Real Salt Lake forward Joao Plata announced himself on the international stage Tuesday night, collecting his first two goals for the Ecuadorian national team in a 5-1 win against El Salvador in a friendly at Red Bull Arena.
The diminutive forward was handed the start by manager Sixto Vizuete and opened the scoring in the 16th minute when his shot from distance took a looping deflection off a defender and into the net. He added his second and Ecuador's third in the 25th minute when he beat a defender and got off a left-footed finish, and went on to register 72 minutes in the encounter. Plata now has two goals in four appearances with La Tri.
Over in Europe, Robbie Keane doesn't quite have another international scalp to add to his collection, but will be feeling good nonetheless after he and his Ireland team snatched a dramatic 1-1 draw in their Euro 2016 qualifying encounter away to defending world champions Germany.
A few days removed from a hat trick against minnows Gibraltar, the LA Galaxy star went 63 minutes against Germany and was substituted with the scores locked at zero. Toni Kroos put the home side up in the 71st minute, but Ireland snatched a stoppage-time equalizer from veteran defender John O'Shea to move into a tie for first place in Group D.
Elsewhere among MLSers in Tuesday's international action, RSL's Alvaro Saborio and New York's Roy Miller were both late substitutes as Costa Rica turned in another high-scoring performance with a 3-1 win over South Korea. Red Bulls DP Tim Cahill started, but went 76 fruitless minutes up top as Australia fell 1-0 to Qatar in Asian Cup preparations, and FC Dallas netminder Raul Fernandez was a spectator from the bench during Peru's 1-0 friendly win over Guatemala after going the full 90 against Chile last Friday.
For a detailed look at how MLSers from the US, Canada and Honduras fared on Tuesday, check out MLSsoccer.com's MatchCenters for US-Honduras and Canada-Colombia.
Australia - 1-0 loss at Qatar (Friendly)
Tim Cahill: 76 minutes
Canada - 1-0 loss vs. Colombia (Friendly)
Manny Aparicio: 2 minutes
Jeremy Gagnon-Lapare: 22 minutes
Doneil Henry: 90 minutes
Issey Nakajima-Farran: 89 minutes
Karl Ouimette: 13 minutes
Quillan Roberts: Dressed, did not play
Costa Rica - 3-1 win at South Korea (Friendly)
Alvaro Saborio: 4 minutes
Roy Miller: 6 minutes
Ecuador - 5-1 win vs. El Salvador (Friendly)
Joao Plata: 72 minutes, 2 goals
Honduras - 1-1 draw at United States (Friendly)
Victor Bernardez: 90 minutes
Marvin Chavez: 14 minutes
Jorge Claros: 45 minutes
Boniek Garcia: 69 minutes
Luis Garrido: 90 minutes
Republic of Ireland - 1-1 draw at Germany (Euro 2016 qualifier)
Robbie Keane: 63 minutes
Peru - 1-0 win vs. Guatemala (Friendly)
Raul Fernandez: Dressed, did not play
United States - 1-1 draw vs. Honduras (Friendly)
Matt Besler: 63 minutes
Michael Bradley: 90 minutes, assist
Bill Hamid: Dressed, did not play
Sean Johnson: Did not dress
Jermaine Jones: 90 minutes
Nick Rimando: 90 minutes, 1 save, 1 goal conceded
Chris Wondolowski: Dressed, did not play
DeAndre Yedlin: 26 minutes
Graham Zusi: 64 minutes
