Top Stories

Americans Abroad: Weekend Rewind

To call last weekend a bad one for American soccer plays in Europe would be an understatement.

Fulham lost again, as did Reading. Michael Bradley’s Heerenveen blew a late lead and fell to sixth place in the Eredivisie after being in second place two weeks ago. Oguchi Onyewu’s Standard Liege dropped points to KAA Gent and fell into second place in the process. Then there was Steve Cherundolo, who scored an own goal in Hannover 96’s 2-1 loss to Bochum on Friday.

It really was a weekend to forget, but for those of you who still want to know how all the Americans in Europe’s top flight did this weekend, here is the rundown:

ENGLAND

  • Tim Howard and Everton face Manchester City on Monday
  • Brian McBride started and played 90 minutes in Fulham’s 1-0 loss to West Ham United on Saturday.
  • Clint Dempsey started and played 76 minutes for Fulham.
  • Eddie Johnson came on as a substitute and played 14 minutes for Fulham.
  • Carlos Bocanegra dressed but did not play for Fulham.
  • Kasey Keller dressed but did not play for Fulham.
  • Jonathan Spector came off the bench and played one minute for West Ham.
  • Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made nine saves in Blackburn’s 4-1 win against Bolton on Sunday.
  • Eddie Lewis dressed but did not play in Derby County’s 2-0 loss to Wigan on Saturday.
  • Benny Feilhaber did not dress for Derby County.
  • Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made 11 saves in Reading’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Sunday.
  • Jay DeMerit came off the bench and played nine minutes in Watford’s 0-0 tie vs. Preston on Saturday.
  • Matt Pickens dressed but did not play in Queens Park Rangers’ 1-1 tie vs. Sheffield United on Saturday.

GERMANY

  • Steve Cherundolo started, played 90 minutes and scored an own goal in Hannover 96’s 2-1 loss to VFL Bochum on Friday.
  • Sal Zizzo dressed but did not play for Hannover 96.
  • Bryan Arguez did not dress in Hertha Berlin’s 0-0 tie against VFL Wolfsburg on Saturday.
  • Josh Wolff came off the bench and played 13 minutes in 1860 Munich’s 0-0 tie vs. FC Cologne on Friday.
  • Gregg Berhalter missed the match for 1860 Munich due to red card suspension.
  • Neven Subotic started and played 90 minutes in Mainz 05’s 2-2 tie vs. FC Carl Zeiss Jena on Friday.
  • Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern faces TUS Koblenz on Monday.
  • Josh Grenier and TUS Koblenz faces Kaiserslautern on Monday.

HOLLAND

  • Michael Bradley started and played 90 minutes in Heerenveen’s 3-2 loss to NEC Nijmegen on Sunday.

ITALY

  • Danny Szetela dressed but did not play in Brescia’s 2-0 win against Bologna on Sunday.

SPAIN

  • Giuseppe Rossi missed Villarreal’s 2-1 win vs. Athletic Bilbao on Sunday with an ankle injury.

FRANCE

  • Andrew Jacobson did not dress in Lorient’s 2-0 loss to Rennes on Saturday. 
  • Quentin Westberg did not dress in FC Troyes 1-0 win vs. Stade de Reims on Friday.

PORTUGAL

  • Freddy Adu came off the bench and played nine minutes in Benfica’s 1-1 tie against Braga on Sunday.

BELGIUM

  • Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes in Standard Liege’s 0-0 tie vs. KAA Gent on Saturday.

GREECE

  • Clint Mathis came off the bench and played 18 minutes in Ergotelis’ 2-1 loss to Panionios on Sunday.   

Comments

  1. Paul Jewell’s tactics are working so well and Derby is tearing up the league in such a fashion that it’s very wise of him to stick with the group of world-beaters he’s currently playing and not give a chance to young, creative players like Feilhaber. They’ve got some incredibly intelligent managers in England. It’s no wonder that English managers keep winning Champion’s League titles and International tournaments.

    Reply
  2. During the Fulham match this past weekend, the announcer listed Hangerland as someone in the side who was born in the USA. Is that true? If so, should we start considering him a yank abroad?

    Reply
  3. bro- dont know if you’ve ever watched the dutch league but in my mind there are 5 teams (AZ, psv, ajax, feyenoord, and heerenveen) that no matter who they are playing I have to watch. As for the MLS being from CT; revs, NJRB, and dc are the only teams that are must watch, and even then i can care less if its RSL, rapids, colombus, KC that they are playing against, where if your lucky 12k come to see the revs or RB’s play in either of their grand canyon stadiums.
    Sometimes even when the game isnt as good as your used to seeing, the atmosphere will make the game.
    – supporter of the eredivisie

    Reply
  4. “i dont see why so many americans have gone to crappy leagues like the norwegian league (troy perkins), the netherlands league (bradley) and BELGIUM (onyewu), when the MLS is clearly superior to all three leagues.”

    Bahahaha “clearly” superior my butt. I acknowledge that MLS has become good enough to compete with the big boys once every blue moon, but to say that MLS is better than the Eredivisie is plain retarded. It is much easier to go from these leagues to the Prem, Liga, or Serie than from MLS.

    Reply
  5. i dont see why so many americans have gone to crappy leagues like the norwegian league (troy perkins), the netherlands league (bradley) and BELGIUM (onyewu), when the MLS is clearly superior to all three leagues. if you dont want to play in england spain italy mexico argentina or brazil, theres really no point in playing outside of MLS unless youre not good enough for the national team. even the J-League or the A-League would be a step up on leagues like Norway’s and Belgium’s

    Reply
  6. You know Kpugs, you might be right… I mean at one point in the U-20 WC, Szetela was the tournament’s leading scorer, with 3 goals after like 2 or 3 games.
    The thing to remember is that at this time last year, the kid was playing with the UNDER-20’s… that means he’s really young (he’d still be in college had he gone that route).

    Reply
  7. Re: Jaqua/Austria – I would rather hear about a Yank scoring a game winning goal than youth players who didn’t dress (and probably never will this season.)

    Reply
  8. this off the topic, but i like the new comentators MLS has for ESPN. hopkins and the other british guys are doing a great job. no more of wynaldas stupid comments. guys was suck a jerk off.

    Reply
  9. Zerk, the listing is for top leagues in Europe. Austria’s league is pretty week. I suppose you could argue that it’s better than Belgium but I would disagree on that one.

    When Jaqua plays in a real league he can be on the list.

    Reply
  10. Even though I like having Rossi included in this post, I feel like I need to fill the obvious gap.

    OMG Ives! U dum! Why Rossi on herE? Hes a trtaitro and yuo r 2! Tak him of!

    Reply
  11. “Jay DeMerit came off the bench and played 90 minutes in Watford’s 0-0 tie vs. Preston on Saturday.” How’d that happen? First minute injury?

    Reply
  12. At least Friedel was fantastic. He made a number of big saves when it was still 1 – 1 before the goals started coming.

    After that terrible list, I’ll take a Jaqua goal winner as some good news…

    Reply
  13. Steve…try watching him play you douche.

    Szetela has always been the mold of what Michael Bradley currently is for Heerenveen. He is a true center mid who can defend, attack, pass, and hold.

    I think the people who say he probably should have gone to Holland are spot on.

    Reply
  14. My point on Rossi has softened from last week. Looking back I think it is not just being scorned that he said no to the US, but looking at Bojan for barca, I was pissed at him for not doing what Rossi did.
    Then I realized there is also some hatred for the Italian Nat’l team clouding my judgement, just like my hatred for the spanish team for Bojan.

    But being a canadian american deGuzman is the one thats gonna take a longer time to get over

    On the Rossi front i’m not really gonna care anymore, and will continue like I have done for years…. to root against Italy

    Reply
  15. Adu was not initially in the game-day roster for Benfica. No injury, just coach’s decision. Then Makukula got hurt and Adu dressed in his place. Benfica is now 13 points behind Porto.

    Mathis had the assist on Ergotelis’ consolation goal.

    Heerenveen blew a 2-0 lead. At home.

    Cherundolo’s own goal was unlucky. Even the announcer said there was nothing he could have done to avoid it.

    Reply
  16. Is it possible that this post has been up for an hour and 20 minutes, and there has yet to be one instance of kicking, screaming or general bitching regarding the inclusion of Giuseppe Rossi?

    Somebody check on the kids!

    Reply
  17. I think Convey had a minor procedure on his knee after the Mexico game and was going to miss a match for Reading. That was probably this weeks game.

    Reply
  18. The problem with Szetela is that he has Tacchinardi ahead of him on the depth chart. He has been used primarily as a sub because Brescia are trying to get promoted. But he does dress every game, and he always has a shot at playing.

    Reply
  19. Ives, where is Bobby Convey? No report? He isn’t listed on the squad for the Reserve game tonight so assume (1) he will be back on the squad for Saturday or (2) he is injured again.

    Reply
  20. Hey Ives,

    this may be slightly off topic but it involves Americans playing abroad (Hawaii)…

    What are your feelings on the PPC Championship. Is Gamba and Bare really that good? Is the J-League way ahead of MLS? What happened to the Dynamo?

    Reply
  21. Perhap Danny Szetela shouldn’t suck.

    This guy couldn’t get a game with the Crew last year. Why would we think he could play in Italy or Spain?

    Reply
  22. Am I right in thinking that Portugal & Italy do not have reserve teams? I know a lot of people are down on England as a place for young players to devlop, but it must be very frustrating to be a young player only involved in training sessions.

    Reply
  23. Man, that’s not a good sign when Danny Szetela’s not even playing in Serie B. Did he just make a bad move to Europe altogether? Perhaps he should’ve gone to a league with a different playing style (I don’t know his game well enough to suggest where he would fit best)?

    Reply

Leave a Comment