Charlie Davies got the start and went the full 90 minutes in Randers’ 0-0 draw to OB today. It was his first start in a top-flight European league since before his car crash with Sochaux in 2009-10. As Howie pointed out to me, Costa Rica has played two WC Hex qualifiers on American soil since his last start. Let that sink in for a second.
After playing some games with the U-23 team in the Regionalliga, Bobby Wood came off the bench and played 31 minutes in 1860 Munich’s 1-0 win over Erzgebirge Aue today.
Landon Donovan is back with the LA Galaxy and spoke to the press today. He is hoping to get back with the USMNT in time for the three qualifiers in June.
The Birmingham Mail has a story on Will Packwood and his road to recovery.
The US-Mexico game drew the highest World Cup qualifier match ratings in ESPN history. And here are the field-level highlights of last Friday’s game against Costa Rica. A friend of the site also sent in some photos from the game that I should hopefully have up tomorrow.
Swedish Superettan side IK Brage have signed central defender Tyler Ruthven. Ruthven last played with the New York Red Bulls in 2012.
Bob Bradley has Egypt on the right track so far in their quest to qualify for the World Cup.
And good luck to soccer journalist Brian Straus. Staus was let go by the Sporting News along with some other writers this week. Whether you enjoyed his now famous article from last week or not, we need more people like him following MLS/US Soccer. Hopefully someone smart picks him up. Maybe I can convince him to come to this site and pay him in high fives.
Lets start off with some site-related issues. You may have noticed that the site has been loading really slowly over the last 24 hours and has its moments like this every so often. I am currently in talks with the hosting company on trying to fix these issues.
As for the next issue, I know some of you who check out the site on their cell phone will sometimes have some “pay day loans” ad scroll across the site making it tough to read. This site is not supposed to have ads so something is secretly embedding the ads and I am still working on getting this fixed as well.
As for a minor change that is sort of “fun”. The comments now give you some Spacer Invader-like icon next to your name instead of the silhouette of the head when you post if you don’t have your own gravatar.
And finally, we are looking for a graphic designer for help with a project that could be really cool if we can pull it off. What we need help with is outside my level of expertise with photoshop. Please use the contact page to e-mail us if you are interested.
Brian Sciaretta took a guess at the names that will appear on the US roster. While Neil Blackmon takes a look at the US midfield.
If you missed it yesterday, the Gold Cup groups and schedule were released. And this has sort of been rumored in the past already, but it looks like the June 18th qualifier against Honduras will be in Utah at Rio Tinto.
The always good for a couple of laughs Jimmy Conrad did a video interview with Jozy Altidore.
Brian Sciaretta caught up with Terrence Boyd to talk about his progress at Rapid Vienna and where he stands in the USMNT picture.
It now appears that Juan Ocegueda will not be able to play for Chivas Guadalajara and he can’t be sent to Chivas USA since he would have to enter a MLS lottery so he is in limbo land.
And finally, Anthony Brooks might miss this weekend’s game due to a cold (or thanks to Google Translate, he is just really cold). And Brooks was called into Germany’s U-20 camp, although some say the U-20 team is not that serious compared to the U-21 team (the U-21 Euros are this summer) in Germany, so this could be a good thing for his US hopes.
Jason Davis wonders if Jurgen Klinsmann should give two old names, DaMarcus Beasley and Jay DeMerit, a look.
And US Soccer has a video up on Alexi Lalas and his move to Italy back in the 90s.
Turning to Germany, Bobby Wood and Andrew Wooten both made Kicker’s 2. Bundesliga Team of the Week.
Jeff Carlisle has an interview with Jermaine Jones as Schalke resumes their Champions League campaign next week.
Shawn Parker received a two-game suspension for his foot to Michael Parkhurst’s head.
Terrence Boyd scored a goal yesterday in Rapid Vienna’s 2-0 win over Slovak club MFK Ružomberok in a friendly.
Some more stories in Sweden about Alejandro Bedoya likely to re-sign with Helsingborg.
The always good Brian Sciaretta talked to Conor O’Brien recently about his new contract and other things.
Sacir Hot has a blog entry up over at Big Apple Soccer about his move to Germany.
It was first reported that Columbus Crew forward Aaron Horton was being loaned out to Bosnia’s FK Sarajevo, but now it looks like he just went there for some training and is now headed to Hammarby in Sweden for a week before returning to the US.
And finally, I was sad when Aaron Wheeler left Finland as I wasn’t going to be able to post about FC KooTeePee (Greatest. Name. Ever.). But we don’t have to worry anymore as American Kevin Sawchak has signed a one-year deal with an option for a second year with the team.
Howie’s Pick – Bobby Wood (1860 Munich – German 2nd Bundesliga)
Given the opportunity to start, Bobby Wood took advantage with a goal and an assist in 1860 Munich’s 3-1 victory over Duisberg.
Matt’s Pick – N/A
Jon’s Pick – DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla – Liga MX)
Beasley continued his strong start to the Mexican Clausura, coming on as a sub and scoring twice for Puebla – including the winner – in a victory against winless San Luis.
Thanks to Brian Sciaretta for finding this one. Bobby Wood took advantage of a chance to start with a goal and an assist in this 3-1 victory.
1860 are unlikely to get promoted (they are in 6th, 8 points back of the 3rd-place playoff held by Kaiserslatuern) but with Rob Friend injured, it’s great to see Wood playing (after a series of injuries nearly derailed his career) and producing
This whole Manti Te’o story has been sadly owning my life today.
In case you missed it earlier today, Sacha Kljestan and Anderlecht advanced to the semifinals of the Belgian Cup. and Michael Bradley had a “hockey” assist in Roma’s win in Coppa Italia action. Such great weight on that pass by Bradley.
Speaking of Kljestan, even the local press are joining in on the mustache fun.
The Shin Guardian breaks out their 23 tickets/boarding passes for the USMNT and the 2014 World Cup.
Mathew Wagner caught up with Michael Parkhurst to talk about his new club Augsburg.
Steve Cherundolo will miss this weekend’s game for Hannover 96 with some knee pain.
FA Cup highlights are hard to come by, but here is short post-game interview with Sturart Holden from yesterday.
He did not get into today’s FA Cup loss to Manchester United, but Sebastian Lletget did make the bench for West Ham United. Getting closer to that first team debut.
Marc Pelosi and Liverpool’s U-21 team played Cody Cropper and Southampton recently. Here is 10 minutes worth of highlights.
Bobby Wood came off the bench for 30 minutes in 1860 Munich’s 1-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb in a friendly.
Free agent Diego Chavarri decided to stay in Peru and signed with Union Comercio.
According to this report, Clarence Goodson is hesitate about signing with Turkish side Ordurspor.
Speaking of Turkey, Maurice Edu is being linked to a move to Bursaspor. Some more on this. Yay silly season!
While we see players like Edu stuck in no man’s land or the Robbie’s (Findley and Rogers) leaving their clubs, Steve Davis decides to point out the not as cool part of Americans fleeing to Europe to play.
Former NY Red Bull Sacir Hot has signed with Hessen Kassel of the German Regionalliga.
Justin Moose has re-signed with Finnish side SJK. Moose appeared in 23 games last season, scoring one goal.
Here is video of Bryan Meredith being officially introduced at IK Brage.
And finally, I hope this is not true, but it looks like News Corp. might change Fox Soccer in the future to FX2 (or some entertainment-based network) since the station has lost so many league rights over the last couple years. Once next year hits and they lose the Premier League, it won’t have much content on the weekends.
I already posted it earlier today, but it looks like we might see some special centennial USMNT jersey at some point this year.
Graham Zusi retrurns to the US this week to begin training with the USMNT, but he first spoke with Brian Sciaretta about his trial at West Ham United.
His training buddy at West Ham and now with the USMNT, Juan Agudelo, is getting linked some more with a move to Celtic. And possibly Everton. Yay silly season!
Jermaine Jones’ four-game ban has been reduced to three games. And Jones picked up an injury during training camp in Qatar, so I don’t expect him to come back to the US to train/play with the USMNT like he did last year when he had a lengthy suspension around this time.
It looks like only 8,000 tickets have been sold so far for the friendly against Canada.
And one last thing about the USMNT. Tony Beltran kicks off ussoccer.com’s January Camp journal entries.
Stuart Holden will be part of Bolton’s gameday roster for tomorrow’s FA Cup match against Sunderland.
It looks like Clint Dempsey will be looked upon to step up for Tottenham by Andre Villas-Boas while Emmanuel Adebayor leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Not shocking, but Jurgen Klinsmann helped with Michael Parkhurst’s move to Augsburg.
Tony Taylor came off the bench and played nine minutes for Estoril in their 1-0 win over Beira-Mar today. He played in their cup game last week and this was his first league appearance since late November, so he is slowly starting to get some more playing time.
Shawn Parker scored for Mainz in some Winter Cup match/friendly against Borussia Dortmund. And here are some highlights of the goal.
Bruce Arena was asked about Landon Donovan’s future and we really don’t learn anything new.
FD: Landon Donovan? BA: As we get closer to reporting date we’re going to finalize where he’s headed this year.
FD: Sounds optimistic? BA: You never know with Landon, so we’ll see.
Bobby Wood is hitting the weights in Turkey during 1860 Munich’s training camp.
Goalkeeper Samir Badr is training with Manchester United this week before reporting to some MLS team’s training camp next month. Badr was supposed to play with Haras El Hodood of the Egyptian Premier League last year before the season was canceled.
Some new jerseys/kits are slowly starting to leak out for next season. Here is Djurgardens IF’s away kit for next season. Hopefully Brian Span will wear it some more in 2013 as he appeared in only nine league games in 2012.
Bob Bradley and Egypt lost 4-2 to Ivory Coast in one of their final friendlies before World Cup qualification resumes in March.
And finally, could Bob and Klinsi battle in the future for a 20-year-old forward? Probably not, but Amro Tarek Abd El-Aziz was born in the US and is apparently being looked at by US scouts according to that article, although he last played for Egypt’s U-20 team. He has scored one goal in 13 appearances with Wolfsburg II in the German Regionalliga in 2012-13.
Stuart Holden had a good chance to play in a reserve match for Bolton earlier this week, but the game was called off due to that lovely December weather in England.
The US ended the year ranked #28 in the latest FIFA world rankings, one spot down from last month. Mexico holds down the top spot in CONCACAF at #15. Brazil is actually at #18, which I believe is its worst ranking ever.
Jimmy Conrad spent some time with Brad Guzan in Birmingham. Both guys seem like good people.
EPL Index recently broke down Tim Howard’s last few seasons. If you are a fan of stats, I recommend checking it out. Looks like he has made a few more defensive errors this year than in previous seasons.
Mathew Wagner recently checked in with Matt Taylor as he enters the winter break.
Brian Sciaretta talked to Marc Pelosi as he joins up with the US U-20 camp in Florida.
Lyle Martin is returning to the US with the San Antonio Scorpions after spending some time in China.
