photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com
By FRANCO PANIZO
Last week it was Clint Dempsey who celebrated after scoring two goals in Europa League play. This week it was Jozy Altidore's turn.
Altidore scored his fourth and fifth goals across all competitions this season in AZ Alkmaar's 6-0 victory over Aalesund in the second leg of their play-off round series. Altidore found the back of the net in the first half after putting himself in a good position to receive the ball. He scored again in the second half with a perfect header. Alkmaar advanced to the group stage of the tournament with a 7-2 aggregate.
Carlos Bocanegra also scored, netting his first goal for Rangers. But that was about as good as it got for him and the Gers, which crashed out of a tournament prematurely for the second time this season. Rangers fell 3-2 on aggregate after tying NK Maribor 1-1 in the second leg.
Here is how the Americans Abroad who were involved in the Europa League on Thursday fared:
- Jermaine Jones did not dress in Schalke 04's 6-1 win vs. HJK Helsinki. Schalke advanced on aggregate, 6-3.
- Jozy Altidore started, played 63 minutes and scored TWO GOALS in AZ Alkmaar's 6-0 win vs. Aalesund. AZ Alkmaar advanced on aggregate, 7-2.
- Sacha Kljestan started and played 90 minutes in RSC Anderlecht's 2-2 draw vs. Bursaspor. RSC Anderlecht advanced on aggregate, 4-3.
- Clint Dempsey started and played 80 minutes in Fulham's 1-0 loss vs. Dnipro. Fulham advanced on aggregate, 3-1.
- Oguchi Onyewu dressed but did not play in Sporting Lisbon's 2-1 win vs. FC Nordsjaelland. Sporting Lisbon advanced on aggregate, 2-1.
- Michael Parkhurst started and played 90 minutes in FC Nordsjaelland's 2-1 loss vs. Sporting Lisbon. FC Nordsjaelland was eliminated on aggregate, 2-1.
- Steve Cherundolo started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Hannover 96's 1-1 draw vs. Sevilla FC. Hannover 96 advanced on aggregate, 3-2.
- Jonathan Spector started and played 90 minutes in Birmingham City's 3-0 win vs. CD Nacional de Madeira. Birmingham City advanced on aggregate, 3-0.
- Brad Friedel dressed but did not play in Tottenham Hotspur's 0-0 draw vs. Heart of Midlothian. Tottenham Hotspur advanced on aggregate, 5-0.
- Dominic Cervi did not dress in Celtic's 3-1 loss vs. FC Sion Sitten. Celtic was eliminated on aggregate, 3-1.
- Carlos Bocanegra started, played 90 minutes and scored a GOAL in Rangers' 1-1 draw vs. NK Maribor. Rangers was eliminated on aggregate, 3-2.
- Maurice Edu started and played 90 minutes for Rangers.
- Alejandro Bedoya did not dress for Rangers.
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What do you think of these results? Expecting Altidore and AZ to go far in the Europa League? Surprised Rangers was bounced out of the tournament?
Share your thoughts below.
Depends on your definition of patriotism.
good for jozy! Boca was at fault for that first goal, but good on him for getting the rangers goal.
Booorn in the USA! That is fricking hilarious.
Full highlights of the AZ Alkmaar vs. Aaselund game in higher quality:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSqXjSlkUI
No homo.
Edwin,
You sound like a Barca fan. Did Sanchez, Ibrahimovic, Villa, etc. all come to Barcelona for free? Also Barcelona has by far the largest wage bill in the world (not suprising considering the talent on that team) but my point is that Barcelona AND Real Madrid have a huge advantage due to the fact that they get somewhere around 40% of La Ligas television money.
That actually gave me chills on this warm morning….perfect song for a Yank, the refrain is known world-over…play a couple of bars and the crowd joins in…
Judging by the results including Bradley have gotten in the Dutch league, we should hear this song often for Josmer.
Despite the fact that the song is not a patriotic song, yea.. sure.
I am impressed with the results by Hannover and Anderlecht
Did you really just compare the SPL to La Liga?
I know it’s 2 horse race in Spain but it wasn’t always that way.
Barca made the core of their team, 8 of 11 starters when all healthy ( only Abidal, Alves and Villa didn’t come from La Mesia) plus now they bought Cesc back but he was from Barca anyway? Bojan and Jeffren are out on loan to see if they can become better with 1st team PT
But it’s only so lopsided from #2 to 3 because Madrid have dropped like over 320 million dollars in transfer fees the last 3 summer transfer periods.
Villareal, Valencia and even to an extent Atletic Bilbao much better than lost of teams in Europe and all of SPL, Sevilla just crashed but better than just about any team in Scotland. Atletico Madrid just won the Europa in 2010. And now with Bielsa at Bilbao and teams like Malaga and and I forget the other one having deep pockets you’ll see more good to great teams in La Liga
See 1st goal vs Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup.
After he went to the corner flag pole to celebrate with fans he takes off his jersey and he had one of those underarmour/lycra type of under shirt, although it’s Nike obviously.
And the guy is just ripped. He reminds me of the droid-like characters that would come up for the intro or coming back from commercials during Fox NFL Sunday.
Sounds just like the Spanish league.
Hull City were awful, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of for a forward to not get on the field for Villareal.
@Poo and Oranje Mike:
I agree on both points. Some of it is indeed money and roster depth..but losing to these teams and repeatedly not competing also involves a bit of degraded confidence AND reputation.
Hell, I don’t much like the SPL and it’s Braveheart Soccer (violent, stupid, and doomed)….but it does seem rather fast how they have petered out.
This is the moment where Scotland realizes they have completely missed the boat, and fostered a league for ages that only had two great teams – and now even those teams are garbage.
Won’t be surprised to see Rangers and Celtic in the English League system in a few years if the Scottish leagues go under completely.
I think the financial impact on the game is finally hitting The Old Firm. Scotland is too small to harvest enough talent and they don’t bring in the tv/merch revenue to supplement income for bringing in top foreign talent. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. SPL just has to be content with being a small league from a small nation like Switzerland or Belgium.
The glory days are over (and actually have been for some time).
A downward spiral of suckiness. The lack confidence, getting poor results, losing more confidence, repeat.
Lol, you’re probably right.
gotta agree. Not sure if it’s the coaching, the style not matching well with European tourney play, or the talent. It certainly SEEMS like the Old Firm at least has the talent to compete for a while in Europe but they are sucking more every season.
Thoughts?
well, I initially agreed with you but JA’s continued inability over 2+ seasons to get playing time and to score at all with a club team made me think there WAS something to the rumors about his lack of training effort. Who knows though? Could be all crap.
……if you look at the replay – he snaps his head at the ball .lightly, and looks the ball down to a spot between the penalty spot and the 6 yd box – it looks to me like he had practiced a new little blues riff – bouncing a header into the upper 90 – and it sang…….’Born, in the USA……Bo-orn in the USA!’…….born in central New Jersey……Livingston, New Jersey…… actually
Damn the Scottish league is weak. Rangers and Celtic both out against middling opponents. Seems like Bedoya made a lateral move while Edu should look for greener pastures.
I think he’s always been ripped, it’s just that the USA jerseys are a lil more loose than other jerseys
i love how they play “born in the usa” when jozy scores
Good for Carlos but pretty poor defending by him too on the Maribor goal. Not his fault Rangers can’t score. Edu missed a good chance…buh.
Some nice goals by Jozy, created through teamwork. Keep it up! Is it me or does he look seriously ripped, even more so than usual?
do they really play born in the USA after Jozy scores? … that is awesome!
lol seriously…
Altidore gets more undeserved criticism than anyone on our team not named Michael Bradley.
josmer scoring…good times. Maybe he is learning, maybe he is working harder. Hope so, he seems like a good guy.
On the other hand, Jones is out of favor again? or is he injured.
solid marking on altidores first goal
it almost looks like jozy doesn’t actually touch the ball on his second goal.