In a battle of U.S. national team stars between Tim Howard and Oguchi Onyewu, only one of them was going to advance in UEFA Cup play when Howard’s Everton faced Onyewu’s Liege.
It was Onyewu, who helped the Belgian champions knock off the slumping squad from Liverpool as Standard Liege posted a 2-1 victory in Belgium to advance in the UEFA Cup and send Everton crashing out.
Carlos Bocanegra’s Rennes also fell, losing to Twente Enschede to also be eliminated. Brad Friedel’s Aston Villa advanced past Liteks Lovetch while AC Milan cruised past FC Zurich.
Here are the rest of Thursday’s UEFA Cup scores.
What did you think of the action? Impressed by Standard Liege, which knocked off one Liverpool team after almost knocking off the other in Champions League play? Disappointed to see Tim Howard’s tournament end? Think Friedel and Villa can go far?
Share your thoughts on the UEFA Cup results below.
Way to go Goooooooooooooooooooooooooch!
Way to go Lieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeege!
Gooch to Villa! Too bad Villa will win UEFA and Gooch will be cup tied! Dang!
I would prefer Gooch doesn’t get a January transfer and he plays the year out at Standard and his club has lots of success in the UEFA Cup. It would be nice to see him make a summer transfer and have some time to settle. A good showing in the Confederations Cup (June 09′) would further increase his value.
If Standard Liege can make a nice run in the tournament Gooch will have a nice audition for bigger clubs. The Belgian champs have shown already that they can play with the big boys. Congrats to them.
I really hope Gooch gets to transfer in January. Any scoop in that area, Ives?
Ives — BB has asked for Jozy again:
http://villarrealcf.es/principal.php?nombreModulo=noticiasDetalle&idnoticia=6810&idseccion=7&idmenu=4&idsubmenu=35
Did anyone actually watch the game? I was wondering how Gooch looked? Is his touch and distribution still terrible? I’m hoping he keeps improving.
This is what Lawro on BBC says about Everton in his upcoming prediction on this weekend’s game. We aren’t imagining that Howard has been shakey.
“Everton’s defensive play has not been good. It’s a mix of many things, including the loss of Lee Carsley. Individually, and as a team, they have been poor and the keeper has looked a bit iffy but I believe they will turn the corner. ”
Glad that it was Liege that won – Everton really, really needs to focus on the EPL.
Howard is not having a good season and
Everton is in the dumps. If this continues for much longer, there will be some changes there — I hope that doesn’t mean bench time for Timmy.
Mark, you should check the Toffees’ record under Moyes. He’s been great, but they are so far from financial competitiveness that they go from 4th to 17th and back again every other year. If everything goes right for them, they’d be mid-table, but they’ve overachieved in those years.
They’ve been a couple of injuries from the colaship most of the time.
Timmy is in for a loooooong year.
And it’s far from his doing.
Gooch should get an asist on the Everton goal (in case you haven’t seen the replay)
I am happy for him though. One thing I like about him is that he never goes postal with all the crap he puts up with defending corners.
Hey Ives. Can you do live commentary for the Quakes match? If so I would appreciate it.
What sort of financial implications are involved with a team like Everton falling out the UEFA so quickly? They are trying to break into the top 4 in the league, so wondering if anyone who follows Everton knows if this will end up costing them without the additional revenue.
I haven’t watched the rest of Everton’s games, but neither of the two goals this game were his fault. One was crappy marking and the other was a PK.
Congrats to Gooch!!! As someone else said earlier, Timmy already is regarded as a top quality keeper, whereas Gooch is in his final season before a (hopefully major) transfer, so wins like this are great for his value and exposure.
no it’s not beckster, and it’s infuriating
Howard will face high level competition week in and week out in the premiership. We will now get to see how Gooch does in European tournament againstsquads from other countries and see how he reacts and high pressure European cup competition.
What is happening to the Everton defense this season? How much is Howard? How much the backline? Not going well for the toffees at all.
Aston**
if one must choose, I’d rather have Gooch advance. Tim doesn’t need the exposure or experience nearly as much as Gooch does.
Good for Gooch, too bad for Timmy. I think Ashton Villa can go far, but watch out for Standard Liege. I’m gonna throw in a prediction on who will play the final, just for fun. I say. Standard Liege vs Milan. It could happen!