Brian Span came off the bench and played 32 minutes in Djurgården’s 1-0 win over Örgryte in the Swedish Cup semifinals. Djurgården will play IFK Göteborg on May 25 in the final. Span joins Jozy Altidore (Holland), Michael Bradley (Italy) and Bryan Gerzicich (Israel) as Americans in cup finals this month. Here is the lone goal of the game.
Jurgen Klinsmann spoke to some reporters on Wednesday and touched on a few different topics, including Stuart Holden and some ideas on how he is going to build this summer’s Gold Cup roster.
“We save most of [the top-flight European-based players] clearly for the World Cup qualifiers and then give them a well-deserved break. And then we have to build a very competitive roster for the Gold Cup.
“It’s tricky. Who is in a rhythm? The Scandinavians are in a rhythm. The MLS players are. Mexico is in a similar break like Europe, so it makes it difficult. Whoever from Mexico you leave out of the May-June camp, most likely we will leave them out of the Gold Cup as well because they would come from vacation and they can’t catch up. It’s a challenge for us.”
Klinsi also doesn’t want to see Carlos Bocanegra returning to Rangers next season.
Klinsmann also addressed Landon Donovan in the quotes above and Landon agrees that he has some work to do before returning to the USMNT.
Going back to Holden for a second, here is another article from England about him returning to Bolton after his loan to Sheffield Wednesday.
US Soccer put up a video this week with John O’Brien talking about his first cap with the USMNT.
It looks like Brek Shea and Geoff Cameron will be headed to FC Dallas this summer. . . . .in a scrimmage as Stoke City are headed back to the States this summer for some friendlies.
J.R. Eskilson decided to brave the 405 this week and went to the Home Depot Center to watch the US U-20 team partake in an intrasquad scrimmage.
Billy Schuler got the start and played 45 minutes in Hammarby’s 1-0 loss to Falkenberg on Thursday.
Zach Pfeffer scored a goal for Hoffenheim’s U-19 team in some youth cup match on Wednesday.
Brian Span scored a goal for Djurgården’s U-21 team earlier this week and here is a highlight of it.
After making his debut over the weekend, Freddy Adu came off the bench again and played eight minutes for Bahia in a 0-0 draw to Bahia de Feira on Wednesday.
Still recovering from his broken leg, Will Packwood was offered a new contract by Birmingham City this week.
And finally, here is an awesome interactive site that features the historical English football league tables from 1889 to 2012. Click on a team and it highlights their position for every season.
It looks like Jurgen Klinsmann would be open to staying on as USMNT manager beyond 2014.
Anthony Brooks recently did an interview with Berliner Kurier where he claims that he will make a decision on US vs. Germany in the coming weeks.
Mr. Soccer Insider Steven Goff is being told that Bryan Gerzicich might be making a move to MLS this summer. Greg Seltzer is also hearing the same thing and adds that he has an offer from a team in Belgium.
In the “sounds about right for his crazy career” department, Freddy Adu has been at the club for about a week now and his manager at Brazilian side Bahia has already been fired.
Brian Span and Djurgården’s game against Mjällby on Monday was suspended due to Djurgården’s fans throwing beer bottles onto the field.
Want to see Michael Bradley in an Italian Volkswagen ad? Why not.
US U-20 forward Daniel Cuevas has returned to full training after tearing his meniscus at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship.
Joe Gyau did a Google Hangout with SWOL yesterday where he talked about life in Germany and the USMNT among other things.
Jason Davis is doing a new morning daily show and had Terrence Boyd on as one of his first guests.
It was only a friendly, but Christian Eissele scored a goal this weekend in Kemi Kings’ 3-1 win over Alex Molano, Lester Dewee and Bodens BK.
The US U-17 team opened up the CONCACAF U-17 Championship with a 3-0 win over Haiti. They play Guatemala next on Thursday.
Brian Span got the start and played 45 minutes in Djurgården’s win over Norrköping in the quarterfinals of the Svenska Cupen. The game was 0-0 after 120 minutes, but Djurgården won 5-4 in penalty kicks. Here are all the PKs.
You might have seen me post a bunch of the videos already this weekend, but you should probably follow @EveryTouchFooty on Twitter. He/she/it has been posting some great videos of various American players and their every touch in games from this past weekend. If they continue to make these videos, you can expect me to post a lot of them as they give you a decent idea of how someone played aside from the normal 2-3 minute videos with only the goals from the game.
The US U-20 team kicks off its World Cup qualifying today at 5:30 PM Central on Fox Soccer. US Soccer gives us two videos. One with Tab Ramos talking about the roster and another about the team returning to Puebla to train.
Staying with the U-20 theme, Marc Pelosi had to leave his Liverpool U-21s game this weekend with an injury. And it looks like he broke his leg. That probably knocks him out of this summer’s U-20 World Cup if the US are able to qualify.
Landon Donovan is set to return to the LA Galaxy in late March. No word if/when he plans to return with the USMNT. I’m guessing we won’t see him in a US jersey until May or June.
Alfredo Morales made his 2012-13 senior team debut with Hertha Berlin this weekend. And here is a photo of him and Anthony Brooks celebrating the occasion. Hopefully he is talking in Brooks’ ear about how great it is to play for the USMNT.
I posted some goals from some friendlies last week and it looks like Brian Span has scored again in another one. Hopefully Span can convert this good form into playing time with Djurgården as he appeared in only nine games last season.
Lester Dewee has continued to play/train/trial with Bodens BK and has scored some goals. You can see some photos of some recent friendlies here and a video interview with Dewee right here.
And finally, Robbie Earle thinks Brek Shea can have some success at Stoke City.
I have posted these in the various links posts the last couple days, but I thought I would embed all three in one post since three guys scored goals this week.
Brian Span scored a goal for Djurgårdens IF in their 3-2 win over FC Lahti on Thursday.
Justin Moose scored a goal for SJK in a preseason tournament in Finland (1:25 mark).
And Kenneth Di Vita Jensen scored for Hønefoss in a 3-2 win over HJK Helsinki on Wednesday (4:50 mark).
A leftover from yesterday’s Valentine’s Day fun, but here is a flow chart to pick your USMNT sweetheart. Looks like I ended up with Clint Dempsey. The US also dropped four spots to #32 in the latest FIFA world rankings.
Looks like Stuart Holden will make Bolton’s squad this weekend in their match against Nottingham Forest.
I posted yesterday about Justin Moose scoring a goal for SJK in their latest friendly and here it is in highlight form (1:25 mark).
Sticking with the goals in friendlies theme, Brian Span scored a goal for Djurgårdens IF in their 3-2 win over FC Lahti.
As expected, Alejandro Bedoya re-signed a short-term deal with Helsingborgs IF and joined up with the team in Portugal.
We posted about Jonathan Borrajo signing with Mjøndalen in Norway last month and here is a little video feature on him on Mjøndalen’s site. If anything else, jam out to the Black Keys in the background.
Conor O’Brien was in the starting lineup for Nordsjælland in a 2-1 loss to Norwegian side IK Start in a friendly.
We knew that goalkeeper Samir Badr was coming back to the US to head to training camp with an unnamed MLS team after his training stint with Manchester United. It looks like that team is the Columbus Crew.
And finally, teenager Nick Ledesma has signed a six-month deal with Alemannia Aachen’s U-19 team.
Clarence Goodson traveled to Turkey this weekend to check out Orduspor. We could have two Americans in Turkey in less than a week. Turkey OT readers (all zero of them) haven’t been this excited since Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu were both playing there in 2010-11.
John Kretlow talked to Brian Span as he gets ready for the 2013 Allsvenskan season in Sweden.
And there are some reports that Ryan Miller could be leaving Sweden for a return to the US with the Portland Timbers.
According to this tweet, US U-19 goalkeeper Ethan Horvath has joined Molde FK in some capacity (signed? trial? training?).
Cornell product Jimmy Lannon has signed with FC Lustenau 07 of the Austrian Soccer First League.
Jermaine Jones tells Doug McIntyre of ESPN Insider that his injury is not that bad and he will hopefully return to training next week if there is no pain in his knee.
It looks like dual citizen (US and UK) William Cline is currently with Bristol City’s youth academy.
Charlie Campbell is one of six players currently on trial with Swedish side Ljungskile SK.
Parker Walsh is still on trial with Karlsruher SC, but he scored in a recent friendly.
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.
In case you missed it earlier tonight, Michael Bradley scored for Roma in their 2-1 win over Liverpool. And I don’t think Bradley knows how to smile.
Andrew Wooten scored a goal in a recent Kaiserslautern victory over some Brazilian team in a friendly. You can see footage of the goal here (14:30 mark).
Brian Span didn’t play for Djurgården in their game earlier this week, but he did play with their U-21 team and scored a goal (highlights here).
Zak Whitbread did the whole “hold a jersey and smile” photos after signing his new deal with Leicester City, although he looks like he is trapped in this goal and wants to offer the jersey for his freedom.
Geoff Cameron signed his new deal with Stoke City and met up with the team in Orlando for training. I believe the only hurdle left is a UK work permit and he should have his hearing for that in early August.
Chad Barrett returned to the LA Galaxy after going out on trial with Vålerenga in Norway, although no decision has been made on his fate.
Andrew Vorce talked to Mike Grella recently about his decision to move to Scunthorpe United.
And Jon Arnold has an interview up with Edgar Castillo about finding his home with Club Tijuana.
