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Americans Abroad: Weekend Rewind

Jozy Altidore 1 (Reuters) 

Jozy Altidore didn't score a goal, nor was he one of the standouts for Villarreal against Getafe on Saturday, but the fact is the young American striker played 90 minutes in a crucial La Liga match and didn't look out of place.

Altidore didn't score in his second straight league start, but he did have a header that forced a save and eventually led to Villarreal's first goal as the 'Yellow Submarine' rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to salvage a 3-3 tie.

It was a mixed week for Americans Abroad, with Altidore's start among the bright spots. Another of the bright spots was U.S. national team defender Frank Simek making his first start in 14 months after being sidelined by major ankle surgery. He got beaten for a goal but settled down and played a strong game for Sheffield Wednesday in a 1-1 tie against Southampton.

Brad Friedel got the better of Tim Howard in the battle of America's best goalkeepers as Everton's defense left Howard out to dry in a 3-2 Aston Villa victory that included an unbelievable ending.

Other positives including DaMarcus Beasley earning the start in a Rangers blowout, Freddy Adu getting off the Monaco bench for some minutes in a weekend loss and Luis Robles recording the shutout for Kaiserslautern in a scoreless draw vs. Duisburg.

Here is how the rest of the Americans Abroad did this weekend:

ENGLAND

PREMIER LEAGUE

  • Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made five saves in Aston Villa's 3-2 win vs. Everton on Sunday.
  • Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and made three saves for Everton.
  • Brad Guzan dressed but did not play for Aston Villa.
  • Clint Dempsey started and played 90 minutes in Fulham's 1-1 tie vs. Manchester City on Saturday.
  • Jonathan Spector and West Ham face Tottenham on Monday.

COCA COLA CHAMPIONSHIP

  • Frank Simek started and played 90 minutes in Sheffield Wednesday's 1-1 tie vs. Southampton on Saturday.
  • Jay DeMerit did not dress in Watford's 3-2 loss to Birmingham on Saturday. He was sidelined with a groin injury suffered in Watford's 2-1 Carling Cup loss to Tottenham. DeMerit started and played 57 minutes vs. Tottenham.
  • Eddie!Johnson did not dress in Cardiff City's 1-0 win vs. Preston North End on Saturday. He missed the match with a badly bruised foot.
  • Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made nine saves in Reading's 1-0 victory against Barnsley on Saturday.
  • Bobby Convey did not dress for Reading.

SCOTLAND

  • DaMarcus Beasley started and played 78 minutes in Rangers' 7-1 win vs. Hamilton Academical on Saturday.
  • Maurice Edu dressed but did not play for Rangers.

GERMANY

BUNDESLIGA

  • Michael Bradley came off the bench and played 23 minutes in Borussia Moenchengladbach's 3-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
  • Steve Cherundolo did not dress in Hannover 96's 2-1 loss to VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday. He suffered an injury last week vs. Karlsruhe.
  • Sal Zizzo did not dress for Hannover 96.
  • Neven Subotic started and played 90 minutes in Borussia Dortmund's 0-0 tie vs. Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday.

BUNDESLIGA 2

  • Luis Robles started, played 90 minutes and made one save in Kaiserslautern's 0-0 tie vs. MSV Duisburg on Sunday.
  • David Yelldell started, played 90 minutes and made eight saves in TUS Koblenz's 3-2 loss to St. Pauli on Sunday.
  • Matt Taylor started and played 90 minutes for TUS Koblenz. 
  • Grover Gibson came off the bench and played 26 minutes in Ahlen's 2-1 loss to VfL Osnabruck on Sunday.
  • Gregg Berhalter started and played 90 minutes in 1860 Munich's 2-0 loss to Alemania Aachen on Friday.
  • Heath Pearce and Hansa Rostock face Nurnberg on Monday.

SPAIN

  • Jozy Altidore started and played 90 minutes in Villarreal's 3-3 tie vs. Getafe on Saturday.

ITALY

SERIE B

  • Danny Szetela did not dress in Brescia's 1-0 win vs. Albinoleffe on Saturday.

FRANCE

LIGUE 1

  • Carlos Bocanegra started and played 90 minutes in Rennes' 1-1 tie vs. Caen on Saturday.
  • Freddy Adu came off the bench and played nine minutes in AS Monaco's 1-1 tie vs. Sochaux on Sunday.

LIGUE 2

  • Quentin Westberg dressed but did not play in Troyes' 1-1 vs. Dijon FCO on Friday.

BELGIUM

  • Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes in Standard Liege's 2-1 loss to Zulte-Waregem on Saturday.

DENMARK

  • Jeremiah White, Benny Feilhaber and AGF Aarhus face CF Nordsjaelland on Monday. 
  • Danny Califf started, played 77minutes and drew a yellow card in FC Midtjylland's 1-1 tie vs. Sonderjyske on Sunday.
  • Lee Nguyen came off the bench and played 19 minutes in Randers' 2-1 loss to AaB on Sunday.
  • Tally Hall dressed did not in Ejsberg's 1-1 tie vs. Vesjle on Sunday.

AUSTRIA

  • Preston Zimmerman started and played 90 minutes in Kapfenberg SV's 3-1 win vs. SV Mattersburg on Satuday.

American-born Players Playing for Other Countries

  • Giuseppe Rossi (Italy) started, played 90 minutes and scored a goal in Villarreal's 3-3 tie vs. Getafe on Saturday.
  • Edgar Castillo (Mexico) started, played 90 minutes and scored a goal in Santos Laguna's 2-1 Mexican Apertura playoff semifinal loss to Toluca on Sunday.
  • Brede Hangeland (Norway) started and played 90 minutes in Fulham's 1-1 tie vs. Manchester City on Saturday.
  • Boaz Myhill (Wales) started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Hull City's 2-1 win vs. Middlesbrough on Saturday.

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What do you think of these performances? Happy to see Frank Simek making his way back into the starting lineup? Glad to see Beasley earning a start? Disappointed with Altidore's performance, or encouraged by the fact that he was left on the field for 90 minutes and made his second straight start for a powerhouse like Villarreal?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. “how long do we make excuses for our young players? how long have we said that adu is “only such and such an age”? rossi is plenty young and he produces”

    Rossi is 21. Adu is 19… and Altidore just turned 19.

    Rossi scored exactly 1 goal and had 16 appearences prior to last year as a 20 year old.

    I’d say there is still time. Yes, there are plenty of other youngsters to make your comparisons to rather than Rossi and you make a valid point. However, Rossi, and your ignorance about his career trajectory, kind of prove the other viewpoint, because Adu and Altidore are arguably, I’m sorry not arguably, they ARE actually ahead of the curve compared to him.

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  2. Monaco have been mediocre to poor, lately. They have no reason not to give Freddy a start anymore..

    Oh yes, and Rossi should’ve crossed it to Jozy.

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  3. I agree with those who are patient with Jozy’s progress. Clearly he can do more, and hopefully Villarreal will continue giving him valuable PT, and he can take advantage of it.

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  4. After Altidore’s first impressive start for Villareal, everybody was ready to crown him…now after his third some ppl in these comments are ready to bury him? Get a grip. Altidore got no service for the entire first half (incl on set pieces which seemed to always go away from him). The only mistake I saw from him was a direct pass giveaway in like the 78th minute or so. Oh and I guess the header right at Pato. He worked the entire game and looked very dangerous. Of course he needs to score eventually, but the team putting up 3 counts for something.

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  5. @ Ryan – that’s just because of the fundamental La Liga rule the youngest player on the field is designated ballbitch, and has to get everything ready for the restart while his teammates celebrate. 😛

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  6. one thing i noticed about jozy was after rossi’s goal jozy seemed to be the only one in yellow aware that they still had a chance for the win and that time was of the essence while rossi was celebrating his goal jozy ran in and picked the out of the net a sprinted back for the restart

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  7. Give the kid a break, he’s going through a learning process.

    Ives comments about how he “didn’t look out of place” are a bit misguided though since the only player with a worse first touch than Jozy was Pato Abondanzieri.

    Jozy needs to work on that if he wants to survive in La Liga.

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  8. Gooch is supposedly heading to Marseille come January? This would be frickin amazing. 2nd best team in all of France with great history and achievements.

    Sooner or later Holland/DK will be joining England as the home of Yanks Abroad with Marshall/Parkhurst joining Califf and the others there and Wynne, Kljestan, Holden, Rogers going to the Eredivise

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  9. Danny Califf, the real star of Denmark. Good thing, i believe the Danish league is more competitive and great flow than the Norwegian/Swedish leagues. Comparable to say Greece in my opinion.

    Anyway, aren’t Chad Marshall and Michael Parkhurst heading to top teams in Denmark? I sure hope they can jump right into the fray and make it their own and not get lost on the national team.

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  10. Bocanegra is maiking a strong show for Rennes. They are for sure heading for Champions League football next season with Carlos to thank.

    Adu is still only a sub? Does Monaco draw every game? How can they not start him up front as a striker for once? Surely it can’t hurt with them losing or drawing every match.

    Cherundolo. Is there any American abroad as committed as this guy? I sure hope Hannover fans know that.

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  11. Jozy can only get better and better. Let’s support him. He has a few more games til the other team strikers are healed and take back their places, so let’s hope his play can impress and maybe manage to score another goal or 2.

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  12. Lots of Jozy comments.:) His progress is better than I expected at this stage in his first season. I think Ives’ opening remark, “and didn’t look out of place” is the important thing here.

    He’s challenging defenses, playing hard, and getting minutes. We didn’t really expect him to start this year with Villareal, did we? His 5 appearances this year have been 2 starts, one in the 89th, one in the 79th, and one at halftime. Not garbage time at all. Not garbage minutes at all.

    He’s doing fine.

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  13. I see weekin and week out some players never get any playing time…. why dont they come back to the states and get a nice 200k pay check …. they are only screwing up their own careers….

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  14. I think it’s officially okay for the notorious, ill-informed loudmouth haters to mouth off about Eddie Johnson and wonder what happened to this kid. He needs to come back to MLS stat. You can’t judge things like this overnight, but it’s been a few seasons since he was being scouted by the likes of Manchester United. Now he’s lucky if he gets 5 garbage minutes in a league match in second tier English football.

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  15. Brett’s comments make sense. Also – the kid (Jozy) in his first year overseas hasn’t been loaned out because the club views him as valuable – evidenced by all the injuries there and subsequently he’s seeing time on the field. I don’t know what people are complaining about.

    I think he’s having a hell of a first year, regardless of age and country of origin.

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  16. Ya’ll are freakin crazy-it’s Jozy’s SECOND start and against a red-hot Getafe team that took it to Madrid the week before. PLEASE have some context people. Jozy looked like he belonged out there-and obviously the manager thought so as well-keeping him on for the full 90. He did really well w/ the header and it led to a goal.

    He’s only going to keep getting better, he’s on a fantastic team w/ a great manager and so long as he can keep his head in the right place, he’s only going to get better.

    Everyone’s a critic, you people are freakin nuts.

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  17. tomas the tumbler- yes, b/c both jozy and adu went to college?? poor examples…

    Rossi as well as many of the people you have in mind have been in european or s.american system since an early age…. the US can only do so much to gain in distance… we are building the academies from scratch, and we’ll start to see the growth as the years go on…..

    we use age for both jozy and adu, simply b/c they are young and new to that environment…. playing for the Redbulls is quite a bit different to playing for Villareal…. anyhow, we must give them time to adjust… even the worlds best falter slightly when changing leagues….

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  18. Ives,

    As dumb as this is, your formatting for this post made it really easy to read so I hope you keep it up. Sometimes these (on this site and others) are just an overwhelming list of names, but today I found who I was looking for and was out in no time. Just my thoughts!

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  19. how long do we make excuses for our young players? how long have we said that adu is “only such and such an age”? rossi is plenty young and he produces. nasri, fabregas, countless young EPL and french, bundesliga players. they all produce. stop saying “they’re only 19 or 20.” the sense of age in pro sports is warped for americans because of college athletics. we need to get our best talent to skip over the college system, which only runs a few months a year, and get them into 365 days a year academies. adu should be playing 90 minutes for a coca cola team. same with jozy. they’re taking bigger steps then they need to. then again, who’s to say i wouldn’t do the same if an offer came my way. it’s a tough spot to be in.

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  20. Rossi shot that ball. It was not a cross to Altidore. He was going for goal all the way.

    Usain Bolt wouldn’t have gotten to that “cross”.

    Altidore did well. He was a physical presence, held the ball up reasonably well but he does need to bury that header from six yards out. Yes, it was a great save by Pato but it has to be headed to either corner if you want to be a stud goal scorer in one of the top leagues.

    However, with Nihat almost ready to get back into the mix, Jozy needs to produce or he will be playing the Freddy Adu “9 minutes garbage time role” for the remainder of the season and he will get even less time when Llorente gets healthy.

    I was one of those who was begging to see him sent out on loan knowing he was going to see minutes the past few matches with the injury crisis. Getting a few starts as opposed to a lot of time with someone else is not a trade-off he needs. He needs minutes.

    When February rolls around and WC qualifying starts for the US, we will have two key young players in Adu and Altidore who be getting little to no playing time and that will affect the US side.

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  21. I only saw the last 20 minutes of the Villareal game. But Jozy was impressive. He made smart run after smart run and was calling for the ball every single time. He played confident. Yes, his hands were on his hips by the end of the game, I noticed he was tired too, but not at all when he was in the flow of play. The kid is for real and it’s great to see him earn it week in and week out. I even subscribed to GOLtv just to watch him.

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  22. COuld we please give a 19 year old, who is playing in a foreign country, some time to learn the game and become the professional we all hope he can be before we start criticizing him on his play. From all the highlights i have seen he looked goood, not great, but that will all come with time. Nick, really, are you saying Jozy’s fat for a soccer player? He looks in pretty damn good shape to me. I know for one none of us on here could play in one of the top two divisions in world football but we all feel good critiqueing a kids performance. Leave him alone. He will be one fine footballer.

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  23. Altidore has always had some fitness issues when trying to play a full 90 minutes. He’s already carrying a lot of muscle for a soccer player, and if he gains much more weight as he ages it’ll cause him some problems.

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  24. He played wonderfully. He was a handful and clearly not out of place. He may have seemed a little slow on the Rossi cross.

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  25. @yoman: “Jozy will not be starting anytime soon after his sluggish performance.

    How can a 19 year old be huffing and buffing in the last 15 minutes?”

    Er, did you happen to miss his half-field sprint at top speed to play defense down the sideline?

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  26. Regarding the Danish info – Lee Nguyen did play for Randers. He was a 71st minute sub. Check here:

    http://www.randersfc.dk/index.php?afd=1&side=3366

    And Jozy played just fine for Villarreal. He just didn’t get in the scoresheet (even though he came close and one can get). I give him 2 more scoreless appearances (even if they are just a couple minutes mop-up at the end of a game) before you start seeing him declared to be “washed up” and the Eddie Johnson comparisons start to show up on bigsoccer.

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  27. I am liking the sound of (repeatedly referred to) the Jersey Boys on Villareal’s frontline. That was an amazing game to watch. I now know what I want for Christmas: a Jozy Altidore yellow submarine jersey.

    And also, there was a play when Jozy got knocked down in the box and there was no call. So many chances to be a hero…

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  28. also: the last 15 minutes of the villareal game were nuts, would have been amazing if Rossi’s shot/pass to the far post was a little bit slower, would have had a game winner from Jozy in stoppage time.

    Posted by: nels |

    ———

    Rossi was knocked down before he released the ball. (Could have been a P.K, but it did effect his pass /cross the goal line)

    See for yourself:

    http://videos.sapo.pt/e35zDgnTUwELSq43O1aW

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  29. I really didnt think Jozy played as bad as all the critics are saying. There were a few calls he didnt get in the box which could have gone either way. Hope he atleast continues to get playing time and keeps growing.

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  30. Jozy will not be starting anytime soon after his sluggish performance.

    How can a 19 year old be huffing and buffing in the last 15 minutes?

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  31. im liking the big fonts for the separation of countries ives, easier on the eyes.

    also: the last 15 minutes of the villareal game were nuts, would have been amazing if Rossi’s shot/pass to the far post was a little bit slower, would have had a game winner from Jozy in stoppage time.

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  32. Jozy didn’t have the best game but he wasn’t as bad as some people claim. He will keep getting playing time and it will only help the national team come next year.

    Reply

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