By FRANCO PANIZO
It was not the result Greg Garza or Club Tijuana wanted, but the U.S. Men’s National Team defender ended a personal drought this weekend that dated back more than two years..
Garza found the back of the net for the first time since Nov. 16, 2012, on Friday, scoring Club Tijuana’s lone goal in a 2-1 loss to fellow American Edgar Castillo and Atlas. The tally came via a close-range finish following a cross from the right and put Tijuana ahead just before halftime. Unfortunately for the Xolos, they allowed the lead to slip away and now hold a slim one-point advantage for one of Liga MX’s playoff spots.
A pair of Americans squared off in Germany, as John Brooks and Fabian Johnson both started for their respective clubs in Hertha Berlin’s 2-1 home loss to Borussia Moenchengladbach. Brooks went the distance for Hertha in the match, and Johnson lasted until the 79th minute before being replaced. The win kept third-placed Moenchengladbach in control of the Bundesliga’s final guaranteed UEFA Champions League spot.
It was not all good news this weekend, however. Brad Guzan was surprisingly not given the nod for Aston Villa on Saturday, and instead demoted to the bench while Shay Given started in between the pipes in a 3-2 win over Everton. It marked the first time this season that Guzan did not start in league play for the Villans, snapping his streak at 34 games.
Here is how the Americans Abroad fared this weekend:
ENGLAND
Premiership
- Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes and made one save in Everton’s 3-2 loss vs. Aston Villa on Saturday.
- Brad Guzan dressed but did not play in Aston Villa’s 3-2 win vs. Everton on Saturday.
- DeAndre Yedlin dressed but did not play in Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 loss vs. Manchester City on Sunday.
- Brad Friedel did not dress for Tottenham Hotspur.
- Geoff Cameron did not dress in Stoke City’s 2-0 loss vs. Swansea City on Saturday.
- Gedion Zelalem and Arsenal play Hull City on Monday.
Championship
- Jonathan Spector started and played 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 1-0 win vs. Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
- Tim Ream started and played 90 minutes in Bolton Wanderers’ 1-0 loss vs. Birmingham City on Saturday.
- Eric Lichaj did not dress in Nottingham Forest’s 2-1 loss vs. Cardiff City on Saturday.
- Danny Williams came off the bench, played four minutes and received a yellow card in Reading’s 3-0 win vs. Derby County on Saturday.
- Emerson Hyndman did not dress in Fulham’s 4-2 loss vs. Norwich City on Saturday. He is recovering from an ankle injury.
- Zak Whitbread did not dress in Derby County’s 3-0 loss vs. Reading on Saturday. He is recovering from an injury.
- Oguchi Onyewu did not dress in Charlton Athletic’s 3-0 loss vs. AFC Bournemouth on Saturday.
GERMANY
Bundesliga
- John Brooks started and played 90 minutes in Hertha Berlin’s 2-1 loss vs. Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday.
- Fabian Johnson started and played 79 minutes in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 2-1 win vs. Hertha Berlin on Sunday.
- Timmy Chandler dressed but did not play in Eintracht Frankfurt’s 1-0 loss vs. Werder Bremen on Saturday.
- Julian Green did not dress in Hamburg SV’s 2-1 win vs. Mainz 05 on Sunday.
- Joe Gyau did not dress in Borussia Dortmund’s 1-1 draw vs. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
2. Bundesliga
- Terrence Boyd did not dress in RB Leipzig’s 1-0 loss vs. St Pauli on Sunday. He is recovering from a knee injury.
- Alfredo Morales and FC Ingolstadt 04 play FC Nurnberg on Monday.
- Bobby Wood started and played 87 minutes in FC Erzgebirge Aue’s 3-1 win vs. Karlsruhe on Sunday.
- Andrew Wooten came off the bench and played nine minutes in SV Sandhausen’s 2-2 draw vs. Heidenheimer SB on Sunday.
- Jann George did not dress in SpVgg Greuther Furth’s 3-0 win vs. Fortuna Dusseldorf on Sunday.
FRANCE
- Alejandro Bedoya started and played 90 minutes in FC Nantes’ 2-0 loss vs. Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday.
NETHERLANDS
- Aron Johannsson and AZ Alkmaar did not play this weekend.
- Rubio Rubin and FC Utrecht did not play this weekend.
- Desevio Payne did not dress in FC Groningen’s 2-0 win vs. PEC Zwolle in the KNVB Beker final on Sunday.
AUSTRIA
- Conor O’Brien started and played 90 minutes in FC Magna Wiener Neustadt’s 2-1 loss vs. Austria Vienna on Saturday.
SWEDEN
- Heath Pearce and IFK Goteborg play Falkenberg on Monday.
NORWAY
- Zarek Valentin started and played 90 minutes in FK Bodo/Glimt’s 2-0 loss vs. Aalesund on Sunday.
- Danny Cruz started and played 23 minutes for FK Bodo/Glimt.
- Ethan Horvath and Molde FK play Viking on Monday.
- Josh Gatt and Molde FK play Viking on Monday.
- Cole Grossman started and played 90 minutes in Stabaek IF’s 1-0 win vs. Mjondalen on Sunday.
- AJ Soares and Viking play Molde FK on Monday.
FINLAND
- Stephen McCarthy started and played 90 minutes in Kuopion Palloseura’s 1-1 draw vs. Mariehamn on Sunday.
- Freddy Adu started and played 62 minutes for Kuopion Palloseura.
MEXICO
- Greg Garza started, played 90 minutes and scored a GOAL in Club Tijuana’s 2-1 loss vs. Atlas on Friday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52YICgBgPk
- Joe Corona came off the bench and played 20 minutes for Club Tijuana.
- Alejandro Guido did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Paul Arriola did not dress for Club Tijuana.
- Ventura Alvarado started and played 90 minutes in Club America’s 3-1 win vs. Toluca on Saturday.
- William Yarbrough did not dress in Club Leon’s 2-0 loss vs. Puebla on Saturday.
- Michael Orozco started and played 90 minutes in Puebla’s 2-0 win vs. Club Leon on Saturday.
- Herculez Gomez came off the bench and played 22 minutes or Puebla.
- Jose Torres did not dress in Tigres UANL’s 2-1 win vs. Chivas de Guadalajara on Saturday. He is recovering from a herniated disk.
- Edgar Castillo started, played 90 minutes and received a yellow card in Atlas’ 2-1 win vs. Club Tijuana on Friday.
- Jonathan Bornstein did not dress in Queretaro’s 2-1 win vs. Morelia on Friday.
- Gabriel Farfan started and played 90 minutes in Jaguares de Chiapas’ 2-0 loss vs. Monterrey on Saturday.
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What do you think of these performances? Think Garza will claim the USMNT’s left back spot at the CONCACAF Gold Cup given the way he’s playing at Tijuana? Worried about Guzan’s benching?
Share your thoughts below.
Gotta disagree with the comment about Yedlin at Tottenham. Their current coach has a history of developing young talent. Spurs have one of the youngest rosters and starting lineup in the BPL. The coach has also publicly stated that they are integrating Yedlin into the BPL slowly and with care. Sounds like a great place for him to be.
Have we seen a peak or zenith of American’s Abroad? Guzan benched for an aging Given. Cameron not seeing the pitch for Stoke. Dempsey and Bradley returned home, and J.J. coming home to an MLS he never knew. Friedel basically a coach and Yedlin a raw talent in a club that doesn’t seem to historically be favorable to young, raw talent.
I have fought the fight for a while saying Americans are underrated. On a melancholy, overcast Monday, maybe, I have to acknowledge that at the club level our individual players just aren’t good enough.
Cameron coming off hamstring injury. Manager quoted as not wanting to risk him yet.
I love Americans Abroad too, but I just think we are in a talent gap right now. The guys in their mid-20’s have pretty much across the board been disappointments or injury-prone (I won’t list them all). So that next generation that should’ve stepped in for the Clint Dempsey/Boca/etc era of Yanks Abroad…hasn’t. However, I think its just a gap as our generation that are in their late teens looks dynamite.
Keep the faith man!
the problem is that 90% of the time the teens that look amazing end up being mediocre not just in the US but all over the world.
The lack of AA is down to the improved pay in MLS.
If the pay structure was similar to what it was 5/10 yrs ago, there would be a lot more Americans abroad.
You’ll still see some young guys go over, or hidden gems but I think the days of tons of AA might be done.
When where there ever “tons” of Americans Abroad?
The guys in their mid 20s now are generally pretty mediocre but the younger guys look promising. Also, Friedel is 43 years old I think. He’s had one of the best careers overseas for an American player.
MLS has improved dramatically in the last 5-10 years. Players can make more money, in many cases, by returning home to MLS on DP contracts. We are going the way of mexico. Where most the national team plays domestically, with a few exceptions of players in EPL/la liga and the like. To be honest, is it really worth it at this point for an american player to play in a non-top 5 league? I dont think it is.
At this point? No. In the future? Yes.
qts,
“Where most the national team plays domestically, with a few exceptions of players in EPL/la liga and the like. To be honest, is it really worth it at this point for an american player to play in a non-top 5 league?”
That depends on the player and the “non-top 5 league”. Which leagues do you think are 6 through 10?
Right now Lige1 is ranked #6 in Europe. Ale Bedoya seems to be doing very well with Nantes. I bet he would tell you it is a fine league to play in and I notice his USMNT stock has risen since he moved there. As best as I can tell he may stay there his whole career.
This one size fits all attempt to pigeonhole all the USMNT players just doesn’t really work.
Every player is different and you have the added issue of some players playing very differently for their club teams vs their national teams.
I don’t know why most people on SBI seem to assume it is every American kid’s dream to play for his hometown MLS team. Especially when you consider there are a lot of places in the US where there is no hometown MLS team.Many kids I know can’t wait to get out of their hometowns.
Kids who are serious about a professional soccer career need to find the best situation is for them. That could be abroad or it could be at home.
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actually most of the mexican national team plays in Europe, Vela, the dos Santos brothers, Hernandez, Jimenez, Layun, Herrera, Guardado, Moreno, Reyes, Marquez, Aquino, Corona and Ochoa, the only Liga MX player who starts for Mexico is Paul Aguilar.
Kind of tough luck for Guzan in that probably his first bnad game in about 3 years came right after their n3ew manager took over. Although his manager Sherwood has been around the EPL many years, he hasn’t probably seen Guzan week in and week out like his previous managers. Fortunately, not much time left in the season, so Guzan has time to win the job back during the exhibition season.
I watched almost all of the Tijuana v. Atlas game because it was much more interesting than RSL and San Jose. One thing aboutTijuana is they attack relentlessly, often to their own detriment because they leave themselves op-en to counter attack. But they sure are fun to watch. Garza’s goal was happening to be at the right place at the right time.One of the best moments of the game came after Joe benny Corona (Mexican announcers always call him Joe Benny) came on and TJ attacked down his side, where Castillo was defending. Remember that They ahnd Garza not only have played together on the US team, but Castillo also used to be with TJ and usually played ahead of Garza. Well, Garza brought the ball up toward Castillo, then made a beautiful chip over Castillo, allowing Corona to run on to it, get to the end line, and then send a good cross in front of goal. Unfortunately, there were no teammates close enough to attack that cross and nothing came of it, but it was fun to watch the play and wonder if after the game the guys joked about it over a beer or whatever.
Come back home Gooch
Did not see that about Yarborough Steve. Serious injury?
No, coach decision.
why is garza pinching his nipple like tha in that pict? thats kind of kinky
Two top goalies who are/were number 1’s did not start this weekend. With DC United playing so well with Hamid could he sneak into the starter role this summer?
Not likely. 1 or 2 weeks isn’t enough time to leapfrog the established guys.
Hamid is a good young keeper, but historically keepers come into their own in their early 30’s. Guzan is still the clear # 1 keeper….Rimando/Yarbrough are likely the # 2/3 this summer. Hamid & S. Johnson are 4 & 5.
I think it’s still to early to start wondering if Hamid will take the starting role. Guzan will be back in the starting 11 soon. Shay Given will try to make the most of his chances but even he has his flaws as he wasn’t exactly spectacular vs Everton.
Yarbrough was out injured.