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Americans Abroad: Weekend Rewind

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Last weekend was the first full weekend of European soccer, but it was on this side of the Atlantic in Mexico where American-born soccer players were enjoying the most success on foreign land.

Three American-born players earned starts in the Mexican First Division last weekend while a fourth, California-born Jesus Padilla (pictured), came off the bench to deliver a 90th-minute equalizer for Chivas de Guadalajara against Morelia on Saturday. If you’re wondering how an American-born player could be playing for Chivas, you might have missed this very interesting story.

European-based players did their share as well. Brad Friedel shut out Liverpool and Neven Subotic (yes, we’re still holding on to him) scored the game-winner for Borussia Dortmund against Energie Cottbus.

Here is how the rest of the Americans did in Europe (and Mexico) last weekend (as well as some polls on whether or not to keep including Subotic and Giuseppe Rossi in the Americans Abroad roundup):

ENGLAND

  • Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes, and made four saves in Everton’s 3-0 loss to Portsmouth on Saturday.
  • Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes, and made one save in Aston Villa’s 0-0 tie vs. Liverpool on Sunday.
  • Brad Guzan dressed but did not play for Aston Villa.
  • Clint Dempsey and Fulham did not play this weekend.
  • Jonathan Spector did not dress in West Ham’s 4-1 win vs. Blackburn on Saturday.
  • Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made two saves in Reading’s 4-2 win vs. Crystal Palace on Saturday.
  • Bobby Convey dressed but did not play for Reading.
  • Jay DeMerit started and played 90 minutes in Watford’s 2-1 win vs. Ipswich on Saturday.
  • Eddie Johnson came off the bench and played five minutes in Cardiff City’s 0-0 tie vs. Sheffield United on Saturday.
  • Frank Simek did not dress in Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-1 tie vs. Swansea.

SCOTLAND

  • Maurice Edu dressed but did not play in Rangers’ 4-2 win against Celtic on Sunday.
  • DaMarcus Beasley did not dress for Rangers.

GERMANY

  • Neven Subotic started, played 90 minutes and scored the lone goal in Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win against Energie Cottbus on Saturday.
  • Steve Cherundolo started and played 90 minutes in Hannover 96’s 2-0 loss to Stuttgart on Sunday.
  • Sal Zizzo did not dress for Hannover 96.
  • Brian Arguez did not dress in Hertha Berlin’s 4-1 loss to Bayern Munich on Sunday.
  • Heath Pearce came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Hansa Rostock’s 1-0 loss to SC Freiburg on Monday.
  • David Yelldell started, played 90 minutes and made three saves in TUS Koblenz’s 0-0 tie vs. SV Wehen.
  • Matt Taylor started and played 69 minutes for TUS Koblenz.
  • Grover Gibson started and played in Ahlen’s 2-1 win vs. 1860 Munich on Sunday.
  • Gregg Berhalter dressed but did not play for 1860 Munich.
  • Luis Robles dressed but did not play in Kaiserslautern’s 3-1 win vs. FC Ingolstadt on Friday.

SPAIN

  • Jozy Altiore dressed but did not play in Villarreal’s 1-1 tie vs. Osasuna on Sunday.

ITALY

  • Danny Szetela started and played 90 minutes in Brescia’s 2-2 tie vs. Empoli on Saturday.

FRANCE

  • Carlos Bocanegra started and played 90 minutes in Rennes’ 0-0 tie vs. Toulouse on Sunday.
  • Freddy Adu came off the bench and played nine minutes in Monaco’s 1-0 loss to Grenoble on Saturday.
  • Andrew Jacobson did not dress in Lorient’s 2-0 loss to Auxerre on Saturday.
  • Quentin Westberg dressed but did not play in Troyes’ 1-0 loss to Nimes on Friday.

BELGIUM

  • Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes in Standard Liege’s 1-1 tie vs. Roeselare on Sunday.

DENMARK

  • Danny Califf started and drew a 39th minute red card in FC Midtjylland’s 1-1 tie vs. Vejle on Monday.
  • Jeremiah White started and played 90 minutes in AGF Aarhus’ 3-0 loss to FC Nordsjaelland on Sunday.
  • Benny Feilhaber came off the bench and played 31 minutes for AGF Aarhus.
  • Lee Nguyen did not dress in Randers’ 2-1 loss to Odense BK on Saturday.

MEXICO

  • Jesus Padilla came off the bench and played 35 minutes, scoring a 90th minute equalizer to help Chivas de Guadalajara to a 1-1 tie against Morelia on Saturday.
  • Jose Francisco Torres started and played 90 minutes in Pachuca’s 2-1 loss to Indios to Ciudad de Jaurez on Saturday.
  • Marco Vidal started and played 45 minutes for Indios de Ciudad de Juarez.
  • Daniel Hernandez started, played 90 minutes and drew a yellow card in Chiapas’ 1-1 tie with Puebla on Sunday.
  • Michael Orozco did not dress in San Luis’ 1-0 loss to Atlante on Saturday.

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If there are players I forgot to list feel free to list them below. Please remember that I’m trying to focus on first divisions and, in some cases, second divisions, so keep that in mind when suggesting players for the list. (I will include Norway and Sweden later on tonight.)

And lastly, it is poll time. Since the inclusion of Giuseppe Rossi in Americans Abroad last year caused such a stir, and Neven Subotic’s inclusion this year has already begun to stir debate, I have decided to leave it up to you, the SBI readers, on whether the two players will stay a part of the series (If more than 65 percent of readers vote no in either instance, the player will be removed for the rest of the year.):

AND

Share your thoughts on how these Americans did last weekend, as well as the polls, in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Brett

    There’s been many rumors of foreigners being paid under the table to play for other national teams. If the world is doing that, and the US is sticking to its principle, that is a clear disadvantage. Another like disadvantage like “college ball” when guys that age are playing top flight professional football.

    Reply
  2. IHateDC- you saying we should bribe players into choosing us?? “here’s X amount of dollars, now you are stuck playing for the US” ???

    id rather have players who WANT to play for the US, rather then sliding them a non-labeled envelope :-/

    Reply
  3. josh- i dont care who plays for the US, just as long as they WANT to play for the US… Rossi clearly wants to play for Italy, and has stated he feels more italian then american… thus thats why a large number of us would rather not have him on the Yanks abroad posts

    Reply
  4. Many of you are clearly too young to remember the makeup of our national team back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, but a bunch of our best players were born and/or raised elsewhere, but played for us. Different circumstances, sure, but basically the same decision. Get over the Rossi thing, it is part of sports, and the USMNT has taken advantage of it as much as been hurt by it. Probably more.

    Reply
  5. My two cents: As far as Americans Abroad go, I’m interested in hearing about guys who could, at some point, play for the national team.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  6. get rossi out of the abroad rewind, he’s a us citizen, but he’s not pertinent information. Ives doesn’t post useless information if I recall.

    Reply
  7. getserious- i think the age is like 20 or 21… hence y Subotic is in NO hurry to set himself to a national team… he’s waiting as long as he can to get his german citizenship so that he can play for them…

    Reply
  8. getserious – if i recall correctly, since rossi has played in Italy Youth games and since he’s past the max age requirement for changing nationalities, he’s pretty much stuck with Italy…. not to mention the 1 million times he’s denied the US and stated he wants to play for italy…

    but again, i could be wrong….

    Reply
  9. To the poster that asked if Subotic has decided – the definitive answer is NO. To all you other yahoos – Rossi has NOT played in an A Game (WC Qualifier, Euro Qualifier, etc.) for Italy so he has left himself wiggle room to still play for the U.S.

    I see the glass as half-full given that if Rossi really wanted to, he probably could have gotten his A Italy Game already. So don’t sell him down the road so fast.

    Keep’em both. Let me ask this question – why wouldn’t you want to have the most information you could on ‘potential’ USMNT players? I am all for MORE INFORMATION, not less.

    Reply
  10. Jonathan- im sure Rossi had made up his mind on whether he wanted to play for US or Italy before his move to italy… and im sure if he wasnt as good as he is, he’d be amoung the US ranks, which makes me dislike him more :-/

    Reply
  11. IVES- even though he’s playing for the reserves, are you going to list V. Bernardo in the Yanks abroad section?? i would like to see updates on him, but currently the only spot is on bigsoccer…

    Reply
  12. even if rossi were to be picked up by the US youth teams, he could still have switched to italy, similar to what Subotic is trying to do with Germany…

    its their choice, but once they are out of USMN possiblities, i say they shouldnt be listed in Yanks-abroad…

    are they still yanks?? sure, technically speaking yes….but im sure to Rossi, he thinks he’s italian, with US citizenship… stop holding onto technicalities, if you want to follow everyone who has US citizenship then do it on your own accord… but i think any Yank-abroad new such as this should remain only for those who consider themselves american first

    =====

    Reply
  13. Soccer community in NJ knew about Rossi and his talents..but USSF didn’t give a damn till he was 18…by the time he was already in the Italy Mix…

    USSF was ASLEAAP @ the wheel, and Where was Nike…..? no where.

    Posted by: yoman

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    Sounds like the Edgar Castillo case. Castillo stated that his first choice was the US, but he had to go to Mexico for football opportunities. Before you know it, that clown Hugo Sanchez has given Castillo a few caps. Is Castillo still part of the Mexican setup?

    Reply
  14. Soccer community in NJ knew about Rossi and his talents..but USSF didn’t give a damn till he was 18…by the time he was already in the Italy Mix…

    USSF was ASLEAAP @ the wheel, and Where was Nike…..? no where.

    Reply
  15. @kpugs:

    “It’s not up to us to decide who is and is not American.

    Even having this debate is so unbelievably stupid. It’s “Americans abroad,” and all Americans should be included.

    What a bunch of whiny little babies.”

    It isn’t whether or not they’re American that matters. Presumably we’re following them because they might have a shot at playing for the US national team. If someone like Rossi has taken himself out of the running for that, then I’ve lost all interest in him.

    Reply
  16. cory – Califf was more or less pushed out of Aalborg. Can’t remember exact details now, but his contract was ending, and they were offering him a “take this if you’re a fool with no pride” or “leave it so we can start rebuilding for the future” extension.

    Read the original Danish article, but long gone now.

    Reply
  17. Um, why should I care about what a player for the Italian team does?

    Why should I care about what a future German National Team player does?

    I want to see how OUR OWN team pool is doing. I thought that was the point of the whole section…

    Reply

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