By FRANCO PANIZO
Five games unbeaten, four shutouts, one contributor who could potentially suit up for the U.S. Men’s National Team.
Club America extended its undefeated run to five matches on Sunday by posting a 1-0 road win against Pumas UNAM, and once again Ventura Alvarado was at the heart of the result. Alvarado helped the America defense keep Pumas off the board en route to recording its second straight cleansheet and fourth during this strong run of form, moving the Aguilas into Liga MX’s top spot until Club Tijuana won its game late on Sunday. The 22-year-old Alvarado, who could play for either the U.S. or Mexico on the international stage, now has 13 combined appearances for Club America between the Apertura and Clausura campaigns.
Another positive development out of Mexico was Jonathan Bornstein playing in his first league match in almost a year. Fresh off a Copa MX start for Queretaro on Wednesday, Bornstein, 30, was again given the nod in his first Liga MX appearance for the club on Sunday. The former U.S. defender was deployed at left back, and went the distance as he and Queretaro suffered a 2-1 loss to Monterrey.
Fellow defender Tim Ream also took to the field for his team, but was involved in an ugly and worrisome incident. Ream was stretchered off in the first half of Bolton Wanderers’ road game against Nottingham Forest with what is believed to be a back problem that was sustained after he collided with the post. As if leaving the Saturday bout early was not bad enough, Bolton was routed, 4-1, to lose for the third time in its last four league matches.
One player who did not have the most impressive performance was Andrew Wooten. The 25-year-old Wooten was again in Sandhausen’s lineup against Greuther Furth on Friday, but failed to break a scoreless deadlock on a golden opportunity in the first half. Wooten took an 18th-minute penalty kick, but was unable to put it away in a match that ended in a goal-less draw.
Here is how the Americans Abroad performed this weekend:
ENGLAND
Premiership
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and made two saves in Everton’s 2-2 draw vs. Leicester City on Sunday.
- Brad Guzan started, played 90 minutes and made four saves in Aston Villa’s 2-1 loss vs. Stoke City on Saturday.
- DeAndre Yedlin did not dress in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-2 draw vs. West Ham United on Sunday.
- Brad Friedel did not dress for Tottenham Hotspur.
- Geoff Cameron did not dress in Stoke City’s 2-1 win vs. Aston Villa on Saturday. He was suspended due to the red card he received in the last game.
- Gedion Zelalem did not dress in Arsenal’s 2-1 win vs. Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Championship
- Jonathan Spector started and played 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 4-3 loss vs. Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
- Will Packwood did not dress for Birmingham City. He is recovering from an injury.
- Tim Ream started and played 34 minutes in Bolton Wanderers’ 4-1 loss vs. Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
- Eric Lichaj started and played 90 minutes in Nottingham Forest’s 4-1 win vs. Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
- Danny Williams started and played 90 minutes in Reading’s 1-0 win vs. Ipswich Town on Saturday.
- Emerson Hyndman did not dress in Fulham’s 0-0 draw vs. Millwall on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
- Zak Whitbread did not dress in Derby County’s 3-2 win vs. Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
- Oguchi Onyewu did not dress in Charlton Athletic’s 3-0 win vs. Wigan Athletic on Friday.
GERMANY
Bundesliga
- John Brooks started and played 90 minutes in Hertha Berlin’s 2-1 loss vs. Wolfsburg on Sunday.
- Fabian Johnson dressed but did not play in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 1-1 draw vs. Hamburg SV on Sunday.
- Timmy Chandler started and played 90 minutes in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 3-1 loss vs. Mainz 05 on Saturday.
- Julian Green did not dress in Hamburg SV’s 1-1 draw vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday.
- Joe Gyau did not dress in Borussia Dortmund’s 3-2 win vs. VfB Stuttgart on Friday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
2. Bundesliga
- Terrence Boyd and RB Leipzig play Eintracht Braunschweig on Monday.
- Alfredo Morales started and played 63 minutes in FC Ingolstadt 04’s 1-1 draw vs. VfR Aalen on Friday.
- Bobby Wood started and played 54 minutes in FC Erzgebirge Aue’s 1-0 loss vs. SV Darmstadt 98 on Friday.
- Andrew Wooten started, played 76 minutes and did not convert a penalty kick in SV Sandhausen’s 0-0 draw vs. SpVgg Greuther Furth on Friday.
- Jann George did not dress in SpVgg Greuther Furth’s 0-0 draw vs. SV Sandhausen on Friday.
FRANCE
- Alejandro Bedoya did not dress in FC Nantes’ 1-0 loss vs. Olympique Lyon on Sunday.
NETHERLANDS
- Aron Johannsson did not dress in AZ Alkmaar’s 2-0 win vs. Go Ahead Eagles on Saturday. He is recovering from an ankle injury.
- Rubio Rubin dressed but did not play in FC Utrecht’s 1-1 draw vs. SC Heracles Almelo on Saturday.
AUSTRIA
- Conor O’Brien started and played 90 minutes in FC Magna Wiener Neustadt’s 3-3 draw vs. SK Sturm Graz on Saturday.
MEXICO
- Michael Orozco started and played 90 minutes in Puebla’s 2-1 win vs. Morelia on Friday.
- Herculez Gomez dressed but did not play for Puebla.
- Greg Garza started and played 90 minutes in Club Tijuana’s 1-0 win vs. Universidad de Guadalajara on Sunday.
- Joe Corona came off the bench and played 31 minutes for Club Tijuana.
- Alejandro Guido did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Paul Arriola did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Jose Torres did not dress in Tigres UANL’s 1-0 loss vs. Jaguars de Chiapas on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
- Edgar Castillo started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Atlas’ 1-0 win vs. Santos Laguna on Friday.
- Ventura Alvarado started and played 90 minutes in Club America’s 1-0 win vs. Pumas UNAM on Sunday.
- Jonathan Bornstein started and played 90 minutes in Queretaro’s 2-1 loss vs. Monterrey on Saturday.
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What do you think of these performances? Should Jurgen Klinsmann be putting the full-court press on Alvarado to get the young centerback to play for the USMNT? Think Bornstein should come back to MLS? How concerned are you by Ream’s injury?
Share your thoughts below.
Bobby Wood out for two months with a knee injury, the hits just keep coming
Bernstein! That’s my guy!
ha. nice.
Who is Jonathan Bernstein?
The guy who got Bob Brodley fired by playing miserably in a Gold Cup final.
They called him “Bernstein” twice. Once on the front page linking to the article and once in the “Here’s How They Fared” section. I had to look and see if it was a totally different guy; which wouldn’t have been terribly surprising considering I had no idea he was even still playing.
You need to move Julian Green to the 4 Bundesliga. According to the coach he didn’t call him to the U23’s game this weekend to avoid another row.
as much as that would gratify this sick obsession of yours, it doesn’t make sense. he’s not signed to a 4th division team, he simply didn’t dress for the first team. let it go.
It doesn’t gratify me it just that facts are facts regardless of the dismay of the fanboys whose sense of self worth depends on how an 18 year old German soccer played does in any given weekend
“whose sense of self worth depends on how an 18 year old German soccer player does in any given weekend”
god, you’re so close to a breakthrough, and you don’t even see it. i’m not giving up on you!
Rob, you seem to be the only “fanboy” here. I haven’t seen a large group of commentators anointing Green the savior post-WC. I think most people are realistic about where he is as a professional. You have created an online conflict where you are only arguing with yourself.
I say we include Jozy and Michael Bradley in this list. They are in Canada. There would be relatively fewer “dressed but did not play” and “did not dress” notices…
You didn’t list Jürgen’s new German-American obsession Ashton Götz, who came off the bench for Hamburg. Careful Franco, Jürgen may take some veiled shots at you through the press.
We have one report saying JK is trying to get this player to play for the US and that makes it an obsession? Ridiculous exaggeration never ceases at SBI.
Johnny B is back!
Le pasa la pelota a Yonatan Borrrrrrrrnstien!
As is Johnathon Spector! The demise of the Americans Abroad is greatly exaggerated! Well, okay maybe not.
So much talent and not a good coach. (Kilns is a front office person, like gulati or garber)
However, what I find interesting is that there could be a Mexican-American national team, German-American national team and the normal “US national team,” and I kinda have a feeling the mexican-American team would be the best, with all respect. Why? They have more soccer blood and vision and will die to represent half and half of their culture in the find. Imagine those uniforms for those teams, they would be awesome.
One other thing, if Omar Gonzalez, Besler are defense DPs in MLS, that would mean those defenders playing in Mexico, Europe must be super DP defenders, because I don’t think MLS should give MLS defenders DP money, they just don’t deserve it yet.
Look at Omar and Besler, they are overated and don’t want to face the big guns.
If klins keeps going with MLS defenders, they will keep loosing games, with an exception of jones who has experience.
You lost me at “more soccer blood”…
I think he means clenbuterol, which then is a fairly accurate statement.
Can you get that just from eating tainted steaks, or is that just an urban legend?
Ha. Nicely done.
more soccer blood? based on past generations of world cup champions? And Germany has how many World Cups and finals?
If someone is committed to embarrassing himself with ridiculous comments, there’s not much you can do to stop him.
In Holland, Desevio Payne started his first game in Groningen’s defeat vs. Heerenveen.
Oh great another passport American to anoint as a savior.
backlash even before the hype now? we got us a hipster over here…
so good.
We should take an SBI collection to buy slowleft some skinny jeans. 🙂
I bet he wore NASL jerseys before they were cool to wear
In interviews it sounds like he’s pretty close to his American roots… not that that’s technically a requirement to play for the US national team.
Dunno man, he was born in South Carolina and has an American father, who OMG still lives with the family!
“My wife and I tried to instill both cultures to our kids, especially Desevio, so that they don’t lose that USA connection,” Aston Payne said. “We follow all the traditions and we speak English among ourselves.”