A pair of former MLS players nabbed game-winning goals for their respective countries in two very important games recently. On Sunday, former Colorado and San Jose striker Junior Agogo sent Ghana into the African Nations Cup semifinals with a goal against Nigeria seven minutes from time. Then on Thursday, Alain Nkong, another former Rapids player, sent Ghana out of the tournament, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win for Cameroon.
Both players graced the fields of MLS for a few seasons, but neither one impressed enough to live long in the memory. “I never thought I’d be writing about [Nkong’s] scoring the winning goal in the Cup of Nations semifinals,” says SI.com’s Greg Lalas, who adds that despite their failure to impress, “there’s a lesson here.” MLS should be recruiting more players from Africa, and then sticking with them a little longer. Both Agogo and Nkong make a good case in point: at 28, both of these players have four or five good years left, and they’ll be in far higher demand now after having scored those goals.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but the point is that MLS really should have had a greater presence at the African Nations Cup, if not to find the next Michael Essien, then the next Alain Nkong or Junior Agogo.