Edson Buddle earned our "Yank of The Week" award for a two goal, one assist performance in a Europa League loss for Ingolstadt.
by Dru Boyer
The Yanks Abroad returned to Europa League play on Thursday with a vengeance … not a single Yanks’ squad lost a match. It was a pretty decent Thursday, in fact the Yanks were 7-2-0 in the matches (Dominic Cervi and Brad Friedel did not dress for Celtic and Tottenham, respectively.) The Player of the Week honor goes to Edson Buddle who scored a pair of goals and dished out an assist for FC Ingolstadt.
Tim Howard made 4 saves (including a beautiful diving stop on Kuyt’s PK) in a 2-0 defeat at the
hands of rival Liverpool. Jack Rodwell was shown a red card in the 23rd minute (which was later rescinded), after Luis Suarez was snipered. After the match, Dirk Kuyt complained that he was unable to locate Timmy H prior to his PK citing the camo jersey.
Clint Dempsey put in 90 minutes and helped to set up a goal in Fulham’s 2-0 Europa victory over Odense BK. However, this match was only the beginning of Deuce’s hot weekend as he also put in the 5th of the 6 goals scored by Fulham in a thrashing of QPR. To go along with his shiny new goal, Deuce added an assist on the 6th goal. The win marked the Cottagers first of the EPL. It must have felt nice to welcome their West London rival to the Premiership with a beat down.
Brad Friedel made 4 saves in a 2-1 victory over Arsenal. Friedel has played every minute of the
Spurs’ 6 EPL games up to this point in the season. Mr. Friedel recently opined that the decline in
the English keeper is directly related to lack of patience that clubs and supporters have for the men
between the sticks. Maybe Friedel is right, but sounds to me like the typical argument made by
athletes. Friedel sat out the Spurs’ 3-1 Europa victory.
Edu, Bocanegra, and Bedoya all started for Rangers at Ibrox. Twenty three minutes into the 2nd half,
Gers’ striker, Kyle Lafferty scored the lone goal of the match. Edu and Boca both went 90 minutes,
Bedoya was done at the half. Be careful what you say if you attend a Rangers match. Liverpool and
Rangers have announced that they will play a friendly on October 18th at Ibrox. It is rather fitting that
the American owned club will visit the AmeriGers.
Jermaine Jones came off the bench and played 14 minutes in Schalke’s 3-1 Europa win over Maccabi
Haifa. Jones followed that up with a 35 minute performance in a 2-1 win against cellar dwelling
Hamburg SV after returning to the Bundesliga. Nice to see that Jones is finally getting some regular
minutes, I have a feeling they will increase.
Steve Cherundolo started, played 90, and drew a yellow for Hannover in 2-1 Europa League win over
Vorskla. Captain Steve returned for the weekend match up and went another 90 minutes and drew his
second yellow card of the week. Mohammed Abdellaoue ordered up 3 goals via 3 shots, with 4 off-
sides … then came out in the 61st minute. What can you say for him, he is a 60 minute man.
Timmy Chandler put in 90 minutes in a hard fought 3-3 draw, making solid contributions on 2 of 3
Nurnberg goals. Chandler sent a very nice left footed cross into the box that was headed down for the
first goal, then led the attack down the center of the pitch leading to the second. All in all, he looked
very sharp leading the attack.
MB90 played 90 in a 0-0 draw for Chievo at Cesena. After the match Bradley was on his way back
to the states to prepare for the USMNT’s match v. Honduras on Saturday. It is certainly a relief to see
MB90 return to his 90 minute ways that we had become accustomed to seeing.
Jozy Altidore scored a 26th minute goal in a 1-1 Europa League game at the Ukrainian five-peat bronze
medalist, FC Metalist. See what I did there? Both teams remain undefeated in their group, with
Alkmaar currently on top via goal differential … duh. The goal marked Jozy’s 2nd goal of the
tournament and 5th of the season. Altidore and company returned to Eredivisie with a 3-1 vvv-victory
over VVV Venlo … I’m on fire.
Has Oguchi Onyewu found his form again after featuring for Sporting Libson, and could he be in the USMNT future after all?
Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes in Sporting CP’s 2-1 win over Lazio in Europa play. Onyewu returned for an additional 90 minutes of action as Sporting pulled off the weekend double, defeating Guimaraes 1-0 on Sunday. That make 6 consecutive 90 minute appearances…could we be witnessing the return of Gooch?
Sacha Kljestan put in 90 minutes as Anderlecht took a 2-0 victory over Lokomotive Moscow in Group L of the Europa League. Over the weekend, Sacha started and finished a 1-0 Anderlecht victory versus Racing Genk.
Edson Buddle had himself an unbelievable 90 minutes notching an assist and a pair of goals in FC Ingolstadt’s 5-3 loss … he can’t do everything. All links to videos that I could find have been removed … so let’s say he scored on a bicycle from the 18 and on a swerving rocket of a shot from 35 yards out.
Michael Parkhurst, Clarence Goodson, and Mix Diskerud all started, played 90 minutes, and won
their matches by a collective 4-0.
Jonathan Spector started and played 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over NK Maribor in Europa League action. Spector also started City’s weekend match, but only played 12 minutes before injuring his ankle. Birmingham City prevailed 3-1 over Robbie Findley’s Nottingham Forest.
Conor Doyle of Derby County saw one minute of action over the weekend … that I’m aware of.
As I am sure you are aware, Stu Holden is out another 6 months with cartilage damage in his previously surgerically repaired knee. That’s all I have to say about that.
Who will be the man of the match for USMNT on Saturday? Is Gooch on the rebound? I’ll discuss both next week … until then, I’m on the interweb @SwampJankins.