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Evening Ticker: Gonzalez injured at Nürnberg, Milan closing on Tevez and more

Gonzalez - Getty

By CALEB SONNELAND

Omar Gonzalez, fresh off the plane and training with Nürnberg, was given a Bundesliga welcome by compatriot, and now teammate, Timmy Chandler in a crunching tackle — one that left the former with an injured knee.

Though the extent of the injury is yet to be confirmed by the club, Gonzalez is seen pictured on the pitch in pain as a club physio examines his left knee.  

After months of USMNT fans calling for Gonzalez to be thrown into the January camp, the defender was finally called up by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, only for Gonzalez withdraw to complete a loan move to Nürnberg.

Now, however, it remains uncertain how severe his injury may be and how long the defender could be out of action after only being with the team for a very short period of time.

Here are some other stories from around the world to round out your Thursday:

TEVEZ COULD BE HEADING FOR ITALY

Argentinian journeyman Carlos Tevez may soon have a new home.

His long-time agent, Kia Joorabchian, revealed that he is working on finalizing a deal with AC Milan which would take Tevez to the San Siro.  However, Milan appears only interested in taking the striker on loan while Manchester City seems determined to sell permanently.

Despite strong interest from Milan, it appears that cross-town rival Inter Milan has joined the chase for Tevez, with the club technical director reportedly in Manchester to discuss a potential permanent move. Still, insists Joorabchian, a switch to AC Milan looks more likely.

Tevez has been an outcast at the Eastlands since late September when the forward reportedly refused to enter the game as a substitute.  After the dispute with manager Roberto Mancini, the future of Tevez has been up in the air.

KEANE BEING EYED BY MCLEISH

LA Galaxy striker Robbie Keane only joined the current MLS champions halfway through the season, but he's already being lined up for a loan move in the offseason by Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish.

McLeish, knowing that time is of the essence, says that, if a deal can't be tied up by next Monday, then the switch probably won't happen at all.  Still, he says the chance of a loan being agreed is "more than 50/50."

Should Keane complete the move, he could potentially line up against USMNT star Landon Donovan when Villa takes on Everton at Villa Park.

Keane is currently training with his long-time former club Tottenham, also of the English Premier League.

JUNINHO LOOKS SET FOR BRAZILIAN STAY

Juninho's stint at the LA Galaxy looks set to come to a close after the midfielder told his parent club, Sao Paolo, that he "dreams" of emulating his success in MLS at the Brazilian club.

Juninho enjoyed a highly successful stint in Los Angeles and became a crucial cog in the Galaxy's bid to win the MLS Cup.  

However, in his interview with the Brazilian club, spoken in Portuguese, Juninho said that, of the 2012 season, he expects, "a special year."  He hopes to make am impression on the team that and to win titles upon his return.

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Worried about the Gonzalez injury?  Think Keane should join up with Aston Villa? What will the Galaxy midfield look like without Juninho?  

Comments

  1. Now, they can just wait until he heals – around the same time he is free from his MLS contract – and get him for free. So the Galaxy loses out big time.

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  2. Nice with the personal insult. Great talking to you. I’m sure you are very successful with your attitude and grace..

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  3. I agree with what you are saying. And, I read there were some crunching tacklers in the under 23 camp with Porter in December, but luckily no one got injured. Just want to make clear I am not spewing hatred against Chandler and “the Germans” like some of the bozos above. I am a very big supporter of Chandler, think he has the potential to be a world-class player and a huge asset to the USMNT. I am just saying my initial reaction is a bit of general anger. I definitely want to know all details of how it happened. I think the coaches probably deserve some blame here. The Turkish time zone, I think, is 11 hours ahead of LA and Gonzalez was no doubt jet-lagged out and then throwing him into a contact scrimmage does not seem wise to me. As for Chandler, he is the sort of player who is always giving 100% and I maybe he was pumped up having his fellow American at practice with him. I have no doubt he is feeling pretty sick in his stomach right now.

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  4. This is unfortunate indeed but that’s how they train in Europe – you fight for a starting place. You earn a starting place. How many training bust-ups and injuries have we heard of before this one? Trust me it will not be the last one either.

    Training in Europe is intense and guys play them hard and in some cases harder than in an actual game. Managers have been known to sit players, good players, and sometimes not even include them in the line-up for dogging it in training. This demonstrates a professional and combative attitude that mangers want in their players.

    It sucks the this happened to Gonzalez and just like any other fan you have the right to be upset about the unfortunate event. But that’s all it was “an unfortunate event”. I am most certain that Chandler did not intend to hurt Gonzalez.

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  5. Bad, bad F-ing news: Omar Gonzalez has knee ligament damage and might be out as long as six months. He is flying back to LA today. Still no details on exactly how it happened, but this news story says that Chandler fouled him 30 f-ing minutes into his first training session. This is tragic and I gotta admit, if it turns out Chandler indeed gave him a “crunching tackle,” then I am going to be peeved.

    http://www.rp-online.de/sport/fussball/bundesliga/kreuzbandriss-im-ersten-training-1.2663789

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  6. LA better compensate the fans by bringing in some quality players with all of this loan money.

    If Leiweke says that everybody wants to come here, why are they signing mediocre players like Cristman and Noonan and Leitch??? I’m sure there are many young, talented players that would love to show their stuff on the Hollywood stage.

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  7. Funny. I was commenting on the loan before, and was about to say “as long as he doesn’t get injured.” But then, it seemed like such a lame thing to say.

    Guess it wasn’t.

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  8. If your anger is mostly from the Galaxy side of the spectrum you should know Gonzo is probably gone regardless. This was more of a trial rather than a loan. If Nuremburg like what they see they will buy him.

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  9. Ok,… so is Timmy Chandler ok??! I hope he didn’t get one scratch in that wonderful ZEUS type left foot! I’m worried now.

    Does Gonzo even speak Spanish?! Does Timmy know BO? Can Klins take on Chuck Norris using only his right foot? So many questions, so little time! Ahhhh

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  10. There’s been a lot of strangeness on this site lately. So much so that I cannot tell the difference between the truly sarcastic comments and the really, really dumb ones.

    Many have demonstrated a serious lack of understanding about professional football and that’s nothing new. So that’s not even worth going into. That never bothers me. What does is the strange xenophobic and other such undertones that are dominating the conversation about our National Team coach and his player selection that I find disturbing and sickening. But like I said, it’s getting really hard to tell the difference between sarcasm and the other stuff lately.

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  11. Looks like Cameron is in the driver seat. It was a collision people; this does happen in soccer. It sucks Gonzo was injured, but it woould have sucked more if Chandler was the one that was injured. Chandler is needed for the USMNT at present; Gonzo not so much. Cmaeron and Whitbread are ahead of him anyway in the CB pool.

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  12. Really? Like this wasn’t worked out in the loan agreement?

    You are soooooo smart. Too bad you weren’t on retainer for LA. I am sure that they are thinking, “why didn’t we get insurance for this sort of thing?”. If only lprevolution had warned us…

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  13. …because MLS talent moving up to top flight teams is bad. D***n players trying to get better and make more money! Wake up. It is a job. Just because you are willing to rot in the same position for 30 years, doesn’t mean that everyone else should lack ambition like you.

    Ditto for managers that try to improve their people. What are they thinking?

    Maybe we could outlaw electricity? Improvements bad. Isolation and stagnation good.

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  14. Do us all a favor and find another sport to be ignorant about. I am sure that your brilliant insight will be appreciated on bowling blogs everywhere.

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  15. Yes. Waste your anger on an accident for a player that is not contributing to the USMNT. I understand you being upset that you might miss some playing time from your boy, but, it was his decision to try to play with the big boys and he got hurt. Get mad at Gonzo for going in the first place. Unless some further details come to light, no one is to blame for this accident.

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  16. How naive are you that you think professionals think this way?? Chandler’s first job is to stay a starter. His second is to help his team win. Nowhere in his professional being is a place that says “go easy on this guy because if he ever gets his S**t together, he might be my teammate on the UNSMNT”. Top talent gives everything, every practice. Hell, the good players went after teammates hard in high school and college, and we weren’t getting paid. Make it my paycheck and my mother doesn’t catch any slack!

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  17. No. It wasn’t set up by JK. He had nothing to do with it.

    From Brian Straus at Sporting News:

    “In turns out Klinsmann had nothing to do with the arrangement. Instead, Sporting News has learned that Gonzalez, his agents and Nürnberg officials worked out a deal that could do far more for the player’s future than perhaps even the mercurial national team coach. Nürnberg spokesperson Martin Bader said on the club’s website that a permanent transfer is possible over the summer.”

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  18. European clubs frequently loan good players to other clubs. Barcelona loaned Ibrahimovic to AC Milan a few years ago, Bojan to Roma this year, Kerrison to Benfica, Henrique to Bayern Leverkuzen and then to Palmeiras. Adbayor was loaned by ManCity to Real Madrid a season or two ago. Real Madrid loaned Canales to Valencia. Most, if not all, of these players are better than Gonzo and some are better than Donovan.

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  19. Does Gonzalez even speak German? What the hey was he doing over there, if he doesn’t even speak the language? How’s he going to tell the physio what happened? This is not how you want to start with a new team! Someone needs to throw a chair at Gonzalez.

    I’m sure Joachim Loew didn’t order a hit on Gonzo or Chandler, but he’s gonna have questions to answer tomorrow. While we’re at it, somebody better ask Bradley what the heck Holden is doing at Bolton, where he could get hurt, and why Findley is doing at Nottingham. This is scandalous. There will be an investigation…and I nominate Jack Warner to head it. Either him or that Bin Hamman guy.

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  20. On the other hand Chandler might be a self-hating German. In which case Chandler might have had it in for Chandler.

    The only way to know is to ask Monica.

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  21. In almost all cases an insurance policy is taken out and the club that takes the player on loan pays the premium. When you come to big expensive players, the premiums become more expensive, and sometimes becomes a dealbreaker. In the case of Gonzalez as the Galaxy has set a valuation for him a lot lower than say Beckham, Donovan, or Keane, it was something Nurnberg could afford.,

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  22. Bruce has no say in this. Omar and his people arranged this and it amounts to a trial. If Nurnberg likes what they see there is a chance they will buy him either now or later on

    Regardless, I’m betting Bruce is already lining up Omar’s replacement.

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