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Americans Abroad: Weekend Preview

By FRANCO PANIZO

After more than a month on the sidelines, Jermaine Jones is set to make his return for Schalke.

Jones has finished serving his three-game suspension for the red card he received in a loss to Stuttgart on Dec. 8, and he should be back in Schalke’s lineup on Saturday as they take on SpVgg Greuther Furth. The home game will give Jones an opportunity to show Jurgen Klinsmann he is ready to play in the U.S. Men’s National Team’s World Cup qualifier in Honduras next Wednesday, and it will be an opportunity he will want to seize if he wishes to have a chance at starting in San Pedro Sula.

Another intriguing match set to take place on Saturday is Maurice Edu and Bursaspor’s duel with Turkish powerhouse Galatasaray. Edu should make his third straight start for the club as they attempt to knock off the league leaders, and Bursaspor will have the advantage of playing at home.

If you’re wondering what other game might be worth watching, Satuday’s battle between Everton and Aston Villa should prove interesting as it will be a showcase of arguably the top two U.S. goalkeepers currently playing. Tim Howard and the Toffees will try to extend their four-game unbeaten streak in the Premier League, while Brad Guzan and the Villans attempt to bounce back from last weekend’s loss to Newcastle United en route to moving closer to safety.

Here is who the Americans Abroad battle this weekend:

FRIDAY

Michael Bradley and AS Roma play Cagliari.

Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 play Werder Bremen.

Andrew Wooten and SV Sandhausen play FC Union Berlin.

SATURDAY

Geoff Cameron, Brek Shea and Stoke City play Arsenal.

Tim Howard and Everton play Brad Guzan, Eric Lichaj and Aston Villa.

Sebastian Lletget and West Ham United play Swansea City.

Jonathan Spector, Will Packwood and Birmingham City play Nottingham Forest. (Spector and Packwood are out injured.)

Conor Doyle and Derby County play Huddersfield Town.

Tim Ream, Stuart Holden and Bolton Wanderers play Watford.

Mike Grella and Scunthorpe United play Crewe Alexandra.

Frank Simek and Carlisle United play Tranmere Rovers.

Carlos Bocanegra and Racing Santander play Sporting Gijon.

Jermaine Jones and Schalke 04 play SpVgg Greuther Furth.

Fabian Johnson, Danny Williams and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim play SC Freiburg.

Michael Parkhurst and FC Augsburg play VfL Wolfsburg.

Jozy Altidore and AZ Alkmaar play FC Groningen.

Maurice Edu and Bursaspor play Galatasaray.

Ventura Alvarado and Club America play Queretaro.

Jose Torres, Jonathan Bornstein and Tigres UANL play Joe Corona, Edgar Castillo, Greg Garza and Club Tijuana.

SUNDAY

Clint Dempsey, Brad Friedel and Tottenham Hotspur play West Bromwich Albion.

Oguchi Onyewu and Malaga play Real Zaragoza.

Timmy Chandler and FC Nurnberg play Borussia Moenchengladbach.

David Yelldell and Bayer Leverkusen play Borussia Dortmund.

Alfredo Morales, John Anthony Brooks and Hertha Berlin play SSV Jahn Regensburg.

Joe Gyau and St Pauli play Energie Cottbus.

Caleb Patterson-Sewell and Vitoria Setubal play Benfica.

Sacha Kljestan and RSC Anderlecht play Standard Liege.

DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Orozco Fiscal and Puebla play Morelia.

Herculez Gomez, Hector Joya and Santos Laguna play Pumas UNAM.

MONDAY

Bobby Wood and TSV 1860 Munich play Kaiserslautern.

Tony Taylor and Estoril Praia play Pacos de Ferreira.

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Which of these games are you most looking forward to? How do you see Jones faring? Think Edu and Bursaspor can knock off Galatasaray?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

    • That is the well earned reputation of their coach, Zeman. He is a Czech who has coached in Italy for a long time….always taking the ultra-offensive approach and feeling vocal and superior about it. The problem is that serie A teams will gut you on the counter.

      He is likely gone…I just hope that it doesn’t impact MB too greatly. I would assume that the new manager will be directed to feature DeRossi more than Zeman has.

      Reply
  1. Dolo not in the 18 for Hannover, who are playing now.

    Guess that puts to bed the last hopes that he would be in Honduras. Guess you-know-who will get cap tied and get a full 90 next week…

    …or we could call Bornstein!

    Reply
  2. So Aron Jóhannsson is moving to AZ? We can only hope Jozy recruits him for the USMNT. He still hasn’t been capped by Iceland’s senior squad.

    Maybe Jozy can drill him by making him watching Mighty Ducks 2 over and over again, showing him how evil the Iceland team was.

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  3. Good news of the USMNT: Fabian Johnson has been declared fit and will suit up Saturday for Hoffenheim. That said, Hoffenheim is deep in the relegation zone and will not be easy to climb out to safety.

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    • Somewhat…Hoffenheim are only GD behind the playoff spot against the 3rd place 2. bundesliga team. Seems like one of Parkhurst or Williams/Johnson will get relegated though.

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      • Dempsey will probably start and be subbed off for Holtby or the other way around. AVB is high on the German and Im told by bigger bundesliga fans hes a better clint.

      • This is true, Holtby is a big talent. But comparing Holtby and Clint is like the proverbial comparison between apples and oranges. Holtby is an attacker and can score goals, but his strengths up to now have been more as a deeper playing attacking midfielder/distributor than a scoring threat like Clint. I personally think that Clint and Holtby could be on the field at the same time and play well off each other, in other words, Dembele and Holtby paired in back. But, of course, AVB will have his own ideas and, no doubt about it, Holtby’s arrival does have the potential to seriously cut Clint’s playing time. We shall see.

        As for Schalke, they screwed up big time not selling Holtby in August, when the could have easily gotten 10-14 million for him. But at that time, Holtby was being coy, indicating he would sign a contract extension and Schalke fell for it. Although Holtby did continue playing last autumn for Schalke, his form was bad and it was obvious his heart was not in it and he already was thinking about playing in England and some Schalke fans are not real happy with him.

      • Holtby for Scott Parker. Parker looked decent the other day, but didn’t do anything that stood out to me except run a lot.

  4. Glad the field general for the USMNT is having the game on Friday more rest for the Honduras game, unlike Dempsey and Chandler who have to play on Sunday then play again on Wednesday.

    Reply
    • At least its on Wednesday. I think other FIFA dates are on Tuesdays at this point. I don’t like the Friday-Tuesday setup myself, but I heard clubs fought for it. I’d rather have Sat-Wed. It does make it much much easier for MLS to say they “aren’t playing on most FIFA dates”.

      Reply
  5. Woah. Weird seeing Brek Shea on this list haha. But cool at the same time. I wonder if he’s gunna make the bench of if they’re gunna ease him in?

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    • He doesn’t have a work permit yet either. Until he gets that, he can’t play in England. Should be a couple weks at least before he hits the pitch for Stoke.

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      • It’s a bit of semantics to say he doesn’t have the work permit yet. He has the form that gets him a work permit, so therefore he’s getting a work permit. What he has to do now is get his visa stamped in the USA. His paperwork should be sorted by next week. His fitness is another matter.

    • I think he’s weeks away.

      Also, did anyone see his car window interview on Sky Sports yesterday? He was struggling to get words out because he must’ve been in some shock. I can’t imagine how awesome it must feel to get your dream move to Europe and then have a bunch of people cheering your arrival. Good luck kid, now get a haircut.

      Reply
    • From the Assistant Manager Dave Kemp, “Brek has been injured for three months, so we can’t expect too much at the present moment, truth be told,” Kemp said. “He trained yesterday, and he appeared to be ok, but we will need the fitness guys to take a further look at him over the coming days and weeks. He needs to be assessed properly, before we can have any idea of how long it will be before he comes into consideration.”

      Kemp added: “He wouldn’t be available to us at the moment anyway because he needs to return back to the United States to complete his work permit, and get his passport stamped. I’m not sure how long that process will take, but it is the same thing that Geoff Cameron had to go through too. Hopefully it won’t be too long.”

      Reply

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