Jozy Altidore and Sacha Kljestan have both enjoyed individual club success this season, which in turn has led to their teams turning in strong results both domestically and in Europe. All of that will come to a head in the UEFA Europa League Round of 32, when their two teams will square off.
AZ Alkmaar and Anderlecht were pitted against each other for the tournament's first knockout round, highlighting Friday's draw. As for other Americans, Oguchi Onyewu's Sporting Lisbon will face Legia Warsaw, Steve Cherundolo's Hannover 96 meets Club Brugge and Jermaine Jones' Schalke drew Viktoria Plzen.
Manchester United and Manchester City added plenty of starpower to the Europa League field after failing to get out of the Champions League group stage, and their first knockout opponents won't make getting to the next round very easy. Both drew other Champions League dropouts, with United getting paired with Ajax and City drawing defending champion Porto.
Because just the top four UCL entrants and Europa League group winners were seeded and all other teams were not, it became possible for UCL teams to play against each other in the first knockout round.
Here is the draw for the Round of 32 along with the pairings for the eventual winners in the Round of 16:
UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW
ROUND OF 32
Manchester City vs. Porto
Manchester United vs. Ajax
Athletic Bilbao vs. Lokomotiv Moscow
Metalist Kharkiv vs. FC Salzburg
Valencia vs. Stoke City
Olympiakos vs. Rubin Kazan
Anderlecht vs. AZ Alkmaar
Atletico Madrid vs. Lazio
FC Twente vs. Steaua Bucuresti
Schalke vs. Viktoria Plzen
Standard Liege vs. Wisla Krakow
Besiktas vs. Sporting Braga
PAOK Salonika vs. Udinese
PSV Eindhoven vs. Trabzonspor
Club Brugge vs. Hannover 96
Sporting Lisbon vs. Legia Warsaw
ROUND OF 16
Ajax/Manchester United vs. Lokomotiv Moscow/Athletic Bilbao
Porto/Manchester City vs. Sporting Lisbon/Legia Warsaw
AZ Alkmaar/Anderlecht vs. PAOK/Udinese
Schalke/Viktoria Plzen vs. Steaua Bucuresti/FC Twente
Hannover/Club Brugge vs. Standard Liege/Wisla Krakow
Lazio/Atletico Madrid vs. Braga/Besiktas
Rubin Kazan/Olympiakos vs. Salzburg/Metalist Kharkiv
Stoke City/Valencia vs. Trabzonspor/PSV Eindhoven
—————–
Who do you think takes the Altidore/Kljestan matchup? Do you see City and/or United getting booted in the Round of 32? Which other pairings do you have your eye on?
Share your thoughts below.
Did you see that Slovenia game in the World Cup where Donovan nearly took the keeper’s face off with his shot and the guy turned his head at the last millisecond?
Had he stuck his face in there maybe he deflects the shot and maybe he gets a concussion. I didn’t read where too many people were criticizing him though.
You know why?
Because it’s an involuntary reflex.
In college we had a right back with a cannon shot and if someone he didn’t like was in the wall sometimes he would cheat on the ten yards, sneak it in as close as possible, aim for his nose and hit it as hard and straight as possible. Sometimes they ducked, sometimes they didn’t.
If you watched the 2010 World Cup Jozy (and Clint)took a fantastic beating.
He is a lot of things but scared isn’t one of them.
For better or worse, flopping is part of the game in Europe and sadly,elsewhere. That is not Jozy’s fault. His national team manager turned into into an art form when he played at Tottenham.
When you have someone who can take free kick like Elm does you would try to flop a lot too. Those free kicks are almost 50/50 situation when just right outside the box for Elm.
Haters gotta hate!
Somewhere a bridge is yearning for it’s troll to return.
You are too harsh. Altidore is a regular starter on a team that leads the standings in the top Dutch league ahead of Ajax, PSV, Twente. He must be doing something right. And, by the way, he led the USMNT in scoring in the last WC qualifying cycle and in the last Gold Cup (until he came down with an injury after which Dempsey overtook him). As for his hold up ability, you must have not seen him play this year – it is actually quite good and the TV commentators for the Dutch league and the last USMNT friendlies actually raved about how much he improved this aspect of the game. And, if you understand the Dutch language, try to google an interview with Ruud Gullit, the captain of the Dutch team that won the Euro, in which Gullit speaks very highly of Altidore’s game. I agree with you that Altidore is still raw and by no means a finished product, but he is doing quite well as a player this year and will only continue to improve with regular playing time.
Well, your opinion isn’t that far off. In my opinion…
I really want US players to do well abroad, but I really don’t think Jozy Altidore is a very good player. It makes me cringe when he gets scared to jump for headers or flops endlessly. For such a muscular guy, he can’t seem to hold the ball very well at all.
I will say his touch has gotten much better.
I know, go ahead and criticize and scorn me. But this is just my opinion.
Funny that so many of the CL teams drew each other. Two of the four best teams are gonna get eliminated this round.
Looks like Jermaine Jones and Schalke have the path to make the easiest run to the final 8
Come on Jozy. The sky’s the limit, my friend.
There is some damn good matchups all across the competion. The EL (UEFA Cup) has taken a pretty big back seat to the Champions League in terms of fan fare and coverage over the last few years so hopefully these juicy matchups bring a little something back to the competition.
Lets Go Viktoria Plzen. The minnows from the Czech Republic continue to get very good teams to play against. Love it