Brenden Aaronson helps Leeds to first victory of the season

Notes from Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, where Brenden Aaronson got the start and a goal for the victorious visitors from West Yorkshire

— Sheffield

Ah, English football. A Friday night in the Championship. Finally, after a busy summer for the international game, club football is back. 

Just outside of Sheffield this evening, the 23rd of August: neat rows of families and droves of various aged men made their way to Hillsborough Stadium, resolutely, with a Yorkshire Derby to watch. It’s the tail end of summer– which is sweater weather in Yorkshire, or so it is tonight– and the full run of a long, long season is still before us. Possibilities that span the gamut of hope are at hand. 

That doesn’t stop loyal supporters from fretting, of course. Nor is their fretting entirely without cause. Heading into tonight’s match, Leeds fans seemed interested to know all kinds of things, like, where are our signings? And, Do we have any depth on this team? Or, even, perhaps, will the 49ers screw us over?

But 2-0 against Sheffield Wednesday away on a Friday night will do wonders to calm early season queries. And, so long as promises are fulfilled, so might German manager Daniel Farke’s assurance after the match that, “yes, definitely”, they’ll add to the squad in the coming days. 

For now, they have what Farke called “a nearly perfect away performance”, which turned definitively in the visitors favor in the 24th minute, when Brenden Aaronson scored the team’s first goal on a play he helped set up and then finished. 

Yes, Brenden. That Brenden. He’s back in Leeds. Trepidatiously, we begin again.