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Americans Abroad: Weekend Rewind

Marcus Hahnemann1 

by FRANCO PANIZO

Wolverhampton Wanderers entered the Premiership season struggling mightily, having won only two games in its first three-and-a-half months in the league. But the tide turned for the club when Marcus Hahnemann made his team debut on Nov. 29, and this weekend's result was just the latest piece of evidence that Hahnemann is still capable of playing at a high level. 

Hahnemann, who has helped Wolves win three out of the fives games he's played in, enjoyed a solid outing, as he made five saves against Burnley en route to posting his second shut-out of the season. The U.S. national team goalkeeper's performance in the 2-0 win helped push Wolves to 12th place in the Premiership's standings.

Hahnemann wasn't the only player to enjoy a solid weekend. DaMarcus Beasley continued his fine form by adding a goal and an assist in Rangers' rout of Motherwell, and Clint Dempsey notched an assist seconds into the second half of Fulham's 3-0 dismantling of Manchester United.

Not all was positive this weekend, though. Carlos Bocanegra failed to see the field for the third straight game for Stade Rennes, who defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1-0. Bocanegra, who has played in 14 league games this season, dressed, but was a spectator in the club's shut-out win as he was an unused substitute.

Here is how the Americans Abroad fared this weekend:

England

PREMIERSHIP

  • Tim Howard started and played 90 minutes in Everton's 1-1 draw vs. Birmingham on Saturday.
  • Jozy Altidore did not dress in Hull City's 3-0 loss vs. Arsenal on Saturday.
  • Clint Dempsey started, played 90 minutes and had an ASSIST in Fulham's 3-0 win vs. Manchester United on Saturday.

  • Eddie Johnson did not dress in Fulham's 3-0 win vs. Manchester United on Saturday.
  • Jonathan Spector dressed but did not play in West Ham's 1-1 draw vs. Chelsea on Saturday.
  • Brad Friedel started and played 90 minutes in Aston Villa's 1-0 win vs. Stoke City on Saturday.
  • Brad Guzan dressed but did not play in Aston Villa's 1-0 win vs. Stoke City on Saturday.

  • Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made five saves in Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2-0 win vs. Burnley on Saturday.

COCA COLA CHAMPIONSHIP

  • Jay DeMerit started and played 90 minutes in Watford's 2-1 loss vs. Peterborough United on Saturday.
  • Frank Simek came off the bench and played 36 minutes in Sheffield Wednesday's 2-0 loss vs. Swansea City on Saturday.

LEAGUE ONE

  • Zak Whitbread did not dress in Millwall's 4-4 draw vs. Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
  • Ian Joyce dressed but did not play in Southend United's 1-0 loss vs. Exeter City on Saturday.
  • Mike Grella dressed but did not play in Leeds United's 1-0 win vs. Southampton on Saturday.
  • Jemal Johnson dressed but did not play in Milton Keynes Dons' 1-0 loss vs. Brentford on Saturday.
  • Jon-Paul Pittman came off the bench and played 37 minutes in Wycombe Wanderers' 2-2 draw vs. Oldham Athletic on Saturday. 

Scotland

  • Maurice Edu did not dress in Rangers' 6-1 win vs. Motherwell on Saturday.
  • DaMarcus Beasley started, played 90 minutes, had an ASSIST and scored a GOAL in Rangers' 6-1 win vs. Motherwell on Saturday.

  • Dominic Cervi did not dress in Celtic's 2-1 loss vs. Heart of Midlothian on Saturday. 

Italy

  • Oguchi Onyewu and AC Milan's game vs. Fiorentina was postponed due to snow. Onyewu is still recovering from a knee injury.

Germany

BUNDESLIGA

  • Michael Bradley started and played 90 minutes in Borussia Moenchengladbach's 3-2 loss vs. Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
  • Steve Cherundolo started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Hannover 96's 3-2 loss vs. VfL Bochum on Saturday.
  • Sal Zizzo did not dress in Hannover 96's 3-2 loss vs. VfL Bochum on Saturday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
  • Jermaine Jones did not dress in Schalke 04's 1-0 win vs. Mainz on Friday. He is recovering from a leg injury.

BUNDESLIGA 2

  • Kenny Cooper did not dress in TSV 1860 Munich's 1-1 draw vs. FC Union Berlin on Sunday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
  • Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern play FC Augsburg on Monday.
  • Matt Taylor dressed but did not play in FSV Frankfurt's 1-0 win vs. TUS Koblenz on Friday.
  • David Yeldell did not dress in TUS Koblenz's 1-0 loss vs. FSV Frankfurt on Friday. He is recovering from an injury.

France

  • Carlos Bocanegra dressed but did not play in Stade Rennes' 1-0 win vs. Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday.

Portugal

  • Freddy Adu dressed but did not play in Belenenses' 1-0 loss vs. Uniao de Leiria on Sunday.
  • Kamani Hill did not dress in Vitoria de Guimaraes' 1-0 win vs. Rio Ave on Saturday.

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What do you think of these performances? Should Hahnemann be the U.S. team's number two goalkeeper? How optimistic are you about Beasley's form? What did you think of Dempsey's assist? Concerned by Bocanegra's benching, or do you think he will regain his starting spot?

Share your thoughts below.  

Comments

  1. Hull can barely get past the halfway mark. They can’t even get it up the wings to put balls in the area. The appearances by Bullard looked hopeful, but we all knew he was going to break again. It’s unfortunate, and I don’t see them turning it around unless Stephen Hunt can give the players some of his hustle. Having big target men up front is a waste of time for that team.

    Reply
  2. US MNT Starting Lineup if World Cup was next week:

    –Altidore—Dempsey
    Donovan–Bradley–Clark—Beasley
    Bornstein–Bocanegra–Demerit– Cherundolo
    —–Howard—-

    What do you guys think? How would this team do?

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  3. Beasley is WAY better than Holden and Rogers combined. Not even close. What did both Holden and Rogers do in the Olympics, they were flops there and that was against solid competition.

    Reply
  4. Maybe this has been hashed over, but how bad is Jozy if he can’t start for Hull? They were terrible against Chelsea. No forwards at all and what an awful peno attempt. Of course the officiating was despicable– ruined the game– but that’s for another day…

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  5. Basically, your concern is intensely paranoid.

    So Phil Brown, who is staring relegation in the face and probably the loss of his job, is so patriotic that he would not us a powerful goalscoring forward who can help him get that most treasured of commodities to a relegation fighting team, goals?

    Is the English FA going to put him on a stipend when he gets fired for getting Hull relegated?

    Brown may be pschyotic or stupid but he’s not that stupid. He would play Satan or Osama Bin Laden if they could score goals for Hull.

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  6. If you want Freidel that bad then drop Howard from the team for 2010.

    Freidel has made it very, very clear that he will only come back if Howard is out of the picture (presumably by injury but if you guys want Freidel so bad maybe Bradley will listen to you; but you can’t have both).

    I don’t have a problem with that as Freidel is better than Howard or at least as good right now. In fact you can make the case Guzan has played as well as Howard (or even better) for the US lately. However,if I was Howard, who hasn’t really done anything wrong, I’d be pretty upset and so would the other veterans.

    Overall, this would be a pretty stupid move as goalkeeping is about 40th on the list of issues that need to be addressed for the USMNT, but hey whatever you fans want.

    Reply
  7. i agree that it makes the most sense to fight it out. you keep bouncing around like adu and never stick with anyone in particular. the truth is jozy just isnt ready to be a starting striker in the prem. to be effective in a starting lineup jozy needs a team with almost no depth at striker but has sufficient midfield talent to get him quality service… oh wait that’s the USMNT. jozy should settle somewhere with a quality coach, practice hard and take a full season to work himself into the starting lineup like deuce did

    Reply
  8. Pappajohn….

    Edu, Jones, Zizzo, and Cooper are all recovering from injury. Can’t play an injured player. As for Boca & Spector they get good minutes most of the time. Boca was out with a suspension for a match and then out based on Manager discression. He’ll get plenty of time after the winter brake. Spector…not sure why he’s been out but again after the break I hope to see him playing a lot at a single position instead of being bounced around the back line. Hill…don’t know enough about his situation.

    Reply
  9. Hahnemann is the #3.

    Beasley might be back to his best but that isn’t good enough. The problem is he is good enough to get on the team but not good enough to displace the current midfielders. His best form was at PSV in 2004 but that was a long time ago and he was part of a great team and had a stellar coach. He has not been an integral part of the USMNT for some time now and I don’t see this being replicated in SA.

    If 7 of the 8 midfielders are Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, Clark,Jones, Torres, and Benny, then you have to pick one of Holden, Rogers and DMB. And both Rogers and Holden offer more to the current set up than DMB does.

    Reply
  10. What makes you think Freddy can play in the MLS? He sat at RLS and wasn’t a regular at DC United. He clearly hasn’t gotten any better since then.

    Reply
  11. Too many US players are sitting on the bench. I find this very distressing. Some of our top national team players like Boca, Spector, Copper are not getting the playing time that they need. Other national team prospects like Zizzo, Adu, Edu, Hill and Jones, don’t seem to be playing at all. Being in Europe is good experience only if you play. They all need to find teams willing to play them regularly.

    Reply
  12. Ives

    Is the Sun’s reporting Stu Holden has a 4 year offer from Blackburn legit?

    Happy holidays to you and everyone in SBI nation

    Reply
  13. Lets have all our players go to Europe and 70% of them ride the pine. Real progress for the national team;) Adu needs to get back to the MLS or go play in a league where he sees the field!

    Reply
  14. In his mind he would probably want to be #1 as it was his until he retired and he still might have it had he not retired. I don’t know why he did because he was a huge reason we made the quarters in ’02. Guess he and Arena had it out or something. And he retired before playing in England if I remeber correctly as he was with Columbus, I believe.

    Reply
  15. Jovan Kirovski. He became the first American player to score in the Champions League as he helped Dortmund win the competition in 1997. The goal came in a 3-0 win over Sparta Prague on 12/10/96.

    Reply
  16. Jozy is the real deal, but he just turned 20 and has not shown the consistency to play full time. If Hull has the money i think they will purchase his contract. If not he goes back to Villa. In the meantime he needs to keep working hard and eventually thing will work for him. In a couple of years he will be a full time starter and playing time will not be an issue. and we will be concerned about the next young american star not getting playing time.

    Reply
  17. I agree JR except for him going back to Benfica. They have may it clear that they don’t want him. Freddy’s in difficult situation. Large contract and no one wants him

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  18. Adu’s situation is different than Altidore’s. Hull has a squad rotation and Altidore is part of it, but he hasn’t proven enough yet to break the rotation. He is still getting regular time though. Hull is also still considering purchasing his contract. Adu is on loan with a club that doesn’t appear to be interested in purchasing or even playing him. If he is going to fight for a spot then he needs to go back to Benfica right now.

    Reply

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