By FRANCO PANIZO
Stuart Holden's debut with the Bolton first team could come in the FA Cup this weekend as he returns from a thigh injury in time for the Wanderers' cup clash vs. Tottenham.
Holden played 60 minutes in a recent Bolton reserve match and is expected to be available for the fifth-round FA Cup match on Sunday.
Brad Guzan will look to keep his dominating form in cup competitions going when Aston Villa faces Crystal Palace in their fifth-round FA Cup tie. Guzan has gotten the nod over Brad Friedel in Villa's cup appearances and should do so again.
Here is a rundown of who Americans Abroad will be facing this weekend:
FRIDAY
Oguchi Onyewu and AC Milan play Udinese. (Onyewu is out injured.)Michael Bradley and Borussia Moenchengladbach play Nurnberg.Matt Taylor and FSV Frankfurt play St Pauli.
SATURDAY
Kenny Cooper and Plymouth Argyle play Barnsley.
Jon-Paul Pittman and Wycombe Wanderers play Brentford.
Zak Whitbread and Norwich City play Brighton.
Ian Joyce and Southend United play Tranmere Rovers.
Jemal Johnson and Stockport County play Colchester United.
Mike Grella and Leeds United play Leyton Orient.
Dominic Cervi and Celtic play Aberdeen.
Steve Cherundolo, Sal Zizzo and Hannover 96 play Werder Bremen. (Cherundolo and Zizzo are out injured.)
Charlie Davies and Sochaux play Le Mans. (Davies is out injured.)
Marco Vidal and Indios de Ciudad Juarez play San Luis.
SUNDAY
Stuart Holden and Bolton Wanderers play Tottenham Hotspur in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan and Aston Villa play Crystal Palace in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Clint Dempsey and Fulham play Notts County in the fifth round of the FA Cup. (Dempsey is out injured.)
DaMarcus Beasley, Maurice Edu and Rangers play Hibernian.
Jermaine Jones and Schalke 04 play FC Cologne. (Jones is out injured.)
Ricardo Clark and Eintracht Frankfurt play SC Freiburg. (Clark is out injured.)
David Yeldell and TUS Koblenz play Hansa Rostock. (Yeldell is out injured.)
Carlos Bocanegra and Stade Rennes play AJ Auxerre.Freddy Adu, Eddie Johnson and Aris Salonika play Ergotelis.Herculez Gomez and Puebla play Jose Francisco Torres and Pachuca. (Torres is out injured.)Edgar Castillo and Tigres UANL play Monterrey.
MONDAY
Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern play MSV Duisburg.
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Which Americans Abroad match are you most looking forward to? Which players do you see having a big impact? Think we'll see Holden make his Bolton debut?
Share your thoughts below. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/SoccerByIves?i=http%3A//www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2010/02/americans-abroad-a-look-ahead.html&showad=true
Am I the only one concerned for Landon ?
Folks we have all been reading alot lately about how well Landon is doing in the UK? Well I for one am proud and thrilled for LD but..
Sadly Landon had the unfortunate circumstance where he broke Ashley Coles ankle thus putting the International UK star in jeopardy for the English team.? I saw the incident it was definitely not malacious nor vicious.It was one of those very unfortunate accidents. BUT that is not to say that some idiot in the UK may not feel as kindly to poor Landon so I hope he watches his back as the USA is of course in the same group as the UK. Yes I know that would be mean, spiteful and a disgrace.. but after all they say soccer (the beautiful gme) is a gentleman’s game but it is played by Barbarians?
Coach K
We should all calm down, Ives is tracking down Daniel Williams’s Kenyan birth certificate to prove he is not an American.
What does SBI mean about “holes” amd MUCH to learn? The Yanks Abroad article was quite clear and detailed. Daniel is American by law (not picking up the passport does not negate this), and would be interested in playing for the US, but would probably choose Germany, where he has always lived, if they should call. This is not unusual stuff or very complicated. I hope Bradley pursues him. YA did a great job bringing Williams to our attention.
(SBI-Nobody said YA didn’t do a good job scoring the interview and providing some valuable insight, but there are some unanswered questions that need to be addressed.)
Sueno MLS Winner Gabriel Nunez is playing for River Plate in Argentina. is he willing to play for the USMNT? any update about him.
with regards to williams, doesnt it come down to the fact that a very small number of players we have currently could also start for a team in the bundesliga?
itd be different if he was getting games in just the reserves, like kirovski did at manu, but hes actually starting. he’s gotta be quality. maybe not world class, obviously, but better than what we have now in some spots, im sure.
Why in the world wouldn’t we want our NT coaching staff and players try to get to know potential quality players for the pool?
People seem to forget, constantly, the number of players you have to reject to field a top-notch squad.
If you’re at the point where you’re able to reject high-quality players, you are able to consistently field a top-notch squad: we are not there. Ergo, we must improve the quality of our pool.
What reason, then, would we have to reject the heuristic that a player starting in a quality league merits a real look? Playing with the team is still the best test around!
How many people have sean euan holden play?
I will know when soccer has finally made it in this country when posts are constructive about players and not just clamoring for a call up just because someone is in europe, take williams he has one good week, great, shouldn’t we let that week turn in to weeks and months before we talk about call ups? Shouldn’t we see that he can work through the tough times of not playing and keep his head? I mean maybe I just don’t get it, but I need to see more or read mmore before I jump all over the idea that he now just needs to be with the national team, just because, thought we’d gotten past this point in our development.
I think the majority of us want him on ur roster.
It is remarkable to me how many people around here don’t read the bylines on the blog posts at this site. Day after day, these threads are full of comments misaddressed to Ives on posts he didn’t author.
Ives said he won’t add until he declares to play for the US. Yanks-Abroad had an interview with him this week, sounds like playing for Germany would still be his first choice, as he’s never even been to the states
Hopefully Freddy and Eddie can get on the pitch at the same time for the full 90 minutes.
I’d love to see Stu out there whipping in crosses.
Unlike Stuart he isn’t clear on who he would want to play for. It sounds like he is keeping his options open.
I believe he signed a one year deal with them.
Ives, what about Euan Holden. I saw on his twitter account that he played.
@EuanHolden Had my first game with Vejle today against Midtjylland from the Superliga. Scored ended 2-2, great to be back playing again.
Do you think Williams quotes are made up or something?
It seems like all the relevant facts about Williams are known.
(SBI-Settle down, I wasn’t saying the story or quotes were made up. I know the writer of that story and I’m sure the quotes were legit, but there are some details that need to be verified and clarified. I’d disagree with you on “all the relevant facts” being known.)
So Williams is lying about his father being in the United States Military?
You put a lot of faith in the thoroughness of the Yanks Abroad legal research department.
Williams has to be able to play for the USA. Yanks-Abroad wouldn’t have done an article about him if he wasn’t. They have super strict rules about posting articles about someone who doesn’t want to play or isn’t eligible for the usa.
They wouldn’t cover Jon-Paul Pittman before because they thought his England C game cap tied him.
(SBI-That’s all well and good, but until I have gotten the answers to the questions I (and others) have, we aren’t including him. It’ll be sorted out by next week.)
I like that. Made me laugh. Really appreciate it. 🙂
Or Serie A
(he who’s name shall not be spoken)
Yanks-abroad.com has a brand new interview with Michael Hoyos. Good stuff.
Whether or not he has a passport is not necessarily the main thing. Something like 80 percent of Americans do not have passports. If what I read elsewhere is true (and I realize it may not be) and he is in fact ELIGIBLE for a US passport, then actually filling out the forms and obtaining one is hardly of consequence to US soccer fans.
Nothing makes the SBI comments section hysterical quite like vaguely American Europeans playing in the Bundesliga.
My comment was about Daniel Williams.
I find it amusing his main position is also defensive mid. Hopefully if he chooses the US, he can actually stay healthy.
In the “warm and fuzzy” department: I saw on Holden’s Twitter that he now lives 15 mins from his grandparents in England. How cool is that? Go from living in Houston to getting a contract from a Premier League club 15 mins from your grandpa and grandma…
agree…may be too deep in the fa cup to just give him a run out for the hell of it.
You’re probably right. My thought is that if we keep clamoring about Williams in the comments section, maybe Ives and other reputable soccer journalists will pick up on it, thus increasing the pressure on the USSF to bring Williams into the fold. It’s probably a bit naive to think that this is an effective strategy, but whatever, I’m stuck at work with nothing else to do.
I dont care what anyone says about Freddy Adu he should def be on our world cup roster!
Maybe, Ives did not include Daniel Williams in the list because he has yet to get a U.S. passport so technically, he is German. Williams did acknowledge that playing for the Nats is an option if he is considered by BB in the future..
(SBI-We haven’t included him because there is still MUCH to be learned about his situation (and no, it’s not only related to his passport status). His story has some holes that need to be filled and details clarified. I am working on that, and until we know for sure what his full situation is I think people might want to chill out about him.)
Adu plays 70 Minutes On Wednesday and plays good on offense and defense, Holden plays in the reserves for 60 minutes= NICE.
Im looking foward to Adu/Holden this weekend in action.
The field that Adu and Johnson played on earlier in the week was such an incredible disaster that no one could dribble through the puddles and mud patches.
With the constant rain, horrible conditions, foreign language, mostly empty stadium, etc., it had to be one of those games where the two of them were left thinking “is this what my career has come to?”.
Of course the dramatic finish to tie in the final seconds may have brought the opposite thought (“this game never gets old!”).
I second BFBS’ post. Please post Daniel Williams news Ives. Many of us are holding onto hope that he’ll be a Nat soon enough.
Sunday:
Daniel Williams and Freiburg play Eintracht Frankfurt.
I would like to watch our internationals play, it looks like I’ll only see them in the hospital.
Are Edu and Beasley back from being injured??
I’d be surprised if Holden plays
Don’t forget Michael Hoyos
Please include Daniel Williams of Freiburg. I bet a bunch of us would like to follow his performances.
That is one amazing list of “out injured”