Portland Timbers midfielder Darlington Nagbe scored his first goal with the U.S. Men's National Team helping the Americans to a 1-0 win over Ecuador in a international friendly Wednesday night.
After coming on at halftime, Nagbe pushed forward in attack on the left side all evening. According to Opta, he was perfect on every single one of his 33 passes on the night and then found the game-winner in the 90th minute with a gorgeous bit of play. After DeAndre Yedlin put a wicked move to blow past his defender, he lofted in a cross from the right into the mixer and Ecuador tried to head away. But the clearance failed with forward Bobby Wood heading it back towards Nagbe. Nagbe chested it down and then hit it on the volley into the back of the net for his first-ever international goal.
“It felt great,” Nagbe told MLSsoccer.com after the game. “I wanted my first goal to come in a big game like this before Copa America against a good team. I was happy it was in this game."
"I just thought I had enough time to chest it, [but] I wasn’t quite sure," said Nagbe as he described his actions on the goal. "But I was lucky enough to chest it, hit it, and luckily the goalie kinda got out of the way. A goal’s a goal, and I’ll take it.”
It was Nagbe's second goal this week after scoring a curling free kick for Portland on Sunday in the Timbers' 4-2 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC. You can vote for that golazo for MLS Goal of the Week here.
Nagbe and the U.S. play again on May 28 against Bolivia (5pm PT, FS1) in their final tune-up ahead of the 2016 Copa America Centenario.
