U.S. Abroad: Weekend Hot (and Cold) List

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Nov 23, 2014

Here's who has been hot (and cold) over the weekend among Americans abroad ...

HOT. Aron Johannsson. The Icelandic-American striker scored his first goal in more than seven months for AZ, heading home Thom Haye's cross in the 14th minute for an early lead that stood up for a 1-0 win over Vitesse. The win moved AZ into fifth place in the Eredivisie through Saturday action.

HOT. Edgar Castillo. The veteran left back started for Atlas in its 2-1 win over Club America that gave it a share of the Torneo Apertura regular-season title along with America and Tigres. Castillo, who started all 17 games, shared the title with three other Americans: Ventura Alvarado, who started for America, and Jose Torres, who started for Tigres, and Herculez Gomez, a second-half sub in the 2-1 win over Toluca. If they stay with their clubs, Castillo, Torres and Gomez will play in the 2015 Libertadores Cup as a result of the second- and third-place finishes for Atlas and Tigres. (Club America is already committed to the Concacaf Champions League knockout stage.)

Torneo Apertura, Final Statistics:
GP/G PLAYER, TEAM
17/1 Edgar Castillo, Atlas
15/0 Jose Torres, Tigres
15/0 Greg Garza, Tijuana
14/0 Michael Orozco, Puebla
13/0 Joe Corona, Tijuana
11/1 Herculez Gomez, Tigres
5/0 Paul Arriola, Tijuana
3/0 Ventura Alvarado, Club America
3/0 Alonso Hernandez, Monterrey
2/0 Gabriel Farfan, Chiapas
2/0 Alejandro Guido, Tijuana
2/0 Jesus Vasquez, Leones Negros
1/0 Jose Montes de Oca, Leon

COLD. Geoff Cameron. Cameron got his wish and started in the middle of the Stoke City backline as he and Marc Muniesa replaced the injured Erik Pieters and Marc Wilson for the match against Burnley. The experiment did not go well as Danny Ings was handed two gifts in the first 14 minutes, and Stoke fell at home, 2-1. It was not the kind of game Cameron needed to convince Stoke manager Mark Hughes that he keep him as a regular center back.

HOT. John Brooks. The 22-year-old German-American, a late withdrawal from the USA's match against Ireland because of "a minor ankle injury," made his first Bundesliga start for Hertha Berlin in more than two months in its 2-1 win at FC Cologne on Saturday. Hertha coach Jos Luhukay, so upset with Brooks that he had dropped him to the Hertha 2 team in the fourth division earlier in the fall, opted to change his entire backline after its 2-0 loss to Hannover 96 at home in its last game before the break.

COLD. Jozy Altidore. Sunderland manager Gus Poyet didn't even bother using his third sub in the Black Cats' 0-0 tie at Leicester City, leaving Altidore to finish as an unused sub for the fifth time this season.

Jozy Altidore (2014-15 EPL):
Through 12 Sunderland games ...
81 minutes played
6 games  as substitute
5 games  as unused used
1 game did not dress
0 goals scored

Notable ...

Tim Howard's late save on James Collins from close distance helped Everton preserve a 2-1 win over West Ham and extend its unbeaten streak to five games ... Alejandro Guido, the 20-year-old midfielder, enjoyed just his second start of his three-year career at Tijuana, starting in Xolos' 3-2 win over Leon on the final day of the Liga MX summer-fall regular season ... Conor O'Brien scored from the penalty spot in the 74th minute as last-place Wiener Neustadt snapped an eight-game winless streak with a 2-0 win over RZ Pellets WAC in Austria's Bundesliga.