photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com
By FRANCO PANIZO
It took two months, but Sacha Kljestan once again found playing time for RSC Anderlecht.
Kljestan earned his first start in a league match since Aug. 21, starting and going the distance in Anderlecht's 2-0 victory against KVC Westerlo on Sunday. Kljestan's 90-minute performance will likely serve as a boost in confidence after doing the same in a Europa League victory against AEK Athens on Thursday.
Mike Grella was the lone Americans Abroad goalscorer this weekend, netting his first goal for Carlisle United in a wild 4-3 affair versus Charlton Athletic. Having fallen behind 3-0, Grella sparked a Carlisle comeback with a short-range goal in the second half. That effort went to waste, however, as Charlton would find a last-minute winner.
Maurice Edu didn't find the back of the net, but he did help Rangers stay unbeaten en route to taking sole possession of first place in the Scottish Premier League. Edu played 90 minutes in a 3-1 road victory over Celtic in the first Old Firm fixture of the season.
Here is how the Americans Abroad fared this weekend:
England
PREMIERSHIP
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and and made three saves in Everton's 1-1 draw vs. Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
- Clint Dempsey started and played 90 minutes in Fulham's 2-1 loss vs. West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
- Eddie Johnson dressed but did not play for Fulham.
- Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made one save in Aston Villa's 1-0 loss vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
- Brad Guzan dressed but did not play for Aston Villa.
- Eric Lichaj did not dress for Aston Villa.
- Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made three saves in Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2-0 loss vs. Chelsea on Saturday.
- Jonathan Spector did not dress in West Ham United's 2-1 loss vs. Newcastle United on Saturday.
- Stuart Holden started and played 90 minutes in Bolton Wanderers' 1-1 draw vs. Wigan Athletic on Saturday.
CHAMPIONSHIP
- Conor Doyle dressed but did not play in Derby County's 2-0 win vs. Millwall on Saturday.
- Zak Whitbread did not dress in Norwich City's 1-0 win vs. Middlesbrough on Saturday. He is recovering from a calf injury.
LEAGUE ONE
- Frank Simek started and played 90 minutes in Carlisle United's 4-3 loss vs. Charlton Athletic on Saturday.
- Mike Grella started, played 90 minutes and scored a GOAL for Carlisle United.
- Anton Peterlin did not dress in Plymouth Argyle's 2-1 win vs. Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
Scotland
- Maurice Edu started and played 90 minutes in Rangers' 3-1 win vs. Celtic on Sunday.
- Dominic Cervi did not dress in Celtic's 3-1 loss vs. Rangers on Sunday.
Spain
- Jozy Altidore dressed but did not play in Villarreal's 2-0 win vs. Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
Italy
- Oguchi Onyewu and AC Milan play Napoli on Monday.
Germany
BUNDESLIGA
- Steve Cherundolo started and played 90 minutes in Hannover 96's 2-1 win vs. FC Cologne on Saturday.
- DaMarcus Beasley dressed but did not play for Hannover 96.
- Michael Bradley started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Borussia Moenchengladbach's 4-1 loss vs. Werder Bremen on Saturday.
- Jermaine Jones started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Schalke 04's 0-0 draw vs. Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
- Ricardo Clark did not dress in Eintracht Frankfurt's 0-0 draw vs. Schalke 04 on Saturday.
- Daniel Williams dressed but did not play in SC Freiburg's 2-1 win vs. Kaiserslautern on Saturday.
BUNDESLIGA 2
- Kenny Cooper did not dress in TSV 1860 Munich's 0-0 draw vs. Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday. He is recovering from an ankle injury.
- David Yeldell started, played 90 minutes and made one save in MSV Duisburg's 3-0 win vs. Karlsruhe on Sunday.
- Luis Robles started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Karlsruhe's 3-0 loss vs. MSV Duisburg on Sunday.
- Amaechi Igwe did not dress in FC Ingolstadt 04's 1-0 loss vs. FSV Frankfurt on Saturday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
France
LIGUE 1
- Carlos Bocanegra did not dress in St Etienne's 1-1 draw vs. Caen on Saturday. He is recovering from a neck injury.
- Charlie Davies did not dress in Sochaux's 3-1 loss vs. Toulouse on Saturday.
LIGUE 2
- Quentin Westberg and Evian Thonon Gaillard play Sedan on Monday.
Greece
- Freddy Adu did not dress in Aris Salonika's 1-0 loss vs. Olympiakos on Sunday.
Belgium
- Sacha Kljestan started and played 90 minutes in RSC Anderlecht's 2-0 win vs. KVC Westerlo on Sunday.
Denmark
SUPERLIGA
- Michael Parkhurst started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in FC Nordsjaelland's 2-0 loss vs. Aalborg BK on Sunday.
- Marcus Tracy did not dress in Aalborg BK's 2-0 win vs. FC Nordsjaelland on Sunday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Chris Rolfe did not dress for Aalborg BK. He is recovering from a hamstring injury.
VIASAT DIVISION
- Benny Feilhaber started and played 51 minutes in AGF Aarhus's 2-0 win vs. Skive on Sunday.
Sweden
- Alejandro Bedoya and Orebro SK play Brommapojkarna on Monday.
- Ryan Miller and Halmstads BK play AIK on Monday.
Norway
- Clarence Goodson started and played 90 minutes in IK Start's 3-2 win vs. Stabaek IF on Sunday.
- Hunter Freeman did not dress for IK Start. He is recovering from an injury.
- Mikkel Diskerud started and played 90 minutes in Stabaek IF's 3-2 loss vs. IK Start on Sunday.
- Steve Clark dressed but did not play Honefoss BK's 4-1 loss vs. Stromsgodset on Sunday.
Mexico
- Jose Torres came off the bench and played 30 minutes in Pachuca's 2-0 loss vs. Chiapas on Saturday.
- Herculez Gomez dressed but did not play for Pachuca.
- Marco Vidal dressed but did not play for Pachuca.
- Edgar Castillo dressed but did not play in San Luis' 2-0 win vs. Necaxa on Friday.
- Sammy Ochoa came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Estudiantes Tecos U.A. de G.'s 1-0 loss vs. Queretaro on Saturday.
- Sonny Guadarrama dressed but did not play in Atlante's 3-1 loss vs. Atlas on Saturday.
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What do you think of these performances? Think Kljestan is ready to put together a string of starts with Anderlecht? Should Grella stay in League One? Impressed by Edu's outing against Celtic?
Share your thoughts below.
Probably when Holden earns it.
He’s played 10 games in the EPL. The rest of his resume is based MLS games.
MB has played 65 games in the Bundesliga and 55 in the Holland over the past 4 years. That’s over 11 times more games in Europe than Holden. Bradley is a far more proven top level pro than Holden.
And Bradley is almost two years younger.
Nevertheless, Holden may eventually beat out Bradley for the spot alongside Jones because he has a slightly different skill set that may mesh better with Jones. Time will tell.
He was asking how much they make.
I did not realize that the EPL has won the champions league every year. Arguing which league is better is like believing in the FIFA rankings.
Yeah, I heard he’s the next Donovan. We should cap him and maybe make him team captain. Also, I think he could be our solution at Left Back. It’s not his position, but he’s better then anyone who’s played it their entire lives.
Also we need to bring Freddy Adu back.
Do we ever have official USMNT B Team or C team squads? I read a few years ago where England has a C squad made up of players from outside the top two divisions. Something like that would be interesting for the US to keep getting an eye on younger players. Perhaps in the MLS and Scandinavian off-season we could get better looks at some of the guys on the edges.
Then again, I know what we really need is to bring along a couple guys into the full national team. Maybe this would help us know who those guys are?
NATO – I have been harping on USSF to call up Yeldel and Robles for some time. While Robles did get a call last year leading up to WC10, Yeldell is a great keeper that needs a look. Yeldell and Duisburg got the best Robles and KSC this weekend.
At what point do the US look at Holden at Central Mid in lieu of Bradley. He plays on a better team in what many would call a better league. Why not let Bradley play out of position if he just has to be on the field for every fixture?
Is that as shady as it sounds? I thought FIFA had laws forbidding 3rd party ownership of players’ contracts.
For a defender he sure scores a lot. Yeah I know it’s only the Norwegian league but he’s gotten a lot better. Considering he was like probably 8th on CB roster 2 years back, he’s now our starting CB give or take. Hope he heads to Germany or Holland come january
2 Great GK’s in the 2 Bundesliga. Call either of them in for the January friendlies
You do know that Tony Taylor is OLDER than Altidore. Jozy is fine for the year. If someone gets sold during the jan transfer window, he will get more time. Very few strikers can take starting spots from Rossi and Nilmar.
First of all, they are playing for are all owned by Traffic Sports. As wrong as it sounds for a company to use that name in this instance. Plus, Estoril like Miami is basically Traffic Sports Fc, in that it allows there players to get playing time. Its good that he scores, but could he do it in an mls game.
Hard to do when you don’t get playing time. He needs to find a new club. Even if it’s in Greece.
Tony Taylor is quick, skillful, and a hard worker. Call him to camp in January.
Jozy Altidore needs to improve his skills and his work rate.
EstadosEstoril?
Estorildos Unidos?
Thats all I can come up with 😛
Three Yanks on Estoril? Let the Portmanteaus begin…Estorilamerica?
MLSsoccer says goodson scored two in his game as well.
He was playing D1 opponent for 2nd week in a row.
TONY TAYLOR
YES PLEASE!
He is on a team that is probably going to get promoted, he started and went 66 mins and according to Yanks-Abroad reporters he played very well against the D1 opponents.
He is the right age and type of player, getting pro minutes with a decent squad.
January camp for sure, and Ives should consider adding him to this AA post, he is a U-20 forward who scored in the world cup, has speed, strength, strong shoting, and pro minutes in a spot we are very weak at.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
That being said, I would like to see Diskerud called up in November or January.
Tony Taylor scored for Estoril, too. I know it’s the Portuguese 2nd Division, but still.
So with the build up this past week hoping that Lichaj might get his first start, he did not even dress. Anybody know if he picked up an injury or why he did not make the game day squad?
CAP HIM IMMEDIATELY
Meantime… chcharito scores twice for Man U. Can we get some forwards to score abroad?
Nothing too much played 2 years at Stetson after high school and then joined Zenit. He’s on loan at Tom Tomsk
If you read what Isaac wrote you’ll see that he is proposing to replace Shea with either Donovan or Dempsey.
Which means you want to replace one of those two with Diskerud.
So you think Diskerud has shown himself to be better than Donovan or Dempsey?
What is the story? I’ve googled a couple of times and there isn’t much out there on him that I can find.
welcome news regarding Starikov. interesting story, must have some quality.
That’s it. I’m quitting my job and going to work on being a soccer forward. We need to add to this USA striker pool.
I knew somebody would have mentioned him and noshortcorners has the video of the goal.
Josh Gatt scored for Altach, his first league goal I believe.
No Yevgeni Starikov? What’s his deal?
He scored a goal for Tom Tomsk, so I would have enjoyed seeing the CAP HIM IMMEDIATELY posts.
Ives – Correction: Two Yanks scored abroad this weekend. Matthew Taylor of Rot Weiss Ahlen in der 3 Bundesliga scroed his 3rd of this season.
Whats going on with Anton Peterlin? I know he started first few matches, but lately, hasn’t been part of the 18?
A report in 2006 said the average salary for League One was $103,000.
And replace Shea with Diskerud.
what about them? they’re not very young and judging by their exploits for their clubs, not very good either.
I kind of feel like the Edu-Jones-Bradley central tandem should get another look. The problem in the Colombia game was that the roles weren’t understood very well. Edu should be the deepest of the three, playing right in front of the defense. Bradley should be next to and in front of Edu, playing a box-to-box role while also linking the midfield and attack. Jones will be in more of a hybrid left midfield/central midfield role, using his pace and energy to patrol the wing while also coming inside and playing the same role Bradley does. Instead, Bradley, Edu and Jones were positionally unsure. The other thing that should help is having Donovan and Dempsey in the wing-forward/attacking midfield role that Shea and Holden played. Donovan and Dempsey show better movement in the attacking channels that will exploit and create space and better angles. Donovan should make runs high and wide to stretch play. Dempsey will float between lines, opening up the hole behind Altidore to be exploited, and maybe even dragging away defensive midfielders to create space. Moreover, Clint and Landon will drop deep to receive the ball and link the midfield with the attack. All of this should give the USA more fluency when moving the ball through the midfield. Not only that, but, in the defensive phase, Dempsey and Donovan will move wide and Jones, Bradley, and Edu will make a central three with a TON of bite.
That being said, we could still play Holden on the right over Edu, with Bradley and Jones the central tandem. It essentially works the same way because Holden comes inside from the right and takes up positions alongside the central midfielders. This was what happened on the first goal against Poland and again on the USA’s next chance that game that had come off the bar.
Good thing that we have options though! 🙂
all these “did not play/did not play” depress me. some of those guys should be in mls (i know it’s all about the money they make in europe).
how much does a guy like ricardo clark or parkhurst make?
what about the younger guys like grella and peterlin?