SoccerAmerica has a great post with all kinds of stats about the USA roster.
Things like: youngest player: Jozy Altidore (20) oldest player: Marcus Hanhemann (37) and Players who did not make appearances in qualifying play for South Africa (4) Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley, Herculez Gomez and Marcus Hanhemann.
Check out the full statistical breakdown at SoccerAmerica
Landon Donovan played the full 90 minutes for Everton against Chelsea as he helped lead his team to a victory over the league leaders. Donovan played quite well, and delivered an excellent corner kick to the near post which saw Louis Saha get on the end of it to open the scoring for Everton.
Check out the highlights above. Donovan’s assist comes in around the 1:30 mark. Then watch as Donovan takes a pass beats a defender with one touch from a pass and gets taken down in the box for penalty.
Jozy Altidore scored his first goal in a league match for Hull City in a 2-1 victory over Manchester City. The goal was a beauty. A nice one touch finish in the lower corner to beat Shay Given.
Can we go a full 24 hours without something violent happening in the world of soccer? Seriously! First, Salvador Cabanas, then Juan Carlos Silva, and now news out of Scotland, that DaMarcus Beasley’s BMW has been destroyed by a gas bomb.
No one was injured in the blast, but reports say that Beasley ran to his window when he heard the explosion and saw his car on fire. A Rangers FC official said, “This is a disturbing and deplorable incident. The club will do everything we can to assist the police.”
Disturbing and deplorable is right! This one hits quite close to home as Beasley has been a stalwart on the US National Team for the past decade. I am totally shocked by this, especially because it falls in a string of high profile attacks on professional soccer players around the world. One might consider writing off the two Club America shootings as an issue of environment in a city rife with instability and crime such as Mexico City, but for this to happen in a place like Glasgow, Scotland, it just goes to show that these horrific displays of violence can happen anywhere.
It almost makes me long for the days when the hooligans ran the streets and the worst that would happen is a black eye and a bloody lip.
*The Adu/Johnson play starts around the 2 minute mark
Freddy Adu delivered quite a nice pass to Eddie Johnson in his debut for Aris FC, a pass which Johnson capitalized on by scoring his first goal for the team.
They both certainly have quite a long way to go, but with Eddie Johnson getting steady playing time, and Freddy Adu looking like a sure bet to be getting lots of playing time himself, this can only be viewed as a good thing for US Soccer. Let’s hope this is a good first step back into the fold for these two.
Jozy Altidore returned to action for Hull City this week after being given time off due to family members affected by the Haiti earthquake. He was quick to make an impact, delivering an assist to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (what a name!) in the 11th minute. He followed up a good bit of play early in the second half drawing a penalty which Hull’s Stephen Hunt converted.
Check out the highlights.
What do you think? The assist anything to write home about? Feel the penalty call was a little weak? I do. But the assist was class. You can’t see it in the video, but Altidore had to take the ball down while shielding off a defender with his body. The work forced another defender to cover and opened Vennegoor of Hesselink to an easy finish.
Photo By: Jason Gulledge
Kenny Cooper has completed a loan deal that will see him play for Plymouth Argyle of the Coca Cola Championship in England. The move is an effort by Kenny and his father to ensure more playing time in hopes of making the US World Cup roster. Cooper’s departure from 1860 Munich comes on the heels of an argument between head coach Ewald Lienen and Cooper’s father, Kenny Sr., about the issue of playing time.
This isn’t the first time Cooper’s father has been in the limelight when dealing with his son’s career. He made for quite the interview upon Kenny’s departure from MLS club FC Dallas to 1860 Munich. You can read the whole story here.
Back then, it was all about money, and Kenny Sr. brings up some good points about the league paying their best American athletes.
“The value of a player as a young American is not even close to what it should be. It’s sad when people from other countries see your talent and reward you, and pay you what you’re worth, as opposed to being an American player who’s told we can’t pay you because this other player makes less.” Kenny Sr. continues, “Then they bring in a foreign player and they say ‘we’ll make him the DP, the highest paid player,’ and there’s no reward for a person who works hard and builds up the club.”
However, Kenny Sr. also shows a bit of “stage mom” when he says, “”We put a three year plan together for Kenny in terms of if you’re not going to get paid what you’re worth then we’ll have to go back overseas. We were never able to meet in the middle or anything close to that.”
Landon Donovan has scored his first Premier League goal notching in the 2nd in a 2-0 victory for Everton over Sunderland.
Donovan coolly controlled the ball with his chest and struck it home with his left foot. Not only was this his first goal for Everton in the EPL it is also the first time in his career that he has found the back of the net with a European club. Earlier attempts have come at Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, both of the German Bundesliga.
Donovan seems to be settling in quite nicely at Everton. He found a starting spot immediately upon joining and has since gathered an assist and a goal in four games with his new club.
Here’s to continued success for Landon in England!
There have been multiple reports surfacing that Stuart Holden has signed a contract with Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League for the remainder of the season.
Holden has been on trial at Bolton for the past few weeks. He picked up a thigh injury in training, but is expected to fight for playing time starting immediately. Bolton manager Owen Coyle had some kind words about Holden, “There is an incentive for Stuart to try to get himself in the team, [but] he’s had a little thigh knock for the last three or four days which has curtailed his training a little bit, but he did ever so well in the first week and he comes looking to push his career on. He has done very well in the MLS and he wants to continue that development.”
Holden played 88 games with Houston Dynamo in Major League Soccer and has 12 caps with the US Men’s National Team, earning his first in 2009.
I’m in complete shock. Total and complete shock.
Ives Galarcep at ESPN has a story here about the recovery of Charlie Davies following a deadly car crash on October 13.
Davies sustained multiple injuries, including: broken right femur and tibia, broken left elbow, facial fractures, torn knee ligament, and a lacerated bladder. First estimates were that it would be six months before he would even start rehab. Instead, Davies has amazed all around him with a recovery that is nothing short of miraculous.
The article is a “must read” for US Soccer fans as Ives points out on his blog, but I’d take it a step further and say it’s a must read for any soccer fan. Or better yet, any sports fan. Even still, I’d say it’s a must read for everyone. As it documents a story of human strength and the evolution of sports related injuries and rehabilitation.
Ives reports that recovery timetable now has Davies back playing with his club team, FC Sochaux, in April.
“Less than four months after the crash that threatened to end his promising career, Davies is already jogging at a good rate and working on agility drills that would have seemed impossible just weeks earlier, when simply getting out of a wheelchair was an exhausting exercise. What does this progress mean, exactly? It means that, barring any setbacks, Davies could be back on the field with club team FC Sochaux by April, meaning his chances of playing for the United States in June’s World Cup should no longer be seen as a shattered dream.”
Go read this now! Davies on remarkable path to recovery
More article highlights after the jump…
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