By FRANCO PANIZO
Make that three in a row for Maurice Edu and Rangers.
For the third straight season, Edu and Rangers won the Scottish Premier League title, defeating Kilmarnock, 5-1, on Sunday to do so. Edu started and went the distance in the match that gave Rangers its record 54th Scottish championship.
Michael Bradley didn't start for Aston Villa, but he did make his first league appearance for the club since February with a late cameo in a 2-1 win over Arsenal. Bradley came off the bench, played 10 minutes and helped the relegation-threatened Villans secure their place in the Premiership.
It wasn't all positive this weekend. Jonathan Spector and Ricardo Clark saw their respective clubs get relegated. Spector and West Ham United were dropped after surrendering a lead against Wigan Athletic, and Clark's Eintracht Frankfurt was outdone by German champion, Borussia Dortmund.
Here is how the Americans Abroad did this weekend:
England
PREMIERSHIP
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and made 3 saves in Everton's 1-0 loss vs. West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
- Clint Dempsey started, played 89 minutes and received a yellow card in Fulham's 2-0 win vs. Birmingham on Sunday.
- Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made 5 saves in Aston Villa's 2-1 win vs. Arsenal on Sunday.
- Brad Guzan did not dress for Aston Villa.
- Michael Bradley came off the bench and played 10 minutes for Aston Villa.
- Marcus Hahnemann dressed but did not play in Wolverhampton Wanderers' 3-1 win vs. Sunderland on Saturday.
- Jonathan Spector started and played 61 minutes in West Ham United's 3-2 loss vs. Wigan Athletic on Sunday.
- Stuart Holden did not dress in Bolton Wanderers' 4-3 loss vs. Blackpool on Saturday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Jermaine Jones started, played 74 minutes and received a yellow card in Blackburn Rovers' 1-1 draw vs. Manchester United on Saturday.
CHAMPIONSHIP
- Robbie Findley and Nottingham Forest play Swansea City in the second leg of the promotion playoffs on Monday.
Scotland
PREMIER LEAGUE
- Maurice Edu started and played 90 minutes in Rangers' 5-1 win vs. Kilmarnock on Sunday.
- Dominic Cervi did not dress in Celtic's 4-0 win vs. Motherwell on Sunday.
Germany
BUNDESLIGA
- Steve Cherundolo started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Hannover 96's 3-1 win vs. FC Nurnberg on Saturday.
- DaMarcus Beasley did not dress for Hannover 96.
- Ricardo Clark did not dress in Eintracht Frankfurt's 3-1 loss vs. Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. He is recovering from a calf injury.
- Daniel Williams did not dress in SC Freiburg's 1-0 loss vs. Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
- Timmy Chandler started and played 90 minutes in FC Nurnberg's 3-1 loss vs. Hannover 96 on Saturday.
BUNDESLIGA 2
- David Yelldell started, played 90 minutes and made 3 saves in MSV Duisburg's 3-1 loss vs. VfL Bochum on Sunday.
- Luis Robles dressed but did not play in Karlsruhe's 3-2 win vs. FC Union Berlin on Sunday.
- Edson Buddle did not dress in FC Ingolstadt 04's 1-0 loss vs. VfL Osnabruck on Sunday. He is recovering from a calf injury.
- Amaechi Igwe did not dress for FC Ingolstadt 04. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Bobby Wood did not dress in TSV 1860 Munich's 3-2 loss vs. SC Paderborn 07 on Sunday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Alfredo Morales did not dress in Hertha Berlin's 2-1 win vs. FC Augsburg on Sunday.
France
LIGUE 1
- Carlos Bocanegra started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in St Etienne's 2-1 loss vs. Stade Rennes on Sunday.
LIGUE 2
- Quentin Westberg started and played 90 minutes in Evian Thonon Gaillard's 3-0 win vs. Troyes on Friday.
Netherlands
- Oguchi Onyewu did not dress in Twente Enschede's 3-1 loss vs. Ajax on Sunday. He is recovering from an abdominal injury.
Turkey
SUPER LIG
- Jozy Altidore came off the bench and played 16 minutes in Bursaspor's 3-0 win vs. Kasimpasa on Sunday.
BANK ASYA 1. LIG
- Freddy Adu started, played 90 minutes and got an ASSIST in Caykur Rizespor's 2-1 win vs. Samsunspor on Sunday. You can see the assist here.
Belgium
- Sacha Kljestan started and played 90 minutes in RSC Anderlecht's 2-1 loss vs. Standard Liege on Saturday.
Denmark
- Michael Parkhurst started and played 90 minutes in FC Nordsjaelland's 3-2 win vs. Silkeborg IF on Sunday.
- Marcus Tracy did not dress in Aalborg BK's 0-0 draw vs. Esbjerg on Sunday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Chris Rolfe dressed but did not play for Aalborg BK.
- Clarence Goodson started and played 90 minutes in Brondby IF's 1-0 win vs. FC Midtjylland on Sunday.
Sweden
- Alejandro Bedoya started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Orebro SK's 2-1 loss vs. Malmo FF on Sunday.
- Ryan Miller came off the bench and played 8 minutes in Halmstads BK's 1-0 win vs. Mjallby on Saturday.
- Gale Agbossoumonde started and played 90 minutes in Djurgardens IF's 0-0 draw vs. Gefle on Sunday.
Norway
- Mixx Diskerud and Stabaek IF play Sogndal on Monday.
- Josh Gatt and Molde FK play Lillestrom on Monday.
- Sean Cunningham and Molde FK play Lillestrom on Monday.
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What do you think of these performances? Do you see Edu returning to Rangers next season and going for a fourth title, or do you see him heading for greener pastures? Think West Ham or Eintracht Frankfurt is more likely to get promoted next season?
Share your thoughts below.
Except that there’s nothing “irrelevant” about “trying drink water from a strainer”. Vocabulary and grammar fail. Good luck trying to be clever next time.
Nick it’s funny you are one of the few who sees past the double standards. The only player to have more playing time on the national team than his club team (and they wonder why he’s does well with the NAT…practice makes perfect!!!!), the only CM with no recent assists to his name, No skill to get past players, no strength in the air, no quick burst of speed…..to add to that no playing time with current club, yet he is PERMANENTLY in the CM position and we expect the USMNT to score goals with build up from the midfield, with plays orchestrated from defense through the midfield to the strikers….. we all wonder why our attackers are defending half the time…..why there is lack of service up front……and why there is no possession in the US midfield. One person is taking up the position of an attacking midfielder. We have a solid CDM like Jones with touch and vision, and excelling in the EPL…….so I wonder were (or who) the problem is.
Mix isn’t ready yet. Feilhaber is a much better option.
“Talking bad” is welcome with some kind of logical argument to back it up. “talking bad” when its a tired argument sounds a little like ‘carnival barking’.
Most fans/critics agree that Bradley Jr. would start regardless of who the head coach is.
The USMNT is not an ‘all-star’ team, its a team. You don’t make changes unless there are good reasons to do so. In the recent 2 game set against world-class opponents who of the 3 MF played the best if not Bradley Jr?
So take your Trumpish “excrement flavored lollipop” to a site that wants juvinile hypebole, there are plenty of them out there…
The answer is “no”.
This has been another edition of SATSQ.
Point taken. I just kinda found it ironic.
Why is Jozy Altidore considered a lock to start?
He has done nothing in months, even years! Why would we consider him our star striker when Dempsey is so in form? Jozy doesn’t even get 90 minutes consistently with his Turkish club. There is a reason he barely gets any play time in Turkey and Dempsey consistently starts in the EPL.
Have you ever watched a USMNT game?
Highlights are extremely hard to judge because you see that one moment and say he needs more awareness. But given a season, you can find highlights of every single world class player have the same thing happen to them, Messi and Ronaldo included. So we don’t know if that’s an isolated incident or one of many crap decisions.
I’d like to see a channel that just offers Yanks Abroad coverage and games – get some of these smaller tiered games on the silver screen.
michael bradley would not start all the time for the US if his dad wasnt the coach. end of story. everyone knows it. next topic. does sometimes he play like he belongs? yes, but he is most often given a role by his dad that does not fit his skill set and ends up doing a bunch of ball watching and falling down.
The season is over — so, he’ll probably only get one more goal, not two. A flash in the pan.
I personally think that Bradley should just stay in the Bundesliga. I fault his agent for not doing a deeper search for which top level teams in Europe need a attacking center mid, for him to go on loan for.
I could be mistaken but isn’t their season over?
Unfortunately, I can’t agree with you. I do think is getting consistent playing time and he is beginning to perform consistently, but the highlights should both the good and bad of Adu. Good service from a corner followed by easily being overpowered in the center of the field resulting in a quick counter and score by the opposing team. His skill is great, but awareness still seems to be an issue.
It’d be nice if our Nats were all starters. I think that’s something we should work for. People got to realize that MB and Altidore don’t do much for club. But at least in MB’s case, he does do for country. And Altidore-Agudelo looked like a dangerous combo, so I wouldn’t mind seeing some of that. Another one is Gooch, who arguably hasn’t done much of anything for club, save for some starts at left back of all places. The point I’m making is we have few truly high caliber options (Howard, Duece, Donovan, etc.) and then we have a bunch of decent players, some of which have lots of experience playing with the high caliber Nats, and then the ones who don’t. It’s still a tough decision. Personally, I want to see Mix brought in for some friendly action after that assist in SA. Better than the goal IMO.
Dong Fangzhou, a Chinese striker who couldn’t hit a bucket 5 feet in front got a start against Chelsea playing for United. Give me consistent playing time with Bradley before we prepare the parade. Everyone gets playing time eventually on a team. Lest we all forget “Rudy”.
10 minutes of running about with little contribution doesn’t fix months of bench warming. Gold Cup is almost here, we need far more playing time for our boys.
Adu is starting to be something most US players are slowly becoming: consistent. And in Europe that’s what you need to battle through the bottom leagues and lower tier teams. Dempsey a couple years ago survived because he was consistent. Edu, Holden, Boca, Dolo all consistent and starters, not as world class players, but because you always know what you’re getting. Jozy – hot and cold.
If Adu can continue adding that consistency and maturity (no report of him out at the Turkish clubs late!) then we can see him make a come back.
Never been an Adu bandwagoner, but I wouldn’t object if he made the 30. The Turkish second division is probably on par with some of the Nordic leagues and I’d take a player with experience, youth, and confidence over some players that have been mentioned as potential call ins.
Good. Think he’s better than what he got at Leeds. Hope to see him in League 1 where he has had some interest.
Had high hopes for him at one point. Pity it didn’t pan out.
Herculez is a flash in the pan. Sure enough to score another goal or 2 before the GC starts. He’s arguably up for a spot.
haters going to hate…get over the fact he is Bob jr alrdy it OLD
All quiet on the Gringo Torres/Herculez G front?
i agree with everything hush said. i posted about adu last week. he hasn’t disappointed and is on fire even if he is in the turkish second league. if they get through playoffs to the top league it will be in no small part bc of him. also them gettin through would mean he is playing in the same league with jozy, who is a lock to start with the MNT whether he deserves it or not. IMO that means adu definitely deserves to be on the PRELIMINARY gold cup roster. from there let papa bradley determine what if he belongs there past that.
man, dont try to bait them out! They may be few, but they are a boisterous bunch
That may be the saddest comment in the history of comments. I’m not just talking about on the internet, but going way back to when cavemen grunted comments. “HE IS GOOD ENOUGH!” for ten minutes of mop up work? Is this the Special Olympics? I have a feeling fifawitz1313 has a case full of participation trophies.
Adu’s corner was decent, but a fantastic header by the goal-scorer. Even cooler, though, is the second goal. That’s a must-see.
Wow, this never gets old for you people, does it?
Notice how the message board is so quiet? I guess all the MB haters have less to stand on now and are hiding. I think it is clear that MB is someone AV values but they weren’t willing to tweak their lineup until their place in the PL was secured. There was too much at stake. I guess the assistant coach wasn’t just blowing smoke with his compliments of MBs attitude and work ethic at practice. They may not be willing to start him still, but I think it is clear that they place a high enough value on him to give him playing time. HE IS GOOD ENOUGH!
Glad to see MB get a few minutes in.
Anytime they give Adu minutes he doesn’t disappoint! If Adu sees the field, the kid is going to have a solid game. He has never disappointed me. Very consistent when he hits the field.
Mike Grella has been put on the transfer list by Simon Grayson the Leeds manager.
Talking bad about Bob Bradley here even though we all know he is as useful as an excrement flavored lollipop, is like talking bad about one of Ives relatives. It will not fly. Sir no sir.
Jon – that’ll never happen!! You are right we nabbed osama so anything is possible. If it did, I’d focus my passion on Freddy Adu A.K.A Freddinho help take Rizespor to the Turkish super liga
Bizzy – What would you do if father stopped playing the son? Where to direct all this passion and feeling? In my case, since we nabbed Osama, I’ve taken up knitting an twitter friended Freddy Adu..
Ives! fix the reply function! Bizzy and I are having a great dialogue, but would be so much better with reply.
Jon’s ranting about people ranting about Bradley is the equivalent of trying drink water from a strainer…..totally irrelevant
Bizzzyyy!! Bizzy ranting about Mike Bradley on SBI is the equivalent of homeless people talking to themselves on the street in NYC. I know I’m back home, not so sure it’s a good thing.
Here is Freddy Adu’s assist from a corner kick
http://tinyurl.com/6anulcw
Adu’s team now in playoff for promotion spot
Michael Bradley has now justified commanding the US Midfield and playing EACH AND EVERY game in the gold cup….he actually had 10 MINUTES on the pitch for Villa. Mexico is not going to know what hit them……