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Evening Ticker: Werder Bremen takes Champions League advantage, Dembele joins Fulham and more

Bremen (Reuters)

By TRAVIS CLARK

One the second day of Champions League playoff first legs, Bundesliga side Werder Bremen took the advantage with a strong second half performance, scoring three times en route to a 3-1 win over Serie A club Sampdoria.

Belgian club Anderlecht was also in action, traveling to Belgrade and notching two away goals in a 2-2 draw with FK Partizan. U.S. midfielder Sacha Kljestan didn't make the 18 for Anderlecht. Hapoel Tel Aviv was another away side to enjoy success, defeating Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 in Austria.

In Wednesday's other two playoffs, Braga beat Sevilla 1-0 in Portugal, while Swiss club FC Basel beat Sheriff Tiraspol 1-0. Basel missed a 90th minute penalty that would have doubled their advantage heading into next week's second leg.

Here are a few other stories for this evening:

FULHAM SIGNS DEMBELE

After going scoreless during the first weekend of Premier League action, Mark Hughes has made a move to bolster his attacked, signing AZ Alkmaar forward Moussa Dembele for a reported fee of £5 million.

The 23-year-old Belgian had been linked to a move to England with either West Ham or Birmingham City, but instead heads to Craven Cottage where he'll compete for playing time with attackers Bobby Zamora, Clint Dempsey and Andy Johnson.

Dembele moves to the Premier League after four seasons with Alkmaar in the Eredivisie, where he scored 24 goals in 118 games. He has also earned 28 caps for Belgium, making his international debut back in 2006.

EARTHQUAKES DEFENDER HERNANDEZ EARNS TWO-GAME SUSPENSION

San Jose's already thin defense suffered another blow today, with news that defender Jason Hernandez would get an extra game suspension after being red carded against the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday. Hernandez was sent off in the 88th minute for an elbow to Wizards forward Teal Bunbury, and will miss the next two games for the Earthquakes — this Saturday against Los Angeles, and next week versus New York.

MARSEILLE MOVE FOR REMY

Shortly after losing forward Mamadou Niang to Turkish club Fenerbahçe, Olympique Marseille are close to securing the services of Nice's Loic Remy for a reported 15 million euros. The 23-year-old has been linked with several clubs during this summer's transfer window, including English clubs Tottenham, Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham.

Along with losing Niang, Marseille are likely to lose attacker Hatem Ben Arfa, who is eying a move to Newcastle United, and are desperate to sign reinforcements. The defending champions have lost their first two games in Ligue 1.

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What did you think of the Champions League results? Surprised to see Fulham sign another forward? Did Hernandez deserve a two-game suspension? Can Remy help Marseille?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. “I do not think he should be commenting on one league’s superiority over another.”

    Have you played in MLS?

    Have you played in the Belgian league?

    No? Well Sacha has so he has far more credibilty than you on this issue.

    Sacha is just saying what just about everyone who comes to this site would say but because you don’t like him you think he is wrong to say it.

    “Klejstan is not one of our top players”

    I’ve got news for you. He is one of our top players. He was in the final 30 for the World Cup team. Since there are, what, maybe a couple of hundred American pros world wide, that makes him one of our top players.

    You may not like him and in fact he isn’t that good but neither is our talent pool. Still, the math says he is one of our best which tells you a lot about the state of our player pool.

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  2. Remy’s a nice player, but 15 million? Report was OM had turned down 17M as too expensive for Luis fabiano…..doesn’t seem to add up, looking a bit like they’re panicking given rough start to the season

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  3. What I don’t like about his comments is that he makes himself sound as if he tore it up in MLS. If anyone has read all of the comments I have posted here, I am not a big MLS fan — I watch far more games in La Liga.

    Klejstan is not one of our top players, his national team performances have been terrible, so I do not think he should be commenting on one league’s superiority over another. He’s not good enough. MLS has treated him well, so I think the classy thing to do would be to go to Europe, play the game, and keep his mouth shut.

    Belgium doesn’t have much of a league, so he should stop trying to ingratiate himself.

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  4. I also don’t think there’s anyting wrong with his comments.

    Back to my original question: Does anyone know why he didn’t make the 18??

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  5. Gera one of the best players in the Premier League at ANY point last season? What league are you watching? I am a Fulham supporter… I watch every game I can. I’m not the internet footy genius or anything, but you can’t seriously argue that Gera is a Premier League stud. As I said, he’s a great rotation player, not every week starter. As Seriously? said above, he cannot create his own shot. No one has said take him out back and shoot him, because that would be as ridiculous as your comment about Gera being one of the best in Prem during the “stretch” run last year. Oh and by the way, once Fulham beat Juventus the Prem became 2nd priority and the Europa became the main goal. So Fulham never had a “stretch” run in the Prem last season because they sacrificed it for Cup glory.

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  6. The comment on Gera is way off, that guy was one of the best players in the premier league down the stretch especially in while playing in the UEFA CUp games.

    I hope EJ can find another club, I still have alittle hope for him, he’d still be a great addition to any MLS team.

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  7. sorry, yes Gera did well at forward, but he is not a “great” player. He can’t create his own shot, or cross for that matter when he’s out wide, nor can he make anything but the simplest of pass. He was on fire in the Eruopa League, but he’s never done all that much in league play.

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  8. umm, Bradley was the 3rd leading scorer that year. So I don’t think that adds to your argument. And he was listed as a forward for many of those games

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  9. 24 goals in 118 matches as a striker. Alkmaar are a pretty good Dutch team but horrid strike rate. That’

    s 1 in 5. Heck Bradley was 1 in 3 during his time in Holland and that was as a midfielder.

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  10. AJ on a tear? He had 7 goals his first season and missed many easy goals. Zamora was horrid his 1st season with 2 league goals. AJ was decent at best. Luckily Dempsey showed up and got 7goals in 29 matches, some of which he came from the bench.

    EJ should head back to Greece or try Belgium or Switzerland or Turkey. Those are also 2nd tier Euro nations and he’d make good money, not as much at Fulham but he’d do well and score and succeed. Give up on the NT though, dude come on.

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  11. I believe that Dempsey will battle back and start and score more goals for Fulham and the fans will really love him even more than they already do, but should he take a chance and head abroad?

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  12. No, but he recently gave an interview that made him sound like a massive d-bag. You can find it over at SI in the Fanhouse section.

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  13. andy johnson injured has a better shot than eddie. It’s not a knock, but andy johnson was on a tear before he got injured and eddie johnson hasn’t been on a tear since his call up to the national team way back when. He had a nice little showing in greece, but after his showings for the US and fulham/cardiff city, who other than a greek team was going to take a chance on him? His best shot to play is to go back to the championship to a middle of the pack club.

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  14. I think the signing of Dembele is good for Fulham… they desperately need another goal scorer. To be honest… Gera isn’t getting it done. Not a bad player, great rotation guy, but not consistent starter material in my opinion. Simon Davies knocked Dempsey out of his mid spot, and to be honest he should probably be forward more anyway. But putting Dempsey on the left where he can cut inside and shoot with his right, Duff on the right, and Zamora and Dembele up front that should be a decent attack.

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  15. Andy Johnson has been injured since he joined Fulham. Is he even fit yet? I’d think Eddie J. has a more realistic shot at playing than him. Eddie probably needs to find a new home pretty quickly. Suprised there hasn’t been much reported interest given his good scoring streak in the playoffs in Greece. Not even some obscure team in Vietman, Iceland, anywhere? I joke because if he could play, he might get called up, and maybe BB might rethink choosing Findley, and then we can get a real forward, like Edson, to pair with Jozy.

    Reply

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