EFL Championship

The 2020-21 season was a banner year for Americans abroad. USMNT players have been winning trophies all over Europe, including regulars at Barcelona, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund; in a week, we’ll see an American win the Champions League for either Chelsea or Manchester City. But Saturday was not a great day for keeping U.S. internationals in Europe’s top flights, with a number of Americans relegated to lower tiers or unable to gain promotion. 

In the lower reaches of the English Football League, teams are largely comprised of journeymen. Squad turnover at this level is high, and with shorter contracts and higher financial volatility, players often play on different teams from season to season.

But few footballing nomads have ever reached the migratory magnitude that goalkeeper Josef Bursik has achieved this season. Thanks to numerous injury dilemmas at the Championship and League One level, the 20-year-old Stoke City goalkeeper has played for four different clubs in the 2020-21 campaign alone.

The Build-Up

For just the third time this season, fans were allowed inside Vitality Stadium for the first leg of Bournemouth's Championship Playoff Semifinal against Brentford.

Well-partitioned, socially-distanced pods of mask-wearing Cherries fans dotted the stands like freshly planted plots of seeds in a garden, and while they only numbered about 2,000, the Bournemouth supporters came ready to make some noise.

Following the end of the EFL Championship season over the weekend, we can now turn our attention to arguably the biggest spectacle in the Football League: the Championship Promotion Playoffs, as the third through sixth place teams battle for one spot in the Premier League.

After 45 of 46 matchweeks had been completed in the EFL Championship, it was clear that there would be no promotion drama on the final day of the season.

Norwich secured automatic promotion in mid-April, and Watford did the same a week later. On May 1, the Canaries sealed the league title in a division they had thoroughly controlled this campaign.

When Wycombe earned promotion to the Championship for the first time in 2020, the Chairboys became instant favorites for relegation.

This was a side that finished 17th in League One in 2018/19 and was predicted to be near the bottom end of the table once again in 19/20. Manager Gareth Ainsworth's side finished eighth in a COVID-shortened season and only earned a playoff spot due to the points per game formula applied by the league.

One way or another, it seems Daryl Dike is going to be playing in the Premier League next season. While there are plenty of current EPL suitors, another match winner from the 20-year-old American has his new club Barnsley within touching distance of ensuring a place in the promotion playoffs.