Liel Abada insisted his first ever goal in the MLS was payback for the 'very, very difficult time in Scotland' he endured as the former Celtic star was named Man of the Match.
The Israeli winger helped Charlotte FC to a 3-2 win over Toronto and netted his first goal for his new club in his third appearance for the North Carolina outfit.
It was his first goal since scoring for the Hoops at Pittodrie in a 3-1 win back in August against Aberdeen.
And he was thrilled with the milestone.
Abada said: "I have been waiting for this goal for a very long time. I had a very, very difficult time in Scotland, now I'm happy and I just wanted to enjoy it.
"We are happy with the three points which are the most important. I am very pleased that I scored. Now my aim is to score more goals here.
"We have some very good players in attack, there is good chemistry between us. We work hard and know what we have to do. The coaching team here teaches us a lot."
And Abada's boss - former Aston Villa and Leicester City manager Dean Smith - was delighted at the 22-year-old's performance.
Smith said: "Liel came to the party today. He is a humble guy, you could see how important this goal was to him. His impact on the game was great."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel