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Americans Abroad: Weekend Preview

By FRANCO PANIZO

Clint Dempsey had seemingly no problem finding the back of the net at Craven Cottage during his time with Fulham, and Tottenham will be hoping that old habit kicks in again this weekend.

Dempsey is set to face his former club for the first time since transferring from Fulham to Spurs this past August, and the match should be an emotional one for him. Dempsey spent the last five-and-a-half years making a name for himself in Europe with the Cottagers before an ugly departure during the last transfer window, so the match will provide him an opportunity for payback while also playing in front of the same fans that adored him not long ago.

Another player who is set to take part in a big Premiership game this Saturday is Tim Howard. The U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper and Everton will travel to take on Manchester City, and a big performance from him and the rest of the Toffees will be needed in order to put an end to a three-game winless skid.

The trio of Americans over at Club Tijuana also have a big match looming. Edgar Castillo, Joe Corona, Greg Garza and Xolos are set to visit Toluca in the decisive leg of the Liga MX finals on Sunday, and a win there could give Club Tijuana a historic first championship.

Here is who the Americans Abroad face off against this weekend:

FRIDAY

Jonathan Spector, Will Packwood and Birmingham City play Middlesbrough.

Bobby Wood and TSV 1860 Munich play VfR Aalen.

Conor O’Brien and SonderjyskE play AC Horsens.

SATURDAY

Sebastian Lletget and West Ham United play Chelsea.

Clint Dempsey, Brad Friedel and Tottenham Hotspur play Fulham.

Tim Howard and Everton play Manchester City.

Brad Guzan, Eric Lichaj and Aston Villa play Queens Park Rangers.

Geoff Cameron, Maurice Edu and Stoke City play West Bromwich Albion.

Tim Ream, Stuart Holden and Bolton Wanderers play Ipswich Town. (Holden is out injured.)

Robbie Findley and Nottingham Forest play Hull City.

Zak Whitbread and Leicester City play Conor Doyle and Derby County. (Doyle is out injured.)

Frank Simek and Carlisle United play AFC Bournemouth in the FA Cup.

Oguchi Onyewu and Malaga play Getafe.

David Yelldell and Bayer Leverkusen play Timmy Chandler and FC Nurnberg.

Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 play Mainz.

Jermaine Jones and Schalke 04 play Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Andrew Wooten and SV Sandhausen play FC Erzgebirge Aue.

Joe Gyau and St Pauli play Kaiserslautern.

Sacha Kljestan and RSC Anderlecht play Cercle Brugge KSV.

Terrence Boyd and Rapid Vienna play SV Josko Ried.

SUNDAY

Carlos Bocanegra and Racing Santander play Almeria (Bocanegra is out injured.)

Michael Bradley and AS Roma play Siena.

Fabian Johnson, Danny Williams and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim play Werder Bremen.

Jozy Altidore and AZ Alkmaar play FC Utrecht.

Eugene Starikov and FK Rostov play PFK Samara Kryliya Sovetov.

Charlie Davies and Randers FC play FC Copenhagen. (Davis is suspended due to the red card he received last weekend.)

Michael Parkhurst and FC Nordsjaelland play Clarence Goodson and Brondby IF.

Joe CoronaEdgar CastilloGreg Garza and Club Tijuana play Toluca in the second leg of their Liga MX finals.

MONDAY

Alfredo Morales, John Anthony Brooks and Hertha Berlin play Energie Cottbus.

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Which of these games are you most looking forward to? Do you see Dempsey scoring against Fulham? How do you think Howard and Everton will fare versus Manchester City?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I can’t help but wonder what could have been with a Fulham side that included Dempsey, Dembele, and Berbatov….

    So goes the life of a Fulham supporter.

    Reply
    • I have to admit, this is true. I have watched bits and pieces of Fulham this season and I gotta say, Berbatov is silky smooth, like he is floating around the field and his ball control is incredible. Sir Alex must have hated his guts not to have been playing Berbatov regularly.

      Reply
  2. Dempsey. Fulham loved him. I visited Craven Cottage in summer 2010. The guy at the club store rold me of how much fans loved him and how hw brought his daughter around. There were even a few shirts celebrating that wonder goal against Juventus

    Reply
  3. Dempsey, I think, will be smart enough to NOT celebrate any Tottenham goals at Craven Cottage, if there are any, as Fulham is currently playing strong defense. And I imagine that he will try to show his appreciation for all the years of support the Fulham fans gave him and it would be a nice gesture for him to shake Martin Jol’s hand.

    Reply
  4. If Dempsey made the comments about being unappreciated in the context of management rather than the fans, then I think he has a point. Every manager after Coleman that came through benched him at first. I’m sure that got old after awhile. From this perspective I would totally understand Demosey comment. I didn’t read or see the interview that led to these comments so it’s pure speculation.

    Reply
    • I disagree. Yes, a few years ago, it did seem that he had to re-earn his starting spot at the beginning of each season, but a, the manager going in to this season was not one who had done that, and b, I think, and thought at the time, there was a reason why that happened. He always came into pre-season late, due to national team duty and taking time off to rest after being with the Nats, so by the time he would get there, he would have to break into the line up that had been settled on at that time. I believe that once or twice he might even have gotten there after Fulham had started playing competitive matches, trying to qualify for the UEFA/Europa Cup He hadn’t quite developed into the player he was last season, or the season before.

      Last season, the first under Jol, he missed the first few Europa League matches, but as soon as he he got back, he started.

      Reply
    • If Dempsey felt unappreciated at Fulham, how does he feel at Tottenham? I have read few blogs, notes, reviews that have praised him for his play thus far this year.

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      • I don’t think his unappreciation is related to the fans, blogs, etc. It’s related to the club, and how management treated him. Every new manager at Fulham tried to put someone else ahead of him. That is the definition of unappreciated from that perspective, and I think is completely justified if he felt that way. I have a hard time believing Dempsey thinks the fans didn’t appreciate him.

      • Not Jol, the current manager. When he was new there last season, he put Dempsey right into the starting line-up as soon as he was fit to play, even though Demps had missed the team’s first few matches in the Europa League. And is it really that odd that a manager would stick with the players who he’d gotten comfortable with in pre-season, before a player who showed up late? Yes, Dempsey was better than players like Gera, but it’s hardly an odd thing to say that players must prove themselves to new managers, Dempsey was not yet the star he is now a few years ago.

    • Skip.

      In most jobs, when a new boss takes over it’s a blank slate and everyone starts fresh.
      Why are you so upset that Dempsey had to prove himself all over again to the new guy?
      I was under the impression athletes in particular expect to have to prove themselves all over again every time they step on the field.

      He certainly did not lose a lot of time doing that. Other than his first season at Fulham where he had 12 appearances in all competitions, Clint never had fewer than 40 or more than 46 appearances a season, across all competitions, for Fulham. There are 38 league games by the way.

      By comparison, from the 2008-9 until last season, in terms of appearances across all competitions, Danny Murphy had 163, Clint had 173, and Brede Hangeland had 191.
      One great way to tell if a manager appreciates you is by seeing how much he plays you. By that standard Clint was not unappreciated.

      Reply
  5. As an American who was a Fulham fan long before Deuce came along, I hope the Fulham crowd tears him a new one. I’m obviously a Clint fan because of the NT, but the way he left Fulham was absolute garbage. His latest comments about “not feeling appreciated” there only reinforce that. Deuce deserves to get taken down a peg, because right now his head is as big as that cardboard cutout at the last qualifiers. Dembele will likely get a warmer reception, which he deserves.

    Reply
    • Fair comment. Not feeling appreciated? Jol is the only Fulham manager not to drop him and force Dempsey to earn his spot again. It was Jol’s team in which he scored all those goals last season.

      Reply
    • Hey, Ryan, can you please explain exactly why the way Clint “left Fulham was absolute garbage”? Are you saying he does not have the right to decline to sign a contract extension that Martin Jol was trying to bully him into signing? Doesn’t Dempsey have the right to move to a new job that doubles his salary? After spouting off on this thread with all your hate and ill wishes toward Dempsey, are you going to be hypocritical enough to claim that you wouldn’t move to a new job that would double your salary? And how do you feel about Dembele leaving Fulham? He gets a free pass because he had an automatic release clause in his Fulham contract that Dempsey did not have and plays a couple of early season games? Jol even said in one interview a few weeks ago that Dembele had told him a few days before the transfer window closed on Auguest 31 that he would stay at Fulham and Jol was stunned when Dembele announced the move to Tottenham.

      And as for the news article you are referring to, you are simply quoting a headline written by flacks from a few Fleet Street tabloids that misrepresent what Clint said in the interview. If you read the full interview, Dempsey notes that things were going on behind the scenes, which probably includes the untruths that Jol was spreading in an attempt to ruin Dempsey’s reputation. In the interview, Dempsey says he has great memories from Fulham and is thankful for the huge support from the fans and from the chairman of Fulham FC.

      Here is a link to the Guardian article on the interview, which gives a more accurate headline:
      
      Clint Dempsey ‘grateful’ to Fulham as he prepares to return with Spurs
      • ‘I didn’t feel valued and appreciated,’ Demspey adds
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/29/clint-dempsey-fulham-tottenham-hotspur

      Reply
      • biff,

        Neither you nor Ryan nor I will ever know everything that went on behind the scenes with the Dempsey transfer saga.

        Spare us all the notion that Clint and his agents are the innocent, persecuted victims here and that Martin Jol is some big bully.

        Clint is a sophisticated, millionaire businessman, not some dumb, naïve kid from the boondocks. By the way if you see Deuce as that naive kid, then you probably would not believe me if I told you Donovan’s retirement talk is almost certainly about positioning himself for a move out of MLS.

        I expect both Clint and his “people” and Fulham to do the best for their respective sides.

        But much of that can be done behind closed doors and as best as I can tell, it was Clint who first took the saga public. Clint did not have to go public with his declaration that he wanted to move to a CL club well before his Fulham deal was up. For one thing, he instantly reduced Fulham’s options with the CL requirement.

        But he did and once that happened, it became a PR campaign for both sides if they cared to win the battle in the much derided “court of public opinion” (also known as mob rule). And if Clint’s side lost that battle well, too bad. He should have employed better PR advisors.
        Had it been kept behind closed doors that would have helped reduce the temperature and the theatrics by both sides.
        We will have to wait until seasons end to determine who got the better end of the actual deal but right now it looks like they both got more or less what they wanted.

        Clint got lots of money, didn’t have to move at all and, given the circumstances, Spurs was about as good a club as he could have moved to.

        Jol, a fine manager who managed Dempsey to his best year ever, now has a younger club and some funds to spend on transfers.

        As far as I’m concerned, if you are talking about the PR war over this, screw both sides.

      • Sophisticated businessman? Is Dempsey really known for being a savvy businessman or are you just saying that since he’s a rich professional soccer player? If it’s the latter, you need your brain examined. I wouldn’t call Ashley Cole or Wayne Rooney the same thing, and they are much, much richer than Dempsey. However, if he actually is a smart business tycoon with an MBA, then I will allow that phrase to stand. I am curious what about him makes him sophisticated. Seems to me if he really was that savvy, he’d have figured out a way to leave Fulham without such controversy…

      • “Seems to me if he really was that savvy, he’d have figured out a way to leave Fulham without such controversy”

        Mr. Bone,

        You are a little loose with your terminology.

        “millionaire, sophisticated businessman.” is not necessarily the same thing as a “Smart business tycoon with an MBA”.

        Deuce may not be .in the Rooney, Cole financial bracket but he is a millionaire and is a businessman.

        You are getting way too hung up on the meaning of sophisticated. We aren’t talking international man of mystery here. In this context, it simply means Dempsey has been through tough negotiations before, is very well traveled, and has lived and worked in London for many years. He is far from being some simpleton from a hardscrabble town in East Texas who needs people like biff to protect him from “bullies” like Martin Jol.

        I’ll agree with you that if Clint was smarter he would have figured out a way to get this done without so much BS. Of course Fulham did their part. A plague on both their houses.

        But this was Dempsey’s show. He wanted to get out of Fulham a year early if I recall correctly, hardly a unique situation. Some athletes can’t manage it, some do it but make a lot of waves in the process and some manage to do it without too much fanfare.
        However it turns out, it’s mostly on the athlete. He is the one who is asking for a favor. It’s up to him to play it so that he gets what he wants and comes out looking good.

        If Clint’s reputation is tarnished well too bad, it’s on him.

      • Biff, how is it that you know for a fact that every single thing that Jol said about the situation is untrue, and Dempsey is an angel who is hiding all these facts that would reflect negatively on Jol, even though as you say, Jol was trying to ruin Dempsey’s reputation?

        The fact is, from the outside, which I assume we all are, it looks like Dempsey tried to force a move to a bigger club, even though he was still under contract, and part of this was refusing to play for the club that was paying him. This is something that leaves people with a bad taste in their mouths. Would you be so upset with questioning a player in a situation like this if he wasn’t American?

      • Biff, I will admit that I agree with you on the salary thing, of course Dempsey deserves that.

        The difference between Dembele and Deuce is the way they handled their moves in public. I know what Dembele said earlier in the summer, but he kept his head down and his name out of the papers. Clint did pretty much the opposite. While Deuce was shooting off passive aggressive tweets clearly aimed at Jol and FFC, Dembele was using his Twitter to thank the club and its supporters for what they gave him.

        As I said, I will always be a Clint Dempsey fan, (I certainly don’t hate him, as you imply) but I did not, and still do not agree with the way he handled himself this summer.

    • I became a Fulham fan because of McBride and Dempsey, but I agree with everything you said. I’ve been a fan of Clint his entire career (Revs season ticket holder) until August. I think both sides were at fault.

      Fulham loved Dempsey and if he scores on Saturday I hope he doesn’t celebrate, if he does it will be hard to root for him.

      Reply
      • hard to root for him from now on as an American at Tottenham I meant, obviously I hope Fulham win this game and Dempsey doesn’t score

    • They certainly appreciated him. One of my favorite Dempsey moments was about two years ago when Mark Hughes had taken over as manager and fairly early in the season he took out Deuce about the 65th minute or so and the Craven Cottage crowd began chanting, You don’t know what you’re doing,” directing that at Hughes.

      Reply
    • Well, they obviously didn’t adore him at the end of the summer, but as the previous reply said, they certainly adored him before that.

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    • i was amusing when the fulham fans sang “are you watching clint dempsey” in one of their home games at the begining of the season.

      Reply
  6. Why did Stoke buy Mo without any intentions of playing him, except for the odd cup match? Frustrating. It’s a good thing Geoff is thriving there or I’d be really bitter with that club lol

    Reply
    • The reality about it is if he was better than Steven Nzonzi or Charlie Adam, he would be on the pitch. Tony Pulis can only do so much, the player has to prove he is worthy of starting.

      Reply
      • I think the OP’s point was if Stoke was going to buy Nzonzi and Adam, why bring in Edu too? It seems like they bought him knowing he wouldn’t even make the bench for most league games. Seems like a waste of resources for them and a waste of time for Mo.

      • This question makes no sense to me. If Edu was willing to join them, why wouldn’t they take them even if they didn’t project him as a starter? Stoke, or any club, isn’t buying players on the basis of what is best for the player, they do what’s best for the club. It’s up to a player to go where he thinks is best for him. This sounds like you’re saying clubs should only build a strong 11, rather than try to build a strong squad that has cover if one of the 11 gets hurt and which creates more competition for places?

    • I read that Edu had a $4M transfer fee while Cameron had a $1.6M transfer fee. Interesting, no? One is the starting CB for the USMNT and a regular starter for Stoke while the other now plays a reserve role on USMNT and rides the pine at Stoke. Hopefully Edu gets a starting role at Stoke also so he can improve and play a part in USMNT run in the WC.

      Reply
    • I think it will be all cheers for Dembele and half cheers & half jeers for Dempsey, too bad Dempsey didn’t leave on better terms, doubt Dempsey will cover to Jolt but I bet Dembele will.

      Reply
  7. If TJ wins will that be the biggest hardware an American abroad has earned with a team? Also why has Corona seen less playing time recently?

    Reply
    • Joe Benny started the last game but he hasn’t looked himself for the last few weeks. It might be just the very end of a long year for him and he’s worn out, but who knows.

      As far as silverware goes, technically speaking, Jovan won the champions league with Dortmund

      Reply
      • Thomas Dooley won the Bundesliga and the UEFA cup but, since he grew up in Germany you probably can’t consider him American abroad.

      • I wasn’t saying he wasn’t an American. I was saying since he grew up in Germany him playing professional soccer in Germany wouldn’t be considered playing “abroad”.

      • By that standard most if not all of our current USMNT contingent who are based in Germany should be excluded but Ives still lists them as Americans Abroad.

        Better take it up with him.

      • sorry, he won the league cup, lost to Arsenal in the FA cup final. Of course, he did win goal of the year for his blast past Peter Shilton

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