Wednesday to get his first career goal for the Bianconeri. Maybe even better than the goal itself? The hug Weah got from Weston McKennie afterwards. 

Elsewhere in Serie US-A, Christian Pulisic 🇮🇹 (25; Hershey, PA) continued his sick, sick run of form in Italy, grabbing an assist in Milan’s 3-0 win at Empoli on Sunday (WATCH). That’s now seven goals and six assists so far this season for CP11. The away victory also saw Yunus Musah 🇮🇹 (21; London, ENG) return to action as a substitute after missing three weeks due to injury.

Gio Generates Interest From France, Spain:

Finding minutes extremely difficult to come by at Dortmund, buzz is starting to build that Gio Reyna 🇩🇪 (21; Bedford, NY) will be making a move away from the German club in the January window. The latest from Sky Germany — as reported in the Daily Mail — is that Olympique Marseille and Sevilla have both contacted BVB about Reyna’s services. Will be a very interesting one to track this winter. If we were all on Puli Watch last summer, this could wind up being the January of Gio.

News and Notes:

• The Guardian took a closer look at why Folarin Balogun 🇫🇷 (22; London, ENG) has struggled to find the back of the net since joining Monaco. One potential reason: Balo thrives in chaos, where Les Rouge et Blanc are all about control.

• The Athletic also did a fascinating deep dive on Matt Turner’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (29; Park Ridge, NJ) effectiveness when playing the ball out of the back with his feet. Overarching takeaway: He’s statistically better than one might expect, but still has room to improve. 

• Tyler Adams Update: According to Bournemouth owner Bill Foley, the USMNT midfielder is expected to return to the Cherries lineup between the end of February and early March.

• Haji Wright 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (25; Los Angeles, CA) is doubtful for Coventry City’s match against Leicester City on Saturday after injuring his adductor muscles against Middlesbrough on Jan. 1. The injury doesn’t sound too serious, however, a good thing for the Sky Blues considering Wright’s form this season (eight goals and five assists in 26 appearances).

• Congratulations to Cade Cowell 🇲🇽 (20; Ceres, CA) for reportedly completing a move to Chivas from MLS. Here’s to hoping he brings the ‘stache back for his Liga MX chapter.

• Our Italian is crap at ASU, but we’re pretty sure this tweet from Serie B socials says that Tanner Tessmann 🇮🇹 (22; Birmingham, AL) is completely balling out for Venezia and his coach sees him as an absolutely indispensable Canal Boy midfielder. Or something like that. 😉

• Sergiño Dest 🇳🇱 (23; Almere, NED) dropped some backheel touchline filth on Hamburger SV during a recent winter break friendly. Worth a watch or six.

• Brenden Aaronson 🇩🇪 (23; Medford, NJ) scored for Union Berlin in their friendly against Arminia Bielefeld. Hopefully a sign of things to come for Medford Messi in 2024.

• Matthew Hoppe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (22; Yorba Linda, CA) is eligible to play for Middlesbrough again now that his MLS loan has wrapped. He wasn’t in the squad for Boro’s impressive 1-0 League Cup semi-final win (first leg) over Chelsea; it will be interesting to see if he makes a move in the January window.

Parting Shots:

We close this week’s ASU by wishing a happy 21st birthday to USMNT striker Ricardo Pepi 🇳🇱 (21; El Paso, TX). A man who has saved our National Football Team from humiliation, moved to Europe, had the strength to survive the culture shock, rebound, and assert himself on a perfect club team. He has survived the agony of being on the outside in of a World Cup, only to return to the USMNT fold and do what he always has—found the back of the net relentlessly and joyously. One of the most tenacious characters we have seen. All before he's legally allowed to drink. To more, Ricardo. To more.

📺 WATCH: All of Ricardo Pepi’s goals from 2023

📺 ROG INTERVIEWS PEPI: “Pressure is not having food on the table”

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