By FRANCO PANIZO
Helsingborg’s regular season may be over and they might be well on their way out of the Europa League, but Alejandro Bedoya made sure to make an impact in what is likely to be one of their last games this year.
Playing against Steve Cherundolo and Hannover in the Europa League group stage on Thursday, Bedoya scored a goal that pulled Helsingborg level after having initially gone down, 2-0. Unfortunately for Helsingborg, Bedoya’s second goal across all competitions for the club was not the last one in the match, as Hannover won the game, 3-2, on a penalty kick in second-half stoppage time.
While the result was a bitter one for Helsingborg and Bedoya, it was positive for Hannover. The German club secured advancement the knockout phase of the competition with the win despite there still being two games to play. Cherundolo went the distance in the match.
Here is how the Americans Abroad who were involved in games on Thursday fared:
UEFA Europa League
- Clint Dempsey came off the bench and played eight minutes in Totteham’s 3-1 win vs. NK Maribor.
- Brad Friedel did not dress for Tottenham.
- Terrence Boyd started and played 86 minutes in Rapid Vienna’s 3-0 loss vs. Bayer Leverkusen.
- David Yelldell dressed but did not play in Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-0 win vs. Rapid Vienna.
- Alejandro Bedoya started, played 90 minutes, received a yellow card and scored a GOAL in Helsingborg’ 3-2 loss vs. Hannover 96.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpH5edNNek?feature=player_detailpage]
- Steve Cherundolo started and played 90 minutes in Hannover’s 3-2 win vs. Helsingborg.
- Mix Diskerud came off the bench and played 27 minutes in Rosenborg BK’s 3-1 loss vs. FC Metalist Kharkiv.
- Josh Gatt started and played 45 minutes in Molde FK’s 2-1 loss vs. Steaua Bucuresti.
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What do you think of these performances? Think Bedoya is deserving of his first U.S. Men’s National Team call-up under Klinsmann?
Share your thoughts below.
The Hannover – Helsingborgs match apparently had a wild end, with the penalty kick call thought to be questionable. One Helsingborgs player was sent off with a red card for the questionable PK foul and a second player sent off with a red for complaining about the first red card, leaving the team with only nine men for the end.
Bedoya’s goal above looks good and he looks leaner and meaner than he did a year ago. Wonder whether Klinsmann gives him a look next week.
Klinsmann was in the audience at the Spurs Europa match. Once Dempsey came on he left. What? I hope US soccer didnt pay for that plane ticket?
I saw that, was kind of weird.
What about Josh Gatt? Didn’t Molde play today?
Subbed off after 46 min. Not sure if it was an injury or not. Wouldn’t bet against it with his record, though.
Molde were down 2-0 at halftime, at home, and Gatt was one of 2 guys subbed to begin the second 45′, according to ESPN. The other sub was Diouf, who is listed as a FWD, and the 2 guys to come on were a MID and a FWD, so, with no mention of an injury to Gatt, my completely uneducated deduction would be Molde weren’t very effective going forward in the 1st half and decided to make changes for the 2nd. They ended up losing 2-1 fwiw.
Video for the Bedoya goal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWpH5edNNek
As a BC alum, I’d love to see Bedoya get a shot during the Russia friendly. I thought he brought a lot during the ’11 Gold Cup and is getting back into form.