By FRANCO PANIZO
Four games, three cleansheets. Brad Guzan and Aston Villa have gotten off to a dream start in the Premiership season, but will have to dig deep this weekend in order to extend their undefeated run to five games.
The Villans, who surprisingly sit in second place right now, host star-studded Arsenal on Saturday and are hoping to put forth another strong performance in order to stay near the top of the table in England’s top tier. Guzan will likely need to come up with another solid outing in goal for Aston Villa to have a shot at avoiding their first defeat of the year, and improve on their 3-0-1 record.
While Guzan is all but assured to start for his club, Julian Green is less of a certainty to do the same for his. Green’s loan club, cellar dwellers Hamburg, will lock horns with his parent club Bayern Munich on Saturday. That makes Green’s role unclear as Hamburg attempts to grab their first win of the season, especially since he struggled to find his footing in his Bundesliga debut last weekend.
If you’re in search of a match-up involving players from the Americans Abroad contingent, look no further than 1860 Munich’s clash with FC Ingolstadt. Recent U.S. Men’s National Team call-ups Bobby Wood and Alfredo Morales could both see time in the match, making for an intriguing battle between two of the prospects who are seeing consistent playing time in Europe right now.
Here is who the Americans Abroad square off against this weekend:
FRIDAY
John Brooks and Hertha Berlin play SC Freiburg.
Andrew Wooten and SV Sandhausen play VfR Aalen.
Joe Corona, Greg Garza, Paul Arriola, Alejandro Guido, Fernando Arce Jr, Amando Moreno, John Requejo and Club Tijuana play Santos Laguna.
SATURDAY
Geoff Cameron and Stoke City play Queens Park Rangers. (Cameron is out injured.)
Brad Guzan and Aston Villa play Arsenal.
Jozy Altidore and Sunderland play Burnley.
Cody Cropper and Southampton play Swansea City.
Zak Whitbread and Derby County play Cardiff City.
Emerson Hyndman and Fulham play Blackburn Rovers.
Eric Lichaj and Nottingham Forest play Millwall.
Jonathan Spector, Will Packwood, Brek Shea and Birmingham City play Norwich City.
Danny Williams and Reading play Sheffield Wednesday. (Williams is out injured.)
Tim Ream and Bolton Wanderers play Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Julian Green and Hamburg SV play Bayern Munich.
Timmy Chandler and Eintracht Frankfurt play Schalke 04.
Joe Gyau and Borussia Dortmund play Mainz 05.
Bobby Wood and TSV 1860 Munich play Alfredo Morales and FC Ingolstadt 04.
Alejandro Bedoya and FC Nantes play Nice.
Sacha Kljestan and RSC Anderlecht play Cercle Brugge.
Conor O’Brien and FC Magna Wiener Neustadt play Rheindorf Altach.
Zarek Valentin and FK Bodo/Glimt play Jeb Brovsky and Stomsgodset. (Valentin is out injured.)
Josh Gatt, Ethan Horvath and Molde FK play Viking. (Gatt is out injured.)
Freddy Adu and FK Jagodina play Napredak.
Ventura Alvarado and Club America play Pachuca.
Michael Orozco and Puebla play Gabriel Farfan and Jaguares de Chiapas.
Herculez Gomez, Jose Torres and Tigres UANL play Universidad de Guadalajara.
Edgar Castillo and Atlas play Cruz Azul.
SUNDAY
Brad Friedel and Tottenham Hotspur play West Bromwich Albion.
Tim Howard and Everton play Crystal Palace.
David Yelldell and Bayer Leverkusen play VfL Wolfsburg.
Fabian Johnson and Borussia Moenchengladbach play FC Cologne.
Terrence Boyd and RP Leipzig play FC Union Berlin. (Boyd is out injured.)
Aron Johannsson and AZ Alkmaar play PEC Zwolle. (Johannsson is out injured.)
Rubio Rubin and FC Utrecht play FC Groningen.
Michael Stephens, Andrew Jacobson and Stabaek IF play Aalesund.
Mix Diskerud and Rosenborg BK play Haugesund.
Alonso Hernandez and Monterrey play Toluca.
Jonathan Bornstein and Queretaro play Chivas de Guadalajara.
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Which of these matches are you most anticipating? Think Guzan and the Villains grab a result vs. Arsenal? Do you see Green playing against Bayern Munich?
Share your thoughts below.
Brooks starting today.
Gyau will be in the first team tomorrow according to Florian Groeger. good for him.
nice, Wooten scores the winner again.
Most loan agreements stipulate that the loaned player cannot play against the parent club so I would be surprised to see Green on the field against Bayern even if the manager wanted to select him.
Most but not all
Okay, concerning Green’s, or anyone’s for that matter, playing tomorrow or the Hamburger Morgenpost gives no clue. All of the HSV articles this entire week has been the sacking of Slomka and the hiring of Josef (Joe) Zimmerman, most of them about Joe.
I don’t believe anything Green did in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Hannover means anything. In an article on Tuesday titled “Slomko shot himself” the Mopo said Slomka went for the wow factor (indicating desperation and lack of any plan). They printed, in red no less: “…he started all 7 of the newcomers in the belief that they would run the hell out of Hannover for him”. He also replaced the keeper.
The story on Joe is very interesting. He is 44 and only got his Pro coaching license from the German coaching academy earlier this year and his first day training with the team was on Wednesday. He said every player must train and play with passion and belief. Those who don’t and are not on the same page will not play in games. (I believe Green’s experience playing for Pep will put him in good stead in this department.)
Another interesting point is that around 2000-02 Joe and Jürgen Klopp, who Joe refers to as Der Kloppo, were together at Mainz. Klopp said to him, “we blind men can’t play football but maybe we can excel as coaches”.
Anyway, HSV should me much more exciting and entertaining from this point.
WHAT HAPPEN WHEN GREEN SCORES
I doubt he plays against Bayern.
Considering his latest outing I’m sure it will be a while before he sees the field again.
good thing he has a new coach that is most likely giving everyone a clean slate.
That’s way too easy FRANK. Heads will explode at SBI. It will go down as a fluke, a miss-hit, nothing will change.
Nah – only if the goal was a fluke mis-hit, like the one against Belgium.
slow,slow,slow, only you could, with your own eyes, see a true world class volley as a fluke. The degree of difficulty on that volley was as high as it gets!
I know I am wasting my breath, but I stand by my comment and you just proved it.
About two seasons ago Rooney hit an overhead kick vs Man City that many touted as goal of the year.
Closer inspection indicated that Rooney actually hit the ball with his shin.
And you may remember Mario Gotze’s goal against Ghana in the World cup when he used his face to head the ball into his thigh and then into the goal or was it used his thigh to push the ball into his face and then into the goal ?
American fans are the only ones who really whine about these sort of things.
Imo Green did mis-hit it. He cut underneath it with the tip of his boot and floated it over the keeper, who wasn’t expecting that kind of floaty ball flight. Green did well to time and take the ball on the volley, but there is no way he is trying the execute that kind of shot…way too much to go wrong. He kind of made his own luck by getting everything else right on that play.
Mr. bassplayer,
Tell me something, if you were watching that game live, when Green scored were you excited? Or did you say OMG it was a mishit, it was not done with technical perfection?
Let’s say you are 100 % correct. What difference does that make?
Are you telling me that every worthwhile goal ever scored was a coolly taken, technically perfect act?
How many important goals in the history of the game were lucky mishits?
Most important of all are you telling me Green’s goal didn’t count?
The only reason there is a debate is because people who hate JK will use the “lucky goal “ characterization as a basis to devalue Green and those how support JK use the goal as a basis to support JK’s decision to take him. If anyone else had scored that exact same goal, you would not see this level of discussion about it.
Green went to the World Cup and scored a goal which is an accomplishment for any soccer player anywhere. Ryan Giggs, a certifiably great player, never did that. And no one will ever be able to take that away from Green.
Mr. bassplayer,
Tell me something, if you were watching that game live, when Green scored were you excited? Or did you say it was a mis-hit, it was not done with technical perfection?
Let’s say you are 100 % correct. What difference does that make?
Are you telling me that every worthwhile goal ever scored was a coolly taken, technically perfect act?
How many important goals in the history of the game were lucky mis-hits?
Most important of all are you telling me Green’s goal didn’t count?
The only reason there is a debate is because people who dislike JK will use the “lucky goal “ characterization as a basis to devalue Green. Those who support JK will use the goal as a basis to support JK’s decision to take him.
If anyone else had scored that exact same goal, you would not see this level of discussion about it.
Green went to the World Cup and scored a goal which is an accomplishment for any soccer player anywhere. Ryan Giggs, a certifiably great player, never did that. And no one will ever be able to take that away from Green.
I hope the Villians win over Arsenal!!
Suspend hope solo
Yeah!! Give her a Reality Tv Show!!!
I want to see that!!