Clint Dempsey returned to action on Monday, playing 90 minutes in Fulham's 2-0 win vs. Hull City.
Dempsey had been sidelined due to a shoulder injury, but looked fully fit in making the start. Dempsey's U.S. teammate, Jozy Altidore, came off the bench and played 21 minutes for Hull City, which remains in the relegation zone after the loss.
A U.S. national team-eligible player did find the net on Monday.
Leeds United left winger Bradley Johnson, who earlier this month revealed that he is eligible for and interesting in playing for the United States, scored in Leeds' 2-1 win vs. Norwich City. American-born Leeds forward Mike Grella dressed, but did not play in the match.
In Denmark, U.S. midfielder Benny Feilhaber started and played 90 minutes in AGF Aarhus' 1-0 loss to Sonderjyske. Jeremiah White dressed but did not play for Aarhus.
What did you think of Dempsey's performance? Beginning to worry about Altidore's time at Hull? Does the prospect of Bradley Johnson joining the U.S. national team pool intrigue you?
Share your thoughts below.
Thank you!
Wow talk about taking my comments out of context and not even reading what I wrote and calling me a racist to boot? Where did you come from? You should be ashamed of yourself!! Listen I am half half American and half English so that shoots your hateful comments down right there. Further, I have 2 black and 3 Korean newphews and nieces. Which further makes you look ignorent. You owe me an apology to call me a racist when first, you don’t even know me and second you didn’t read what I was trying to say. Ignorance such as yours knows no bounds!
Yeah you are right in your own words you wrote and should have followed:
“ridiculous is the need of some to label and demean those who simply have a different opinion than they do.”
Which what you just did to me!!!!! Hello!!!!
My opinion , was simply that this young man wanted to play international football and he was willing to do so with which ever team offered him the chance. That my friend bothers me. Because in my mind he isn’t playing for this country out of any loyalty. If England were to come calling first (which as the article said was slim) he would play for them.
I know what it means tobe an American it appears more than you. Take your hateful comments elsewhere and quit reading into someone’s comments what aren’t there!!!
Ives should remove and your comments from this board.
Yes advocat is some sort of visionary “different” thinker. I don’t think people are name-calling because he has a different opinion but because his opinions are completely unsupported by any type of reasoning or evidence. Its simply people calling him out for his bs…and your atttempt to analogize marc’s comment to advocat’s is weak. Marc’s measured restraint in his expression of his ideas is exactly what advocat fails to do and why people bust him for it.
Just curious, would those games be considered better than the level of play of say FC Dallas vs. NYRB, because we could be seeing a FC dallas player in USMNT camp soon.
Did you brung it, Larry? You need to bring the ruckus to that a$$!
Gotcha. Thanks for the heads up
Leeds more than likely will be promoted to the Championship with MK Dons. Bradley Johnson playing for Leeds and Jemal Johnson playing for MK Dons. Jay Demerit plays for the US National team so why couldnt we give either one of these guys a shot? Adding to our depth should never be a problem
I ask is it fair to Canada that Hargreaves plays for England? Pure opportunism. Is there a shortage of english footballers? England could nationalize half the players in the EPL pretty soon the way the FIFA are devolving. Let the english play with a team representative of their nation. If they dont have the players, then have the guts not to field a team. Pretty soon we will have a GrossDeutschland team vs. Yugoslavia vs pre Garibaldi Italy vs colonial France vs United Kingdom vs Spanish empire vs Austro-Hungarian empire.
c’mon. as much as i like Jozy and pull for all the yanks abroad to get time, you can’t badmouth Venegoor of Hesselink. He’s scored close to 150 goals this decade for clubs like PSV Eindhoven and Celtic (and he is not even a regular for the Dutch national team, which is a testament to their depth). root for our guys, sure, but give credit where credit is due.
Any PT for Altidore is better than last year.
Marc said… Not to mention from the article I would question why the USA? Because he just wants to play international football? That bothers me /quote
Xenophobic bigot! America is a nation of immigrants, and despite him being nor an immigrant (or ever wanting to be) or American at heart in any way, shame on you for being such a RACIST for thinking those representing the national team should actually have some sense of loyalty and devotion to the country!
/sarc (see how ridiculous that sounds?)
I completely disagree with Advocat’s thinking on all this, but nevertheless it’s laughable to see the reactionary name-calling for him daring to have a different opinion. I welcome all comers if it can help the USMNT, but wanting the national team to be represented by, you know, Americans, is hardly “xenophobic” or bigoted or whatever other PC word you come up with. (Note to Advocat: You CAN be American without living here your entire life)
But those in favor of a citizen purity test abroad is a lot more prevalent here, yet I don’t ever see anyone screaming about xenophobia in that case. How long did it take for our enlightened English to embrace Owen Hargreaves because he was born in — gasp — Canada? Stupid all the same to me but equally ridiculous is the need of some to label and demean those who simply have a different opinion than they do.
Love the new format. Now I can yell at people directly instead of hoping they read my brilliant rebuttal thirty posts later.
As for Josy, maybe Hull can spend some $ in the January window and get someone who can delvier a ball to the forwards.
It says in the article that Bradley Johnson is a central midfielder. Why do you have him listed as a winger ives? Is there something I missed?
(SBI-In the article, Johnson says he prefers playing in central midfield, but has been used mainly as a left winger, and is identified in the story as a winger.)
It’s nice of Johnson to jump into the picture. Leeds is a League One team and that’s more like a USL-type player coming in for the US. Highly unlikely but there’s always a chance.
here we go with the 3rd tier players should be called in for the national team nonsense…. come on already… we’re not a world class power, but we have enough players who play top flight football and some in 2nd tier to fill 3 or 4 rosters’ worth… let these guys prove themselves and move up a few tiers before it’s even suggested that they be called in….
this search for some savior in the lower leagues is pointless…
if we sign in with twitter/facebook, does each post appear as an update on our profile, or does it just use our pic/avatar from that?
I predicted adu and Altidore both failures. At the moment I am clearly 50% right. and within 24 months of 100%. But why so much investment in these very limited talents? My sense is that we have no players that could qualify for the Final Four teams in the U20 world Cup in egypt (Brazil, Ghana, Costa, Hungria). Neither Adu or altidore could make these teams. There is a huge selection bias.However, if you believe everything is acceptable in our player development, then stop contributing. all is well, right?
Nice flowery touch to the comments section . . .
I have not seen Altidore’s play at Hull much, so I have to depend on you who are in the know. But I have to say, I was blown away by his foot skills during the CR match–not a Messi, for sure, but not as “messy” or clumsy, as he has often seemed in the past. If this will be a consistent showing for him, it bodes well. His finishing still needs work.
If you sign up with Typepad, it remembers you once you are logged in.
It’s good to see Jozy get some playing time but it sucks that it’s with a bad team under a crap manager (and, it seems, a crap person to boot).
Hull were absolutely abysmal last night. I felt pretty bad for JVoH, who had the absolutely thankless job of stroping around up front on his own and chasing after scraps once every 10 minutes or so. Having “parked the bus” for the entire first half, once they were called on to actually attack, they were disorganized and lacked quality pretty much everywhere. Jozy really hustled when he came on and you have to believe he would have given the Fulham defense a few problems if 1. He had started and 2. Phil Brown had any clue.
just look at bullard in that pic..he looks like a fragile british rocker
Agree w/ this. Dempsey’s work rate was great as well – he was constantly in the box (desperate to poach a goal), but would always hustle back to cover. Granted the real estate market will come back faster than Hull’s counterattack.
Also the whole club v. nats thing: realize Dempsey v Hull at home on two weeks rest isn’t a fair comparison to…well anything. Also, he hasn’t scored for club in what 14 games? He has poured in tons of important goals for the nats lately. Makes you wonder if BB has it right and Fulham don’t.
My mom is English (my dad American and I lived 8 years in England as a boy) so I understand the connection Bradley Johnson has with the USA. However, with him playing in the third division in England, at least in my mind, he’s not good enough to play for the USA. I’ve seen games in that league many times and the standard of play is not up to playing for an international team. Not to mention from the article I would question why the USA? Because he just wants to play international football? That bothers me and despite what the article hints, his chances of playing for the USA are no better than England in my opinion.
I’m all for bringing in anyone for a look if they earn it, but we are beyond having to have tryouts in order to fill a team for the World Cup or any other game or competition.
Again, Dempsey’s style of play looks lazy but he’s not.
Don’t get this comment… Dempsey always passes pretty well, but if the player receiving the ball doesn’t do anything with it, it goes unnoticed.
Also, I have always felt that Dempsey looks slow and listless while playing for the USA or Fulham. It’s just his style.
Lets hope that Jozy and Adu are putting in the necessary effort to become regulars. Jozy admitted that he took it for granted until the Davies accident.
Look at Dempsey, took him a long while of hard work before he became a regular and a starter. Jozy and Adu are more talented, but they need to put in the work ethic.
Now if only Dempsey would put in the same work ethic for the US team as he does for Fulham. Bob said that Dempsey starts because he can provide those “moments of brilliance” (or something like that) … but we need more that just a few moments. We used to complain that Donovan doesn’t bring it every game. Now he’s manning up and bringing it every game. Imagine if both Donovan and Dempsey were bringing it!
Are you kidding me? A left winger? Sign him up and bring him to the January camp. I would be fine if he got called up for the Denmark game. That free up Donovan on the left side, assuming he does well and gets to start. We need to seriously consider this guy.
I was at the Cottage and thought it was such a (s)crap fest for the majority of the first half. The goal seemed warranted, but, as one commentator said, it was a bit like “two bald men fighting for a comb.” I, for one, am not so much worried about Jozy’s playing time (that will come) as much as the fact that he is on an absolutely horrible team. Confidence is everything in football, and Phil Brown instills absolutely no confidence in the players he puts on the field. They may get it sorted out if Bullard and Geovanni are able to play together (did the argument between them over a freekick in the second half that Jimmy just plowed into the wall come across on TV?), but Jozy is going to be lacking service for the whole year if not. It seems to me that the whole question right now is who will join Hull and Portsmouth in the Championship next year.
Sigh…It’s easy to call someone a troll to completely dismiss the arguments they’re making when you don’t want to address them, but you, you don’t even make arguments. Just outrageous baseless statements without a modicum of evidence. Stop trolling man.
advocat, your predicting skills suck
Not sure if you heard about this or not, but Ronaldo doesn’t play in the EPL anymore, he plays for this team called Real Madrid now, maybe you’ve heard of them…
I’d think the injury allowed him to get some overall rest. That could lead to him being sharper.
What the crap dempsey? why all the effort now? sorry to tell you all but Dempsey didn’t look better because of the players around him. he played differently. The most noticeable thing is his crisp passing. The last few games for the US he puts half a foot on every pass and hopes it goes to his team. Yesterday each pass was with force and purpose. You could see each time he got the ball he was up on his toes and moving his hips. This is the Dempsey I remember and hope returns to the national team.
Good for you. We’ll see where you are with that prediction in 5 years. Until then, please go away. Thanks.
I thought Clint was unlucky not to score last night. 2 good chances. It is interesting watching him play across from Duff. You get to see what a true winger looks like compared to Clint. It is a good balance though because Duff gives them width which allows Dempsey to cut in to the far post on crosses. They did similar with Davies but he is not a high quality as Duff.
I’d like to see Hesselink adn Altidore start together. i think the two of them would wear down a defense then bring on Ghilas for Hesselink when he tires. Ghilas’ speed would then tear up the tired defense. That is how I would play if I was Phil Brown…
Is this pic right before Dempsey leveled Bullard? Within a minute of coming on Kamara basicially football tackled him and then Clint did the same. I don’t think they appreciated the way Jimmy left last year…even though they became a better team with Murphy pulling the strings.
Still Advocat? Jozy and Fredy are as American as you, I, and everyone else. And as stated before Jozy and Fredy are totally different players with totally different amounts of success. Give it a rest. I’m done with your posts and wish there was an ignore feature.
Bingo. This comment is exactly correct. Brown just refuses to play his best team all at the same time. For Pete’s sake, Geovanni wasn’t even starting earlier in the season.
I can see tho Altidore not starting b/c he missed practice for two weeks. That’s fair. But going forward, he should at least get as much time as JVoH
Our two starting WC strikers where on the pitch at the same time in a Premier league game (Granted Dempsey is on the wing for Fulham). Very nice.
Actually “rooch” the Fulham and USMNT systems are very similar. I agree with Erik that the midfield and defense for Fulham keeps better possession than our national team.
I am predicting the same fate for Altidore as Adu. Contunously transfered until no interest. All the opportunites in the world yet no results. Which of our young US players were denied this opportunity in lieu of Adu and Altidore? Answer this, and you will solve the crisis that is the USSf Player Development.
Jozy plays for a horrible team… he needs the ball at his feet and all they did was lump it up to him and he lost the header 9/10 times.
Dempsey looks better with Fulham because he has better players around him not losing the ball constantly in the midfield and the defense doesn’t kick the ball up the field every time they are in danger.
Dempsey looked great. Missed by inches from just inside the box. Altidore looked good too. He was beasting the guys out there.
Jozy is getting some PT and is training with a lower-tier EPL team. If he can’t get on the field with Hull, he wouldn’t get on the field with just about any other EPL squad. Let’s see how things develop this season. There are no other options for him right now.
I think his game versus Costa Rica was a break-out game for him. I never saw him hustle like he did in that game, and his hustle helped to create chances. Let’s see if his anger/sadness flows over into more games where he gives all of himself on the field.
Phil Brown doesn’t have a grip on his side. Altidore included, Brown never seems to put his best players on the field all at the same time, which should be the strategy for a team headed where there are going. Altidore and Ghilas seemed to show some chemistry in their first game, but they have rarely seen the field at the same time since. Altidore as a sub seems like a waste for me. He is the kind of player that can wear down a back line because of his size, a wasted opportunity if he’s only coming on for 15-20 mins. The bottom line here is that Altidore’s upside is much, much higher than JVH and Brown needs to give him a few starts in a row to get a real sense of what he can bring. Its not like they will get worse results than they are getting. It is good for Jozy that’s he playing, but its bad for Hull that he’s not starting more.
It doesn’t remember me anymore, I gotta type name and e-mail everytime.
Whoa, new format Ives!
Can we edit our own personal pictures or something?
(SBI-I think you have to sign up for a Typepad account to use the picture function. As for the author info, I’m not sure how to set that so you don’t need to re-type it each time. It’s still a new set-up so it’s a work in progress.)
Altidore is playing more than he was at Xerez or Villareal, and he is still only 19 or 20….. SO this was a great move. He is only loaned for the year anyway, so if they are relegated, he is on the move again. Even though it is a crappy EPL team, it is still an EPL team and he is getting minutes against Lampard, Gerrard, Ronaldo, etc…people we will face in the world cup…well, maybe not Ronaldo. I don’t know if he would be getting minutes in the top league on any other team. Maybe he will switch leagues next season? This is a great move for a young player though.
I know the systems played and the expected roles are different between Fulham and the ‘nats, but every time I see Clinton play for the whites he seems to be just about a competely different player than when he’s in red white and blue.
Jozy played ok. Nothing stellar but he did create a nice half chance late and headed over.
Dempsey looking exasperated at Bullard in that pic….