by GIANFRANCO PANIZO
After two solid weeks of impressive performances to start the new year, Americans playing abroad ran into a wall this past weekend.
The majority of Americans Abroad either sat on the bench or did not dress last weekend, while many of the players who did see time struggled with results and their own performances.
One example was Oguchi Onyewu. Onyewu and Standard Liege, currently in 2nd place in the Jupiler League, resumed their campaign on Saturday against bottom-feeder Dender. The towering defender opened up 2009 with a goal in the 5th minute. Unfortunately it was for the wrong team.
Clint Dempsey's Fulham fell to a Jonathan Spector-less West Ham United, Jose Francisco Torres came off at half-time prior to Pachuca's offensive onslaught and neither of the two teen sensations, Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore, made the bench for their respective clubs.
Not all was bad news though. Defender Michael Orozco opened up his 2009 Clausura season with a 90-minute performance and defender Jay DeMerit also enjoyed playing the entire game for Watford. There was also a brief Eddie Johnson sighting in the match between Cardiff City and Birmingham.
Here's how the Americans Abroad performed this weekend:
England
PREMIER LEAGUE
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Tim Howard and Everton play Liverpool on Monday.
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Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Aston Villa's 2-1 win vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
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Brad Guzan dressed but did not play in Aston Villa's 2-1 win vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
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Clint Dempsey started and played 90 minutes in Fulham's 3-1 loss vs. West Ham on Sunday.
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Jonathan Spector did not dress in West Ham's 3-1 win vs. Fulham on Sunday.
COCA COLA CHAMPIONSHIP
- Frank Simek did not dress in Sheffield Wednesday's 4-0 win vs. Charlton Athletic on Saturday. He is recovering from a hamstring injury.
- Jay DeMerit started and played 90 minutes in Watford's 2-0 loss vs. Sheffield United on Saturday.
- Eddie Johnson came off the bench and played 7 minutes in Cardiff City's 1-1 draw vs. Birmingham on Saturday.
- Marcus Hahnemann did not dress in Reading's 2-0 loss vs. Swansea City on Saturday. He is recovering from a calf injury.
- Bobby Convey did not dress in Reading's 2-0 loss vs. Swansea City on Saturday.
Scotland
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DaMarcus Beasley did not dress in Rangers' 3-1 win vs. Falkirk on Saturday.
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Maurice Edu dressed but did not play in Rangers' 3-1 win vs. Falkirk on Saturday.
Germany
Bundesliga 1 and Bundesliga 2 are both on winter break.
Spain
- Jozy Altidore did not dress in Villarreal's 2-0 win vs. Mallorca on Sunday.
Italy
- Danny Szetela did not dress in Brescia's 4-0 win vs. Pisa on Saturday.
France
LIGUE 1
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Carlos Bocanegra started and played 90 minutes in Rennes' 1-0 loss vs. Lille on Sunday.
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Freddy Adu did not dress in AS Monaco's 2-2 draw vs. Caen on Sunday.
LIGUE 2
- Quentin Westberg dress but did not play in Troyes' 2-2 draw vs. Chateauroux on Saturday.
Belgium
- Oguchi Onyewu started, played 90 minutes and scored an own goal in Standard Liege's 3-2 win vs. Dender on Saturday.
Denmark
The Danish First Division is on winter break until March.
Mexico
- Jose Francisco Torres started and played 45 minutes in Pachuca's 4-1 win vs. U.A.N.L. on Sunday.
- Michael Orozco started and played 90 minutes in San Luis' 0-0 draw vs. Morelia on Saturday.
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Marco Vidal dressed but did not play in Indios de Ciudad Juarez's 2-1 win vs. U.A. de G. on Friday.
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Daniel Hernandez did not dress in Chiapas' 2-1 win vs. Atlas on Saturday.
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Jesus Padilla did not dress in Guadalajar's 3-3 draw vs. Cruz Azul on Saturday.
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Sonny Guadarrama did not dress in Morelia's 0-0 draw vs. San Luis on Saturday.
American-born Players Playing for Other Countries
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Giuseppe Rossi (Italy) started, played 87 minutes and scored a GOAL in Villarreal's 2-0 win vs. Mallorca on Sunday.
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Brede Hangeland (Norway) started and played 90 minutes in Fulham's 3-1 loss vs. West Ham on Sunday.
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Boaz Myhill (Wales) started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Hull City's 3-1 loss vs. Arsenal on Saturday.
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Edgar Castillo (Mexico) started, played 90 minutes and drew a yellow card in America's 2-1 in vs. Santos Laguna on Sunday.
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What do you think of these performances? Is this weekend one to forget for the Americans Abroad? Happy to see Oguchi Onyewu back in action? Scared a bit by his own goal? Do you see Orozco and/or DeMerit moving up the CB depth chart in 2009? Think Friedel and Aston Villa will finish in the top three in the EPL? Excited to see the Mexican First Division kickoff their 2009 Clausura campaign?
Share your thoughts below.
Bradley scored this stunner in a friendly:
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=q91kOR6QnQg
Landon did get that goal after coming on in the 2nd half so maybe Klinsmann will feel validated re: putting him in the super sub role (and mix in the occasional start). In fact, given that it was the last friendly before the start of league play, my guess is that this remains the plan.
We’ll see. Great to see him performing, and at least making playing time decisions very tough @ FCB.
Yes, Donovan’s goal was sweet and it looked like the rest of the team is warming up to him.
Klinsy might not be the most popular man for doing it, but Landon is hot and should be in the starting XI when the Bundesliga resumes.
Anyone read the article on the FC Bayern website titled “We want to see who is fired up”. Donovan is pictured in the article, which comments on players “hitting the gas” trying to crack the first team. I think he’s starting to hear a little birdy in his head telling him that Landon is poised for a push to the elite ranks.
Donovan scored an excellent header today
Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore, made the bench for their respective clubs.
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They made the stands, not the bench
I Can’t imagine beas making top 5 money for rangers. He never plays. Kris boyd probably makes the most for the team. He has scored 18 goals in 18 league games.
Move Beas to right back!!!!!! He’s got the speed, needs to add about 20 pounds of roid muscle, and work on those two-footed tackles.
Well I know that Friedel gets £50,000 a week for AV. Double the wages he had at Blackburn. So Friedel must be 1 of the highest paid GK in the world behind Casillas, Buffon, Van Der Sar, Cech and Dida.
Now as for other Yanks. I know Howard got around £15,000 when he joined Man U 6 years ago. He should be getting maybe double that at Everton now. I believe Bocanegra got a high salary for transferring to Rennes. Dempsey must get some pay since Fulham is a London club. I imagine Beasley must get great pay since he is 1 of the highest earners at Rangers. Does anyone know specifics?
I know that Steven Gerrard, Kaka, Frank Lampard, Iker Casillas, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho are the highest paid footballers in the world but what about our Yanks? How much are Dempsey or Bocanegra or Beasley getting? Just curious
EJ needs to head to Scandinavia or convert to winger. He can run like hell and loves to back pass, so he would bring some assists. But he needs to get out of England. He should have gone to benfica back in 2005. His skill would definitely had improved.
Great news for Convey 🙂 Maybe he can regain his form with Hunt’s departure.
I sure hope he can transfer to a Premier League team in the summer. Teams like Blackburn or Stoke would kill to have him as their GK. He had the most saves of any GK last season.
Convey hasn’t played in the reserves last week or this which means one of three things: Stephen Hunt move to EPL is ready to happen any moment and they are saving him as his backfill (pretty likely); he is about to be traded; he is injured (no reason to believe. Both the spurs and Wiggin want Hunt and Hunt wants EPL so possible things could work out for Convey at Reading.
@jd
yeah, Hahanemann was rumored to go to Spurs before he got hurt. Nothing since.
Bocanegra’s Rennes is fighting Bordeaux and Marseille as they compete with Lyon for the league title. For sure, Rennes will be playing Champions League football next season.
Posted by: Ouch | January 19, 2009 at 10:41 AM
You don’t know Ligue 1. Even the great Lyon isn’t assured on playing in next year’s Champion’s League. Last year’s race in France went down to the last week-end. I’m talking about the teams that won as well as the relegation battle and with the current table difference between 1st and 6th less than 7 pts, this year’s race will again go down to the wire. The table in France is definitely volatile. Rennes needs to get some scoring power if they plan on being in Champion’s League next year.
I saw a lot of jogging out Dempsey as part of a terrible team performance again on the road by Fulham. His game only works when he runs his a$$ off, and he’s still prone to lose his intensity after having success.
I still think Adu should fight it out (the Juve coach had praise after the recent friendly), but Beas and Convey should head to wherever they can get minutes, and I’d happily welcome them to MLS.
Michael Bradley will be a beast once the Bundesliga start again. I’m banking on him and Marko Marin to keep BMG up.
I mean Reading. How much are his wages for Reading? I read that he was 1 of the highest paid players on the team. Surely Hahnemann makes more? Also, wasn’t Hahnemann supposed to leave for Tottenham or Stoke?
Yeah. Convey should battle it out for a place at Rangers. If not he should head to Scandinavia for a season than return to MLS for Philadelphia in a year. He would probably get around $350,000 or so
Dempsey will rebound next week and so will Fulham. Hope he gets a goal as well. He is for sure cemented in the starting XI.
Bocanegra’s Rennes is fighting Bordeaux and Marseille as they compete with Lyon for the league title. For sure, Rennes will be playing Champions League football next season.
How has Danny Califf done in Denmark? I know he was a star for Aalborg, but how has he done since his transfer to FC Midjytland? I wonder how Michael Parkhurst’s training been for his new club.
Actaully…. Convey is fine because he is going to come back and play for Philly in the MLS next season anyway…
Adu is out of favor but so is the coach Ricardo…word is he may get hte ax withing the next few weeks…
Beasley wants out and has made it clear that he would still love to play for Rangers if he ever got the chance.
Eddie Johnson scored a goal for the reserves last Monday and actaully came in and held the ball up very well in the last 7 mins according the Cardiff messageboards and the late goal was all McPhails fault and had nothing to do with Eddie.
Gooch needs to move to Marseilles but I think he feels that STandard have a real shot at the UEFA Cup…
Zak Whitbread needs to be added under England…He scored the winner for Millwall in the FA cup mid week and is being looked at by Prem clubs currently such as West Brom and Blackburn.
No worries, Gooch is helping to lead Standard Liege for another league title. And great chance for them to meet the quarter-finals. I have a feeling Gooch will have his choice of clubs to choose from this summer, with Marseille and PSG at the front for his signature.
Interesting tidbit –
Carlos Bocanegra is one of only three (3) players who’s started EVERY match (includes UEFA Cup matches) for Rennes this season. He’s scored once (in a UEFA Cup match) and only has 3 yellow cards – amazing for a defender going into the halfway point in any league. He’s got a season ranking of 4.76 out of 10 (from France Football that’s pretty damn good. Zidane and Platini probably averaged 6.5 when they played in France and only a few players in a season actually earn anything above an 8 ranking in a match). Not bad for someone in their first season in a new league with a completely different style of play. The US Nats will benefit from this big time. Oh, yesterday, they lost their second match of the season in Ligue 1.
Is EJ the biggest flop we have had abroad? Or is it Clint Mathis? Is there anyway EJ could gain confidence and better his touch and score a goal? maybe he should head to Scandinavia. Maybe he could be a star there.
Beasley should transfer to a club in France or Spain or head back to the Netherlands. He has shown he has skills, though injuries have wrecked him.
Edu is in the future plans of Rangers. I imagine he will be a sub for rest of the season and probably start later this year.
Shouldn’t Gooch’s GOAL be capitalized, especially as the only one scored by a Yank this weekend?
Oh, yeah, now I see… never mind.
WHOOO… 7 minutes for Eddie Johnson… WHOOO
Beasley, Convey and Adu need to leave their current clubs and get some playing time.