By FRANCO PANIZO
Josh Gatt made his return to Molde FK's starting lineup this weekend, and he might be staying there for the foreseeable future after a strong outing in a blowout win.
Molde topped Stabaek 5-0 on Saturday, and Gatt contributed to the rout with a goal and an assist. Gatt knocked in his second goal of the season when he raced by a defender and slotted a low shot home, and he added an assist in the second half with a square ball that was finished with ease.
Herculez Gomez did not find the back of the net, but he and Santos Laguna advanced to the Mexican Liguilla final by scoring two late goals in a 2-2 draw with Tigres UANL in the second leg of their semifinals series. Gomez and Santos' advancement means they will take on Monterrey in a rematch of this year's CONCACAF Champions League final, a match which Santos Laguna lost.
It was not all good news this weekend. Tim Ream and Bolton Wanderers were relegated to the Championship after failing to win their season finale against Stoke City. The Trotters had a 2-1 lead in the second half and were on the brink of avoiding the drop, but a late penalty kick goal doomed them.
Here is how the Americans Abroad performed this weekend:
ENGLAND
Premiership
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and made three saves in Everton's 3-1 win vs. Newcastle United on Sunday.
- Marcus Hahnemann did not dress for Everton.
- Clint Dempsey did not dress in Fulham's 2-0 loss vs. Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. He is recovering from a groin injury.
- Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes and made five saves in Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 win vs. Fulham on Sunday.
- Brad Guzan dressed but did not play in Aston Villa's 2-0 loss vs. Norwich City on Sunday.
- Eric Lichaj started and played 90 minutes for Aston Villa.
- Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes in Bolton Wanderers's 2-2 draw vs. Stoke City on Sunday.
- Stuart Holden did not dress Bolton Wanderers. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Zak Whitbread did not dress in Norwich City's 2-0 win vs. Aston Villa on Sunday. He is recovering from a groin injury.
- Adam Henley started and played 90 minutes in Blackburn Rovers' 2-1 loss vs. Chelsea on Sunday.
SCOTLAND
- Maurice Edu started, played 90 minutes and had TWO ASSISTS in Rangers' 4-0 win vs. St Johnstone on Sunday.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D87EjsSM_0o?feature=player_embedded]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70hMUCfO4aA?feature=player_embedded]
- Carlos Bocanegra did not dress for Rangers.
- Alejandro Bedoya started, played 90 minutes, received a yellow card and had an ASSIST for Rangers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ip59Jb9YFk?feature=player_embedded]
- Dominic Cervi did not dress in Celtic's 5-0 win vs. Heart of Midlothian on Sunday.
ITALY
- Michael Bradley started and played 90 minutes in Chievo Vorona's 1-0 win vs. Lecce on Sunday.
GERMANY
Bundesliga
- Terrence Boyd did not dress in Borussia Dortmund's 5-2 win vs. Bayern Munich in the DFB Pokal final on Saturday.
FRANCE
- Quentin Westberg did not dress in Evian Thonon Gaillard's 1-1 draw vs. Nice on Sunday.
- Charlie Davies did not dress in Sochaux's 3-1 win vs. Caen on Sunday.
PORTUGAL
- Oguchi Onyewu did not dress in Sporting CP's 3-2 win vs. Braga on Saturday. He was serving a suspension for getting ejected last weekend.
RUSSIA
- Eugene Starikov did not dress in Zenit St Petersburg's 2- win vs. Anzhi Makhachkala on Sunday.
BELGIUM
- Sacha Kljestan did not dress in RSC Anderlecht's 3-0 win vs. Standard Liege in the Pro League playoffs on Sunday.
- Mikkel Diskerud dressed but did not play in KAA Gent's 3-1 win vs. Racing Genk in the Pro League playoffs on Sunday.
DENMARK
- Michael Parkhurst and FC Nordsjaelland play Odense BK on Monday.
- Clarence Goodson started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Brondby IF's 5-1 loss vs. AGF Aarhus on Sunday.
- Conor O'Brien started and played 90 minutes in SonderjyskE's 2-2 draw vs. FC Copenhagen on Sunday.
- Brad Rusin came off the bench and played 30 minutes in HB Koge's 3-1 loss vs. Silkeborg on Sunday.
SWEDEN
- Samuel Petrone did not dress in Mjallby AIF's 2-1 win vs. Kalmar on Saturday.
NORWAY
- Josh Gatt started, played 90 minutes, scored a GOAL and had an ASSIST in Molde FK's 5-0 win vs. Stabaek IF on Saturday. You can see the goal and assist here.
- Steve Clark started and played 90 minutes in Honefoss BK's 4-1 loss vs. Odd Grenland on Sunday.
- Ricardo Clark started and played 90 minutes in Stabaek IF's 5-0 loss vs. Molde FK on Saturday.
- Sean Cunningham started and played 90 minutes for Stabaek IF.
MEXICO
- Herculez Gomez came off the bench and played 39 minutes in Santos Laguna's 2-2 draw vs. Tigres UANL in the second leg of their Liguilla semifinals series on Sunday. Gomez and Santos Laguna advanced.
- Jonathan Bornstein did not dress in Tigres UANL's 2-2 draw vs. Santos Laguna in the second leg of their Liguilla semifinals series on Sunday. Bornstein and Tigres UANL were eliminated.
——-
What do you think of these performances? Impressed by Gatt's performance? Expecting Gomez and Santos to win the final? Think Bolton will bounce right back into the EPL?
Share your thoughts below.
If you read the many interviews Klinsmann has recently given he made it very, very clear that in this camp there were not going to be any “experiments”.
Calling either of those guys would be classified as an experiment.
You might notice that Man. City started Kompany, Barry and Toure,all considered defensive holding midfielders by many and when Toure went out he was replaced by De Jong, another “DM”.
Bradley, Jones and Edu are all quite versatile enough to not be pigeonholed as strictly defensive midfielders, a la Pablo Mastroeni or Chris Armas.
I don’t think it was super serious, but the last game was essentially meaningless for Fulham.
Well, Bradley can play out wide, but he’s more consistent than Edu or Jones at DM.
Yay for Herculez!
He’s going to be in yet another final! Great news for him and the USMNT. It should be a great Mexican League final. I’ll be watching, even if I can’t understand the announcers.
It’s the same two teams that played for the Concacaf Champions title.
Hopefully, Herc gets on the scoreboard, so I can hear “GGOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!”
I’m sorry Rangers fan, did you say “Yanks Out?” Also, I’m not sure what to read about the Boca situation. Obviously the game didn’t mean anything, but I wonder if he is essentially on his way out.
Not so much. The young players are not the answer for today’s USMNT. Rotating one or two in and out of call-ups to give them a taste of the USMNT camps is fine, but they are not yet ready for prime-time. They will get good professional experience for their club teams, that is where they should develop their skills, or not.
I cannot believe Dempsey is out we need him against Brazil. 🙁
Here’s hoping that Edu, Bocanegra, and Bedoya get the hell outta dodge…er, Scotland, ASAP.
That league is a joke.
Referee Foy should be fined and suspended for allowing that goal. It’s going to cost Bolton a lot of money.
Hopefully Klinnsmann calls in some young players. At the top of my list would be Gatt and Joe Corona.
Stoke’s first goal was bs. Has anyone ever seen a time when a player was allowed to headbutt the ball out of the keeper’s possession while running into them… and not get called for a foul?
Tim Ream > Messi
Rather confused on this Monday morning…
Where’s the obligatory Tim Ream front page photo? Relegation = no more Tim Ream =(
One more comment needs to be added and that is that Ream had the opportunity to seal a victory and EPL play next year if he had made that header near the end of the game.
Reminds me of another American defender, J DeMetitt who did make that header for Watford ans assured their promotion a number of years ago.
Gatt is ridiculously fast, can’t wait to see him sometime soon with the Nats. WC 2014 i think is reasonable at this point.
While it is a dilemma, this is the kind of dilemma we should aspire to have at every position…
Best I’ve seen Mo Edu play in a long time, Italy game was great. Klinnsy as quite the selection dilemma at defensive mid, Jones, Bradley and Edu all had great seasons and, even better, all showed they can play more offensively when needed. Depending on how it shakes out though, one might not even make the 18(if you only start one DM)
“Tim Ream lost the speedy Peter Crouch on the play where the keeper subsequently tripped Crouch, resulting in the PK goal condemning Bolton to the Championship….”
Just adding my subjective two cents to Ream’s contribution.