Photo by ISI PHOTOS
It was a very light weekend of action for American soccer players in Europe, thanks in large part to all the England-based Americans having the weekend off.
No, Michael Bradley did not score a goal. The U.S. national team midfielder’s insane hot streak was halted as Heerenveen settled for a tie, dropping the club from second place to fifth place in the Dutch first division.
So who was the star of the weekend? U.S. national team defender Oguchi Onyewu enjoyed the best weekend as he and Standard Liege posted a pivotal 2-1 win against Club Brugge to pull into a tie for first place in the Belgian First Division.
Here is how the Americans in Europe did this weekend:
GERMANY
- Steve Cherundolo started, played 90 minutes and drew a yellow card in Hannover 96’s 3-0 loss to Bayern Munich on Sunday.
- Sal Zizzo did not dress for Hannover 96.
- Bryan Arguez did not dress in Hertha Berlin’s 1-0 win against Arminia Bielefeld.
- Gregg Berhalter started, played 50 minutes and drew a red card (two yellows) in 1860 Munich’s 1-0 loss to TSG Hoffenheim on Sunday.
- Josh Wolff started and played 65 minutes for 1860 Munich.
- Luis Robles dressed but did not play in Kaiserslautern’s 1-0 win vs. SpVgg Greuther Furth on Sunday.
- Neven Subotic and Mainz 05 will face Borussia Monchengladbach on Monday.
- Josh Grenier started and played 90 minutes in TUS Koblenz’s 1-1 tie vs. FC St. Pauli on Friday.
HOLLAND
- Michael Bradley started, played 90 minutes and drew a yellow card in Heerenveen’s 2-2 vs. Heracles Almelo on Saturday.
ITALY
- Danny Szetela did not play in Brescia’s 2-1 loss to Messina on Sunday.
SPAIN
- Giuseppe Rossi started, played 90 minutes and missed a penalty kick in Villarreal’s 0-0 tie vs. Racing de Santander on Sunday.
FRANCE
- Andrew Jacobson did not dress in Lorient’s 1-0 win against Strasbourg on Saturday.
- Quentin Westberg dressed but did not play in FC Troyes 2-0 win vs. Chateauroux on Sunday.
PORTUGAL
- Freddy Adu came off the bench and played 18 minutes in Benfica’s 2-0 win against Naval 1 Maio on Sunday.
BELGIUM
- Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes in Standard Liege’s 2-1 win against Club Brugge on Sunday. The victory moved Liege into a tie for first place in the Belgian First Division with Club Brugge.
GREECE
- Clint Mathis came off the bench and played 11 minutes in Ergotelis’ 1-0 loss to Olympiakos on Sunday.
IVES Your SITE ROCKS !
Ives: Thank you for continuing to post Rossi updates. I much appreciate being able to keep up with his progress, regardless of any frustrations at him shunning the US.
This is the number 1 soccer blog in the States — Thank you!
Man, the Rossi conversation never gets old!
Firt- ditto on everything flyinggoose said a few comments above. Some perspective would be nice. Rossi’s position is a unique one. Let’s not judge him via broad generalizations.
Second, I vote that Ives keep reporting on him in Americans Abroad every week. To me, this feature offers value in two ways:
1) We get to keep track of individual USMNT players and prospects far away from home. No-brainer. And,
2) We get to gauge how the quality of American soccer (coaching, training, talent) is developing. The only way to do this is to see how the guys trained over here stack up against the best worldwide.
To me, #2 may be even more important than #1, and Rossi is instrumental here. What he shows us is that an American kid with god-given ability, proper coaching, and mental toughness (he did drop everything and leave for a foreign culture at 13) can make it at the highest levels of world soccer. He’s the first one, really. Because of his father, he had some advantages other kids out here weren’t exposed to early on. This gives me hope going forward. As long as we focus on developing our coaching and training, to the point where all of our promising youngsters get exposed to the same resources that Rossi was, we will unearth a LOT more world-class guys. This isn’t something we want to be reminded of every week?
jonathan, jonathan, jonathan.
Josh Wolff? That name sounds familiar.
Seriously, what the hell happened with him? So many American players look promising, but then they just fall apart for one reason or another.
Things don’t look too promising at the forward position for the U.S. right now. Before fifty people jump on me, I mean besides Josmer Altidore, and I still think Donovan is best as an attacking midfielder.
McBride is retired. Twellman isn’t panning out. Eddie Johnson who seemed unstoppable for a brief period, has mostly been struggling ever since. Clint Dempsey is NOT a forward. Brian Ching has been gone for a while and seems like he might not be coming back as far as his form is concerned. Is it just injury or was he just not for real? It seems like everything started going south right before the World Cup and everyone except Altidore has dropped off. I hope some people step up before the next world cup. Going to the German second division didn’t do anything for Josh Wolff. It’s almost like he went into that black hole in Scandanavia where other American players disappear. A couple have actually just come back recently, though. Has anyone been better for their Scandanavia experience yet? I can’t think of one. Apart from the money, I think players are much better off in MLS than they are playing in Scandanavia.
Oh, well. Maybe Giuseppe Rossi will help us out. Whoa! Just kidding! Seriously, no more GRS! (Giuseppe Rossi Syndrome)
“primitive spear throwing hating Nigerians go back to Nigeria and set someone’s village on fire” This may be the most racist and bigoted thing I’ve ever seen posted on this page… wow… you need help soccer fan
Rob the problem is Szetela wasn’t getting any playing time in MLS either. If he doesn’t start getting on the field in Italy it will be 3 pro teams and 3 solid spots on the pine(actually he hasnt even made the bench with regularity in Europe). This would beg the question is there something wrong with him?
Let me ask this question: Is it better for Danny Szetela to be sitting on the bench (did he even make the bench???) in SERIE B than playing regular football in MLS? I think with the improvement of our league here at home, the answer to this is pretty simple.
Of course I want Americans to go to Europe…EVENTUALLY. Rushing over there clearly is not the best thing for the development of these players, either individually or as it relates to the National Team.
Even BigSoccer has gotten it out of their system, and every week or comment here need not be a referendum on Rossi. Deal with it.
P.S. I like your thinking, soccer fan.
Ives, while I don’t agree with the language and specific argument jonathan used regarding Rossi, I do agree that I don’t like hearing about Rossi in the American’s Abroad section of your website. While he may have dual citizenship, he is unwilling to play for the country of his birth. That is fine. There is nothing wrong with wanting to play for a certain country, especially if your father is from there. But that doesn’t mean we have to include him in this category. Maybe file him under the non-American Abroad Europe Weekend Rewind category.
Now as far as jonathan goes, sounds like someone is a little butt-hurt about the Rossi situation. I know how you feel, because I used to harbor resentment toward Rossi as well. But I now realize that I can’t possibly understand Rossi’s thoughts and feelings about playing for the country of his father’s birth. Maybe he has a lot of respect for his father and they are very close. Maybe he grew up dreaming of playing for the same team as Baggio, the same team that almost won the 94 world cup. The point is, how can you assume that his decision making is an attack on US soccer? You can’t. Let him make his own decisions. I’m sure you would want people to leave you alone if you were anything close to the player Rossi is. He is a great player and he deserves to play for whoever he can or wants to.
All that being said, I am American and I love my country, at least as far as soccer goes. Keep up the good work, Ives.
Ay caramba! There seems to be a disconnect between SOCCER FANS, and people who want to turn a light hearted discussion on soccer into an excuse to project hate at someone because of their politics or nationality. When people talk sports they quite often talk in what could be perceived as extremes, but I think it is the hope that it is understood, for the most part, to be being passionate about the sport and not making any real serious statement about people or nations.
I am more offended by the self righteous people here responding as though some kind of hate crime has been committed. Isn’t it interesting how quickly they wanted to turn it into an opportunity to start bashing the U.S.
Quotes: “You now what I’m sick of, not that anyone asked? Geeky, wounded-ego, woe is me Americans”
“Except Jonathan, he DIDN’T join another country’s military, so your example means nada. Oh, wait wait, I’m sorry, I spoke non-American. I mean, nothing.”
You’re right, no one asked but your were probably itching to find a place to put that in there without it being obvious how anti-American you are.
“And Jonathan, don’t worry – many, many people already act like you. That’s way we’re at war and why most of the world thinks we’re a country of belligerent, sociopathic morons.”
“Get a plane ticket, see the world, try to hook up with a foxy au pair or something. Anything – but meet some foreigners somehow. They’re generally nice people. Would do you a world of good. Do put your shotgun away first though, please.”
“Oh now we have dwbpnm – the thinking man’s xenophobe. A soccer game is the moral equivalent of a war, except without the bother of the Geneva Convention. I guess that makes it real easy to justify the Persian gulf mess we’re in – it’s simply an opportunity for a rematch of when Iran beat us in the World Cup.”
These are just a few of the comments. Is Jonathan the one with the problem here?
It makes me think of the time I was at the World Cup and watching Nigeria play Argentina. I was surrounded by Nigerians who seemed to be nuts, to say the least. Every single time a well deserved foul call was made on a Nigerian player they screamed in rage like they had been attacked personally. They were really enraged if an Argentinian so much as went near a Nigerian player to try and win the ball. The hostility towards the ref who was doing a good job was unbelievable. Should I put this down to people getting overly passionate about soccer or should I make other observations, like why don’t these primitive spear throwing hating Nigerians go back to Nigeria and set someone’s village on fire?
A lot of you guys have obviously chosen the latter. Lighten up and stop using someone making silly comments in the context of soccer as an excuse to direct your hate at someone while telling them they are the one’s who hate.
Ives, I love the blog, with our without Rossi. But I would like it better without Jonathan.
that should be, “but that doesn’t mean i’m not upset at his decisions.
i think leftcoastmetro is in the wrong forum. you need to be in politics, not football. your comments seem to have nothing to do with football, just making fun of americans. leave posts on moveon.org
i think it’s natural to be upset that rossi isn’t playing for the u.s. much like argentinians were when camoranesi decided to play for italy or for canadians when hargreaves and now jonathan deguzman deciding to play for the netherlands (or at least considering it). i wouldn’t call him a traitor and i still consider him american, but that doesn’t mean i’m upset at his decisions.
Thats a great reason why he’s a yank. Didnt Randy Lerner to go school in England, and now he owns Villa, and goes to matches…he must be English.
Here is reason why he’s yank .
Guerin Sportivo interview with Giuseppe Rossi
Do you have any goals off the field?
“I would like to get an online degree. I’m doing a course through the University of Massachusetts. I just took an English exam.”
LOL
He goes to American College …………:)
JONATHAN- “If he was playing for france, or brazil [my favorite teams] i probably wouldn’t be as angry.”
Oh, OK, so if he played for one of your favorite teams you wouldn’t consider him a traitor who you wished injury upon? I see, so patriotism only goes as far as your own personal preferences.
You’re a joke Jonathan. And all the people complaining about Rossi being mentioned need to get over it. He’s one name on a long list. If you don’t like seeing it then don’t look at it. Skip right past it.
Camoranesi on being called up said:
“I’m not a traitor, I still feel 100% Argentine and have done nothing to find myself in this situation. It’s only a football matter, nothing else”.
As he said it’s only FOOTBALL ,,,
Mauro Camoranesi is followed in Argentina.
HELLO……………..he has family in Argentina and after the world cup win, his interviews were all over in Argentina.
and till today people talk about how is doing w/Juve