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Americans Abroad: Weekend Rewind

Oguchi Onyewu

By FRANCO PANIZO

You may not want to count out Oguchi Onyewu from making the U.S. Men’s National Team’s World Cup roster just yet.

A week after signing for Sheffield Wednesday, Onyewu made his debut for the Owls in a 1-1 draw with Burnley on Saturday and played a part in extending their unbeaten streak to five games. The veteran centerback headed down a free kick that helped set up Sheffield’s equalizer just before halftime and also went the distance in his first club outing since a substitute appearance for Malaga back in May. The performance surely injected some confidence in Onyewu, who is looking to make a late push for a spot on the U.S. roster that will head to Brazil this summer.

On the offensive side, Aron Johannsson was the lone goal-scorer this weekend. Johannsson netted an insurance goal in AZ Alkmaar’s 3-0 victory over NAC Breda, giving him 12 league goals on the season and 19 across all competitions. He is now 12 behind Jozy Altidore’s record for goals scored by an American in foreign league.

Other notable matches involving Americans Abroad were Reading’s 7-1 mauling of Bolton Wanderers and Tijuana’s 2-1 loss to Pachuca. Danny Williams played all 90 minutes for the Royals while Tim Ream did the same for the underwhelming and embarrassed Trotters, and all five of the Mexican-Americans on Xolos’ game-day roster received playing time in their third fixture of the Clausura campaign.

Here is how the Americans Abroad did this weekend:

ENGLAND

Premiership 

  • Tim Howard and Everton play West Bromwich Albon on Monday.
  • Clint Dempsey started and played 90 minutes in Fulham’s 2-0 loss vs. Arsenal on Saturday.
  • Jozy Altidore started and played 72 minutes in Sunderland’s 2-2 draw vs. Southampton on Saturday.
  • Geoff Cameron started and played 90 minutes in Stoke City’s 1-0 loss vs. Crystal Palace on Saturday.
  • Maurice Edu did not dress for Stoke City.
  • Brad Guzan started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw vs. Liverpool on Saturday.
  • Brad Friedel dressed but did not play in Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-1 win vs. Swansea City on Saturday.
  • Cody Cropper did not dress in Southampton’s 2-2 draw vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
  • Sebastian Lletget did not dress in West Ham United’s 3-1 loss vs. Newcastle United on Saturday.

Championship

  • Jonathan Spector did not dress in Birmingham City’s 2-0 loss vs. Yeovil Town on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
  • Will Packwood dressed but did not play for Birmingham City.
  • Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes in Bolton Wanderers’ 7-1 loss vs. Reading on Saturday.
  • Stuart Holden did not dress for Bolton Wanderers. He is recovering from a knee injury.
  • Zak Whitbread dressed but did not play in Derby County’s 1-0 win vs. Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
  • Eric Lichaj did not dress in Nottingham Forest’s 4-1 win vs. Blackburn Rovers on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
  • Danny Williams started and played 90 minutes in Reading’s 7-1 win vs. Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
  • Brek Shea started and played 77 minutes in Barnsley’s 2-0 win vs. Blackpool on Saturday.
  • Oguchi Onyewu started, played 90 minutes and helped set up a goal in Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-1 draw vs. Burnley on Saturday.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y13RsciUwTQ?feature=player_embedded]

  • Duane Holmes dressed but did not play in Huddersfield Town’s 2-1 loss vs. Queens Park Rangers on Saturday.
  • Gboly Ariyibi did not dress in Leeds United’s 1-0 loss vs. Leicester City on Saturday.

FRANCE

  • Alejandro Bedoya came off the bench and played 60 minutes in FC Nantes’ 5-0 loss vs. Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday.

NETHERLANDS

  • Aron Johannsson started, played 90 minutes and scored a GOAL in AZ Alkmaar’s 3-0 win vs. NAC Breda on Saturday.


BELGIUM

  • Sacha Kljestan came off the bench and played 45 minutes in RSC Anderlecht’s 2-1 loss vs. KV Mechelen on Sunday.

MEXICO

  • Michael Orozco started and played 90 minutes in Puebla’s 0-0 draw vs. Santos Laguna on Friday.
  • DaMarcus Beasley started and played 65 minutes for Puebla.
  • Jose Torres came off the bench and played 33 minutes in Tigres UANL’s 2-0 loss vs. Morelia on Friday.
  • Jonathan Bornstein did not dress in Atlante’s 1-0 win vs. Atlas on Saturday.
  • Herculez Gomez started and played 90 minutes in Club Tijuana’s 2-1 loss vs. Pachuca on Saturday.
  • Edgar Castillo started and played 82 minutes for Club Tijuana.
  • Greg Garza came off the bench and played 27 minutes for Club Tijuana.
  • Joe Corona came off the bench and played 14 minutes for Club Tijuana.
  • Paul Arriola came off the bench and played eight minutes for Club Tijuana.
  • Joaquin Alonso Hernandez did not dress in Monterrey’s 3-1 win vs. Queretaro on Saturday.

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What do you think of these performances? Do you see Onyewu earn steady minutes with the Owls and making it onto the U.S.’s World Cup roster? Think Johannsson tops Altidore’s goal-scoring record this season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. We need J K to start recruiting more players……How about Bradley Johnson??? he plays regularly for Norwich City and now with Jones drop of form we should be looking at more people

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  2. watching more Xolos matches from here on out

    curious if anyone else here saw it and care to comment on it? biff, you watch those matches right?

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  3. Dempsey played much like he did with the Sounders although he seemed to have a better understanding of how they play at Fulham. He seems more respected over there. Still he seems to be getting some of the same cold shoulder treatment he has been getting in Seattle. That’s always a problem when “new” players come in who make so much more money but are not enough better to garner respect.

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  4. UGH.

    Time to throw the cold water on the “Tim Ream is pushing his way back into WC Brazil consideration.”

    I just read through several match reports from the Reading-Bolton game to see what the heck happened (7-1??), thinking there had to be red cards or something. NOPE. Ream was given a “3” is his match rating that I read, and it said he was “dithering” and had a “hellish afternoon.”

    And I’m a RBNY fan who has always wanted him to succeed, but wow, let’s slow our roll on Tim for now.

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    • no comment on whether he should go to brasil, but ream has been one of bolton’s best players throughout the year. he had a (very) bad game. it happens.

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  5. What do you guys think of Dempsey’s play at AFC v FFC? He played just behind Berby in a 4-4-1-1. The commentators observed that he seemed to be more inclined to move (pass/dribble) the ball backward than forward, such as taking defenders on. Fair?

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    • Commentators should didn’t hesitate to throw some negative perceptions toward him. There was 1 clear situation he should have attacked late in the game. Most of the game I thought Dempsey played okay. Having just watched a poor performance by Altidore an hour before it was pleasant to watch a player who could dribble and pass consistently. Berbatov is the problem with that attack, He is always out of place and making bad decisions (offensively and defensively). Darren Bent should be starting in Berb’s place.

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    • I just saw this on the Arsenal site. You can chalkboard each individual player’s statistics for the game (shots, passes, dribbles, defensive stops). Lots of backward arrows on “distribution” for Deuce, no arrows for “possession” (holding the ball, dribbling). I know it’s a function of making the best decision at the time, given where your teammates are, and where the defenders are. But it doesnt look good on “paper”. http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/3632074/first-team/arsenal-v-fulham?tab=chalkboard

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  6. Ives, Why do you continue to say Gooch is a possible USMNT player??? He has not been for years. He was the best, that is what AC Milan saw. I love that you are loyal, but I am sure there are many more MLS options at centerback before Gooch gets a sniff at coming back.

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    • Disagree. We are pretty thin at CB and could use some experience. Gooch was on the Gold Cup team last summer and even captained the side one game. If he is able to get a lot of games, and show that he is not washed up or unfit, I think he could get on the plane, maybe in front of Goodson. I like Goodson, but his attributes are that he is tall and disciplined. Onyewu is both of those, or can be, and he is also a beast. I will never forget last World Cup when, despite just coming back from injury, he took England’s Lescott out. That is hard to do, but Gooch is a man who, despite being slow and now injury prone, knows how to use his body and has played at the highest level many times. You can’t replace that kind of experience with just another guy who is good in the air. And he could partner well with a speed and passing guy like Besler I think.

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      • You do recall that his play for the USMNT this past summer consisted of 1 match in which he got injured….again. Hasn’t played a match since until this past weekend.
        As much as I like & respect what Gooch has done….until he can prove week in, week out that he can play he’ll be far down the CB depth chart…
        Top 4 – Besler, Gonzo, Goodson, Cameron
        2nd 4 – Brooks, Orozco, Ream, Gooch, (Reams been playing more in the same league that until now Gooch has been riding pine…and done well until this last outing. Ream has also been called into the US Squad more recently).

      • I’d agree with Gooch as our 7th option. You can take Ream off that list for me. Edu and Bocanegra would rate closely with him. None are a preferred option clearly.

  7. Why the heck isn’t Cameron starting right back on the USMNT?? If I’m not mistaken, he’s been on the bench behind Evans at least as often as he’s either started there or as centerback.

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      • Yeah, what exactly does that tell you. Geoff has looked pretty good on the whole this season in EPL. Hard to believe that Evans is a better RB option than him.

      • Jesse D says:

        “Geoff has looked pretty good on the whole this season in EPL. Hard to believe that Evans is a betterRB option than him.”

        So his good play for Stoke guarantees Geoff will be great at right back for the USMNT? When Jozy was great at AZ, he went scoreless for the US for nearly twelve games and a year and a half. Great club form does not necessarily translate to the national team.

        “Yeah, what exactly does that tell you.”

        Geoff is playing well at right back for Stoke this season. But he was doing very well at right back for them last season too. Yet, JK chose to move Evans to right back and give him a chance to win that job.
        The evidence is JK won’t start Geoff at right back if he has other options.

        Dolo seems to be JK’s ideal USMNT right back. If Dolo doesn’t make it back, it seems JK sees Evans as the closest thing to Dolo and decided to give him a run of games to see how he did. If the experiment had failed then he always had Cameron as a fall back option and still does.

        With this approach he keeps Evans motivated and learning and improving and he keeps Cameron motivated to prove him wrong.
        Had he settled for Cameron at right back, then he would have gotten a starter he did not really believe in and a candidate in Evans with no opportunity to develop or prove himself.

        What he has now, with about four months to go,a team that qualified for the World Cup with Evans having done a good job.

        JK also has a much better Evans, a much better Cameron, a Dolo who may be back and a Chandler who is on the rise.

        That’s at least four options instead of the three he would have had if he had listened to you and never given Evans a chance. What’s wrong with that?

      • Considering Dolo’s age and those surgeries, can one really claim that he is the best option now?

        That seems like a little too much nostalgia. He was the great unsung hero on the USMNT but it’s over. He is too old (for sports, not the world) and doesn’t have solid knees.

        Chandler is on a bottom of the barrel team whose coach was talking of getting rid of him about three weeks ago. (it might have been a little more than three weeks, but you get the point). Evans isn’t even a RB and plays in the MLS.

        Cameron is the guy we want at RB.

        I don’t get why that is hard to see.

      • “Cameron is the guy we want at RB.
        I don’t get why that is hard to see.”

        No you don’t. That is not hard to see.

        The key word in your first sentence is “we”. It is JK who decides not “we”. My post addressed what I suspect JK’s rationale on the right back position is, not what “we” want.

        It is not hard to see what “we” want, but I don’t think this is a popularity contest to JK nor should it be.

        I have seen no one anywhere claim Dolo “is the best option now?”.

        Dolo in good form is what JK wants, or the closest thing to him.

        There are about four months left; Evans is #1, Dolo is on his way back and Chandler and perhaps others may force their way into the picture. There is no guarantee that Cameron will continue playing well for Stoke.

        The USMNT hasn’t played a meaningful game in a few months since the Hex ended. Their next meaningful game is the Ghana opener. Feel free to award the #1 Right Back spot on the theoretical USMNT depth chart to Cameron if you like but he won’t win that spot based on what he does with his club. We already know he is the best right back for Stoke. Geoff has to convince JK , not Mark Hughes , that he is the best RB for the USMNT.

        It will be finalized in June after JK sets his 23 man roster.

  8. I was at PSG v Nantes tonight. Bedoya came on for after an injury in the 30th or so, and looked pretty lively. The visiting Nantes fans next to us said they like him, but he makes to make safe back passes instead when they’d like him to attack. So yeah, that’s the official word from 3 random strangers :-).

    Nantes looked pretty dire and wholly outmatched though. Highlight was the girl I was with, watching her first Euro club match commenting, “It’s cute when Paris let’s them have the ball once in a while so they don’t feel left out.”

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  9. Wynalda-first Yank to score consistently in a European first division
    Max Moore – scored more goals in Germany than any other Yank
    McBride- scored consistently in the best league in the world
    Dempsey-first world class goal scorer for the USA
    Altidore- Only 24 but has the talent and youth to become the greatest Yank striker ever

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      • Well, yes, but all those foreigners in England play together in a league called the EPL, which is probably the best league in the world.

      • MikeG, what league do you think is better?

        I always thought England was a great league but I would love to hear more ideas on the subject.

        And just to be clear, I am not be sarcastic or looking to have a war of words. I would like to hear more on the subject.

    • 24 isn’t young anymore. In MLS it is because of the number of college grads, not the EPL.

      Moore also play midfield, so not apples and apples.

      I do think Wynalda is underrated by many people because so many fans didn’t see him play in his good years. Nice call.

      I don’t see it happening with Altidore. He lacks the air power of McBride, lacks the speed of Dempsey or Donovan, lacks the threat of a shot or awesome pass of any of these guys. I wish the guy the best, but I don’t see it.

      The guy that bums me out is Eddie Johnson, who let his ego get to him according to a number of stories.

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      • tell me more about MOORE.

        did he score a lot in Germany? I haven’t been able to find videos of him or wynalda scoring.

        but agreed. EJ should have gone to a league that’s not the EPL. Maybe France or Portugal. would have done better

      • I have been following the USMNT for almost 3 decades. I agree the contributions of some athletes has been forgotten (e.g. John Harkes – first player to become an established player in England & Paul Caligiuri – made over 100 appearances while spending 6 seasons in Germany). However, some of their accomplishments have been exaggerated. As much as I like Joe-Max Moore, he did not score more goals that any other American in Germany. That would be Eric Wynalda. On top of that, Moore spent his time in the 2nd division while Wynalda bounced between Bundesliga 1 & 2. Moore, however, did become a regular starter/player at Everton (don’t know if Moyes was there at the time) for 3 or 4 seasons.

      • I’ve been following USMNT since ’86 when the bulk of that Italia 90 team was qualifying for the 88 Seoul Olympics.

        Re: Wynalda : he lit up the Bundesliga by scoring 5 goals in his first 8 games. After that, the defenders started paying more attention to him so he didn’t score any more for the rest of the season.

        At the time, he was the most legitimate goal scorer we had until Wegerle became naturalized.

  10. why have all the Yanks come home?

    The Europeans will think “we are scared” that we “don’t have the balls to carry on the fight”

    even 20 years after Wynalda was scoring goals in Germany and McBride/Dempsey scoring in England, they still don’t believe we can score goals.

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    • maybe the Europeans are scared to come here? Why do we care what they think again? It is all about results. We don’t think they can play basketball, baseball, hockey, or football. We happen to be right (except for hockey in a couple places)

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  11. Jozy keeps looking worse and worse. Even the home fans heckled him this weekend. His move to England looks like it was bad news for his development and his confidence, and thus for the U.S.

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    • When Bradley moves back to MLS he isn’t going to push himself and won’t be tested at a high level. When Jozy moves to a bigger league his development and confidence is going to be hurt. Sometimes you just can’t win.

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    • LOL. True! I was not a fan of the Sunderland move unless they got a midfield. I was hoping last summer’s moves would lead to it — it didn’t. I wish he went to Swansea or Everton, but there was no way they were going to match Sunderland’s offer which is all AZ cared for.

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    • Did you watch the match? Jozy got no service at all except for contested headers in the middle third. The one time he got the ball to his feet near the penalty area there were 3 defenders around him and no one to pass to. It is extremely difficult to tell where Jozy stands based on Sunderland’s play at this time. The only real complaint I can see is that he could make some better runs, but this still supposes that he has a decent chance of getting a pass.

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      • I’ve watched every Jozy match and at this point he looks like the 3rd best striker on the team behind Borini and Fletcher. I’m of course only watching the games because I’m rooting for Jozy, but I’m starting to agree with the Sunderland fans, he isn’t holding his own. He made a number of simple turnovers in this last game. Ending some decent build up play. He hasn’t made enough good runs to find space. He isn’t capable of dribbling the ball in the middle of the field, so he isn’t their best option right now. I’ll keep rooting for him to play and watching when he does, but if I were the coach I’d keep him on the bench right now.

      • he leads the team in assists, he’s scored 1 less goal than fletcher, and poyet clearly doesn’t see jozy and borini in competition for places. (he uses borini as a winger.)

        jozy certainly isn’t their best player, but i don’t agree that “he isn’t their best option” at striker, especially if poyet plans to keep playing on the ground.

      • Poor Jozy.

        Remember how he started off the season?

        I still remember that first game against Fulham. He was quite unlucky to have have had at least one goal or a part in a goal.

        The next couple of games he was good but couldn’t score.

        Now, it’s like it’s over for his confidence. I too agree that he isn’t holding his own. He is a great player and I am one of his biggest supporters but he simply needs to do more. It’s unfair to ask that of him considering Sunderland but that is the only option. He simply needs to find a way to score.

        I do have this feeling that all this frustration will some how help in Brazil. He will get more help and support from the USMNT midfield and all that BS is had to go through all year with Sunderland will have taught him how to work against great odds.

        At least, that is what I hope for.

  12. Is there any rumors or news on Jermaine Jones? Seems like there would have been something considering he isn’t training with Schalke and is openly looking for a move. I heard Schalke was even ready to just let him go for nothing. If he ends up stuck there he might not even dress the rest of the year.

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  13. Stupid question: I thought US players needed a work permit to play in England, and I thought those required national team experiences. So how are players like Lletget or Cropper on EPL teams?

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    • That’s not what I read from the article you linked:

      “With minutes remaining in the half, after Tom Heaton had turned Wickham’s low effort around the post, the Clarets opened the scoring. Once again the Owls defence was caught standing when Marney lifted a pass in to Vokes and the striker made no mistake when firing past Kirkland first time.”

      Someone in defense was standing around, it doesn’t call out Gooch.

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      • The post was edited after I posted that

        @Leo and my mistake I was reading a different part of the article that mentioned him but it wasn’t the play they scored on.

      • he didn’t have an assist. He headed down a ball, that was then passed to the goal score. If this was hockey he would have had an assist but alas it isn’t.

      • My comment was made prior to highlights. I was going off what MLSsoccer.com said. Which was obviously wrong. But they still have an article saying Wondo scored against SP in the first scrimmage despite the USSF press officer saying it was wrong. That’s what I get for taking their word.

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