{"id":8500,"date":"2016-04-24T21:17:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T01:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8500"},"modified":"2016-04-25T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T17:26:12","slug":"cj-sapong-is-having-a-pretty-damn-good-season-in-mls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=8500","title":{"rendered":"CJ Sapong Is Having a Pretty Damn Good Season in MLS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script src=\"http:\/\/player.ooyala.com\/iframe.js#pbid=4bfc225f82bf46c48dfb065eda97f74f&amp;ec=8zdmwyMzE68H7S3L60woNgXf9On6FeWK&amp;platform=html5-priority\"><\/script><br \/>\nCJ Sapang scored again for the Philadelphia Union this weekend. The goal, as seen above, put the Union up 2-0 over NYCFC and moved them to the top of the table in the Eastern Conference. It&#8217;s still early in the season, but the JMU soccer alum, is off to one hell of a start. Through seven matches, Sapong leads the Union with 4 goals. That total also puts him in the top 5 of MLS goal scorers.<\/p>\n<p>Last year was a rough one for Sapong. He battled injuries on the field and was also arrested for DUI. Despite those set backs, he managed rally and score a career best 9 goals. This season, he&#8217;s on pace to blow past that total.<\/p>\n<p>His efforts have not gone unnoticed. In fact, they&#8217;ve lead to some folks calling for Jurgen Klinsmans to call Sapong up for US Men&#8217;s National Team Duties. And the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/post\/2016\/04\/13\/twellman-union-striker-cj-sapong-deserves-us-national-team-consideration\">calls for CJ are being led by none other than Taylor Twellman<\/a>. Sapang has previously played with the USMNT only during the January session, which is never really the &#8220;A team&#8221; and usually a chance to give below the radar players a look-see.<\/p>\n<p>While the seemingly tenured USMNT striker Jozy Altidore has battled injuries this year, he still has yet to find the back of the net in 5 games of action. CJ&#8217;s supporters rightly point out that he&#8217;s scoring at a greater rate than Jozy, but also has improved by leaps and bounds holding the ball and creating scoring opportunities for his teammates. Of course, performing in MLS doesn&#8217;t always equal a call up to Klinsmann&#8217;s squad (cough, Benny Feilhaber, cough). If CJ keeps improving like this, Jurgen is going to need to give him a shot.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D8500&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CJ Sapang scored again for the Philadelphia Union this weekend. The goal, as seen above, put the Union up 2-0 over NYCFC and moved them to the top of the table in the Eastern Conference. It&#8217;s still early in the season, but the JMU soccer alum, is off to one hell of a start. Through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2613,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2613","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":0},"title":"CJ Sapong Scores First Goal Ever at Livestrong Sporting Park","date":"June 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Former JMU soccer player CJ Sapong seems to have a knack for scoring memorable goals. He scored the fastest goal for a rookie in MLS history in his debut in March. Last weekend, he became the first player ever to score in the brand new Livestrong Sporting Park. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2251,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2251","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":1},"title":"JMU Alum CJ Sapong Scores 1:43 Into His MLS Debut","date":"March 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Former JMU soccer star, CJ Sapong, got his MLS career started with a bang over the weekend. The rookie striker earned\u00a0the start\u00a0for the season opener and\u00a0then scored in the second minute of the match. Scroll to the 48 second point in the video above to see it. The goal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9395,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9395","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":2},"title":"JMU Alum CJ Sapong Is the Top Scorer in MLS","date":"May 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Capitals and Wizards losses last night, we're a little bit down on sports this morning. But thankfully, there's a JMU related story to lift our spirits. Former JMU soccer player CJ Sapong is off to the best start of his career with 7 goals through 9 games. That's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"sapong","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/uspresswire-union-cj-sapong.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3717,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3717","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":3},"title":"C.J. Sapong Nets Late Winner Against DC United","date":"March 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU alum C.J. Sapong started off the 2012 MLS season with a bang last weekend. After entering as a late second half sub, he headed home a corner kick in stoppage time to secure a 1-0 win for Sporting Kansas City in the season opener. As DC United supporters, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7736,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=7736","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":4},"title":"Hopefully One of JMU&#8217;s Pros Provides an Example for Current Dukes","date":"May 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As our eleven long-time readers know, we've always had fun following JMU athletes into the professional ranks when the best of them were able to continue their careers beyond the 'Burg. And as most of you know, with the possible exception of Arthur Moats, there's probably no former Duke we've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6317,"url":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6317","url_meta":{"origin":8500,"position":5},"title":"Sapong Wins MLS Cup!","date":"December 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Since there are really only so many ways to keep saying the same things about men's hoops right now (injuries, a suspension, youth, horrendous shooting but just need to stay patient) and we haven't heard anything on the coaching search in football yet, we're thrilled to share a really bright\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8503,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8500\/revisions\/8503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}