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Americans Abroad: A Look Ahead

Ricardo Clark 2 (ISIphotos.com)

Photo by ISIphotos.com 

 

By FRANCO PANIZO

If there was ever a game for Ricardo Clark to make his debut in, it would be this weekend's. 

Clark and Eintracht Frankfurt face bottom-feeder Hertha Berlin in a match that likely has little meaning on next season. Eintracht Frankfurt is still mathematically alive in the race for a Europa League spot, but with four teams currently higher in the standings, it is unlikely the club will secure the necessary fifth-place position. This could open the heavily-locked door for Clark, who has not seen action since the U.S. national team's friendly against Denmark.

While Clark aims to jump-start his season, Freddy Adu and Eddie Johnson end their seasons with Aris Salonika. The pair of American attackers tackle Olympiakos in their season finale, and it could be their last match playing together. Johnson's loan spell with Aris ends in the coming weeks, and with only a Greek Cup final match left, he may see the field for the final time against the storied Greek club.

Wondering what other intriguing matches are on tap? Jozy Altidore and Hull City's quest to shake relegation continues when they take on Birmingham, while DaMarcus Beasley, Maurice Edu and Rangers look to get a step closer to securing the Scottish League crown against Heart of Midlothian.

Here is a rundown of who the Americans Abroad will be playing this weekend and early next week:

FRIDAY

David Yeldell and TUS Koblenz play Karlsruhe.

SATURDAY

Stuart Holden and Bolton Wanderers play Stoke City. (Holden is out injured.)

Jozy Altidore and Hull City play Birmingham.

Tim Howard and Everton play Blackburn Rovers.

Clint Dempsey and Fulham play Marcus Hahnemann and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Jay DeMerit and Watford play Leicester City.

Jon-Paul Pittman and Wycombe Wanderers play Milton Keynes Dons.

Zak Whitbread and Norwich City play Charlton Athletic.

Mike Grella and Leeds United play Gillingham.

Eric Lichaj and Leyton Orient play Jemal Johnson and Stockport County.

Dominic Cervi and Celtic play Hibernian.

Jared Jeffrey and Mainz 05 play Hamburg SV.

Daniel Williams and SC Freiburg play Nurnberg.

Jermaine Jones and Schalke 04 play Michael Bradley and Borussia Moenchengladbach. (Jones is out injured.) 

Steve Cherundolo, Sal Zizzo and Hannover 96 play Bayern Munich. (Zizzo is out injured.)

Matt Taylor and FSV Frankfurt play Hansa Rostock.

Carlos Bocanegra and Stade Rennes play AS Nancy Lorraine.

Charlie Davies and Sochaux play Grenoble.

Gale Agbossoumonde and Sporting Braga play Leixoes.

Marco Vidal and Indios de Ciudad Juarez play Chiapas.

Edgar Castillo and Tigres UANL play Atlante. (Castillo is out injured.)

Jose Francisco Torres and Pachuca play Toluca.

Michael Hoyos and Estudiantes La Plata play Tigre.

SUNDAY

Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan and Aston Villa play Portsmouth.

Frank Simek and Sheffield Wednesday play Sheffield United.

DaMarcus Beasley, Maurice Edu and Rangers play Heart of Midlothian.

Oguchi Onyewu and AC Milan play Sampdoria.

Ricardo Clark and Eintracht Frankfurt play Hertha Berlin.

Eddie Johnson, Freddy Adu and Aris Salonika play Olympiakos.


Michael Parkhurst and FC Nordsjaelland play Silkeborg IF.

Benny Feilhaber and AGF Aarhus play Brondby.

Mikkel Diskerud and Stabaek play Kongsvinger.

Clarence Goodson, Hunter Freeman and IK Start play Stromsgodset.

Herculez Gomez and Puebla play Cruz Azul.

 

MONDAY

Jonathan Spector and West Ham United play Liverpool.

Kenny Cooper and Plymouth Argyle play Newcastle United.

Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern play Arminia Bielefeld.

Marcus Tracy, Chris Rolfe and Aalborg BK play Esbjerg. (Tracy is out injured.)

Alejandro Bedoya and Orebro SK play Gefle IF.

—————–

Which Americans Abroad match are you most looking forward to? Which players do you see having a big impact? Think Clark will finally get some time off the bench? How do you see Adu and Johnson faring against Olympiakos? What is more likely to happen: Altidore and Hull winning or Beasley seeing the field for Rangers?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. CS,

    Well, if you wanted to get better would you rather he be coached by Phil Brown/Ian Dowie or by Hector Cuper? Google all three if you aren’t familiar with their resumes.

    Me, I take Cuper.

    Reply
  2. Rico is the only US player that came over to the corner flag at Azteca last year and acknowledged the traveling fans way up in the rafters.

    Too bad he’s not getting time in Euro.

    Reply
  3. Ives, why is Ryan Guy never mentioned in this section? He seems to be one of the better players in the Irish league and scored on an absolute bomb last week for St. Pats

    Reply
  4. Obviously, now he would be a long shot, but what if he would of gone to Hull instead of Aris?? I’d say being on an EPL team would put you pretty close to “sniffing the pitch.”

    Reply
  5. yeah, links really help get more in depth to the stories we read here. In fact, Ives usually links us to one or two in many of his own blog posts.

    Reply
  6. I did not know. I see lots of links posted to outside articles here — especially pieces in the UK press. Others, too, though.

    Reply
  7. Ridiculous. You think Aris’ roster compares favorably with Hull’s? Freddy’s a long way from sniffing the pitch in an EPL match.

    Reply
  8. Def not sarcasm my friend. Hull City, in my opinion, would of been a better move for Adu. Whether or not he would of found playing time, nobody knows… but we do know that he has RARELY found time for Aris. There are a lot of Adu haters.. but regardless he is a TALENT and right now a WASTE of TALENT.

    Reply
  9. Are you really that curious George?? It WAS said that Hull City was interested in him, and possibly made a bid on him.. they ARE in the EPL aren’t they??? (for now)

    Reply
  10. It was said that Adu was choosing between Aris and Hull City.. Adu chose Aris, possibly because he thought he would get more playing time… obviously that wasn’t the case.

    Reply
  11. I guess one of the posting rules is that you can’t link to any competitor’s site. Is that right? Who knows…looks like sometimes they’re deleted and sometimes not.

    (SBI-We generally discourage posting of links to other sites in the comments section. We don’t catch them all, and we’ll leave some on if they’re related to the subject, but generally speaking we discourage random link posting.)

    Reply
  12. Perhaps Lalas is right in one area. Jozy doesn’t receive the ball well sometimes. He loses contact with the defender behind him and many times is stripped on the first touch. Alejandro Moreno does receive the ball well, but doesn’t need to go to the WC. Any good NBA center could help Jozy receive the pass.

    Reply
  13. I would have to agree with the turning pro too early. Look at European clubs and what they do with their youth players. In England you can’t sign a pro deal tell your 17. At Arsenal some 16-17 year olds play in the reserves as well as for the U18’s but they aren’t starting in the first team week in week out.

    Reply
  14. “Jozy does not always play hard. He doesn’t always give it his all.”

    This is a charge leveled increasingly at some of our players (Demps). Running around full sprint 90 minutes a game isn’t everyone’s idea of playing hard or “giving it your all”. Positioning is so important in soccer, many players (depending on their roles) need to be walking at some points in the game to make sure they’re in the right place. If every player chased after the ball full sprint 100% of the time they’d be kindergartners not pros.
    Some couch potatoes underestimate the commitment it takes to get to a pro level (let alone the EPL) in the world’s most competitive sport.

    Reply
  15. Is Dempsey injured for 1-2 weeks or am I thinking of someone else?

    Any chance we can get an “Americans Injured-A Look Ahead” column? You need a spreadsheet to keep track of all the injuries.

    Reply
  16. Don’t confuse the messenger with the message.

    Lalas may or may not be an idiot. That doesn’t mean that everything he says is unprocessed cow dung.

    Jozy does not always play hard. He doesn’t always give it his all. I’ve only seen Bedoya play a few times but the kid seems to love playing and he is always full of energy and giving it his all.

    That may be the only thing he has to teach Jozy but it’s a lot and it’s something Jozy could really use if he wants to get to where he says he wants to go.

    Reply
  17. I’m thinking it was a pretty big mistake for Freddy to go to Greece… he could of had limited playing time in the EPL and instead he chooses limited playing time in the Greek League 🙁

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  18. Hopefully Damarcus can some time in. Is onyewu really back? I think that instead of having “he is out injured”, there should be “he is still in America” next to his name

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  19. I doubt we see any more of Freddy this season. Maybe just this game, since it is really meaningless. He has played a couple of unimportant games, probably to give rest to the players who will appear in the more important cup final and the playoffs. Unless he has shown in the last couple games that he can bring something that was missing in the usual starting 11.

    Reply
  20. Ale Moreno is a solid target man and a guy most teams in MLS would like to have. But Moreno teaching Jozy something? That’s hilarious. Lalas cracks me up.

    Reply
  21. And WHAT exactly is he going to teach Altidore??? Altidore is doing a fantastic job of earning penalty kicks and dishing out assists. It’s not his fault that he isn’t allowed to convert his penalties – if he was he’d have a handful of goals this year.

    Reply
  22. Can’t see Fulham keeping him past this season if Aris don’t take up the offer to buy him. Fulham have sent him on loan for the past 2 years.

    Not sure if Aris would take it up to purchase him – although he has done well, maybe not well enough to warrant the money he would cost.

    I’d take him at DC!

    Reply
  23. Franco – Nice breakdown, but EJ will have a few more chances with Aris, since they have European spot playoffs after the “regular season” ends. The 2nd thru 5th teams will compete in some sort of playoff to get the 2nd Champs League spot and Europa League spots.

    Reply
  24. Did anyone else catch the Lalas pregame comments? He was going off on his man crush for Alejandro Moreno:

    “The US should take him to the World Cup so he can teach Jozy Altidore a thing or two…”

    He never ceases to amaze me.

    Reply

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