After the Campeones Cup was raised and the champagne sprayed, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez and Jeff Larentowicz sat in Atlanta United’s spacious locker room savoring their 3-2 win over Club America in the Campeones Cup on Wednesday night.
Larentowicz was voted the outstanding player after scoring the goal of a lifetime to boost the team’s offense and then throwing himself around on defense as if he were a player half his 36 years.
“I said, ‘Hey man, congratulations, you deserve it more than all of us,’” Gonzalez Pirez said. “He’s an amazing guy. He’s a warrior. He’s all the time pushing us forward.”
Though Larentowicz tried to demure to captain Michael Parkhurst when it was time to lift the trophy in the moment every player dreams about, Parkhurst declined.
Larentowicz was the team’s captain Wednesday. It was his turn.
Holding the trophy in his left hand, Larentowicz turned to his teammates to his right and waved his fingers, signalling them to get ready to erupt.
The right hand grabbed the trophy.
He raised it up.
His teammates erupted.
“Plain and simple it’s fun,” Larentowicz said of raising the trophy. “It was a fun night. It was an exciting night. For the neutral it was probably really exciting.”
The goal, though, may be what most remember.
Struck from about 25 yards, Larentowicz hit the missile into the upper left corner. No one had time to move as the ball screamed across the penalty box. It’s a shot that he has tried a few times with Atlanta United. It finally went in.
Larentowicz laughed when asked if he hit as pure as he wanted.
“Yeah, it went in,” he said. “I don’t think you can say you’d have it any other way.”
About the Author
