I like numbers and so does Greg Seltzer so he unloads some numbers at us about some Americans in Europe. I wish he would give us a full list of the all-time single-season goals list for AZ Alkmaar now that Jozy Altidore is at 30 across all competitions in 2012-13. I might also be working on something about Herculez Gomez which could be up later today or tomorrow.
As Howie posted on Monday, Carlisle United has released Frank Simek.
Mike Grella and Scunthorpe United were officially relegated to League Two this past weekend. Grella is one of six players under contract with the club for the 2013-14 season.
While one player was relegated, DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Orozco Fiscal and Puebla are officially clear of relegation in Mexico.
Rapid Vienna’s fans are not happy about being in third place and let the team and management know about it.
Michael Parkhurst has fallen down the depth chart at Augsburg due to missing time with soreness in his knee and having the flu.
I finally found highlights of a Bahia match from down in Brazil from the weekend, but Freddy Adu remained on the bench the whole game. But Adu has made the gameday roster for Wednesday. Hopefully he sees the field and I can find highlights again.
Brad Friedel thinks Gareth Bale is good at soccer and answers some other questions.
Bruce Arena thinks Mike Magee should at least be considered for the USMNT. Possibly a Gold Cup spot if he continues to lead MLS in goals?
Brian Sciaretta introduces us to Desevio Payne. Payne is a 17-year-old right back currently playing with FC Groningen’s youth team in Holland.
Remember how fun and crazy the end of the Premier League was last year? The end of the League One was also pretty crazy this year. Doncaster (second place) played Brentford (third place) over the weekend and Brentford had a stoppage time PK to win the game and give them automatic promotion to the Championship. . . .then this happened.
You may have noticed in The OT Report that Clarence Goodson came off the bench for Brøndby IF this weekend. Goodson has sort of fallen out of the lineup for the club and has voluntarily given up the captain’s armband as well.
I am still looking for highlights of Alejandro Bedoya’s goal from the weekend and this is the best I can do for now. Someone forgot to zoom in.
Staying in Sweden, Paul Torres and Ryan Gracia helped Nyköping (Swedish third tier) upset Kalmar FF (Allsvenskan) in the Swedish Cup. Torres assisted on the first goal of these highlights.
The New York Times has a story up on US U-20 head coach Tab Ramos playing in the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship.
Dual-citizen Maki Tall has been called into the France U-18 camp/team that will be playing the US and Germany this month.
Devann Yao is continuing his trialing ways, now at English League Two side Chesterfield.
Bundesliga Fanatic has an interview up with Michael Parkhurst.
And finally, Bolton manager Dougie Freedman hopes Stuart Holden re-signs with Bolton when his contract ends this summer.
Michael Parkhurst made his first start for Augsburg, but he got beat for a header for the first goal in this 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen. Here are the goals from the game.
***UPDATE***
Here is @EveryTouchFooty’s video of all of Parkhurst’s touches from the game.
Mix Diskerud is expected to sign with a clubs this week according to Brian Sciaretta.
Brian Blickenstaff spoke to Russell Canouse and Zach Pfeffer about Hoffenheim’s youth academy.
I posted Part 1 last week, but Part 2 of Will Parchman’s look at the USMNT’s failed attempt at qualifying for the 1986 World Cup is now up.
According to Grant Wahl and his sources, here are the venues for the remaining USMNT home qualifiers. If true, I might have to make a trip to Seattle in June.
Source: USSF aiming for home WCQ venues June 11 (PAN) Seattle; June 18 (HON) Salt Lake; Sept 10 (MEX) Columbus; Oct 11 (JAM) Kansas City.
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.
I just want to link again to the footage of Stuart Holden running around as it makes me happy to see.
Speaking of Holden, Bolton manager told BBC Radio Manchesterthat Holden could make his senior-team return next Tuesday in Bolton’s FA Cup replay at Sunderland.
Will Packwood is going to have a third round of surgery to insert a metal plate into his leg.
Zach Pfeffer scored again for Hoffenheim’s U-19 team in his second friendly with the club.
Michael Parkhurst got the start at right back in Augsburg’s 4-1 win over Hansa Rostock in a friendly on Wednesday. Here is also a photo of Parkhurst in action.
Bob Bradley and Egypt lost to Ghana today, 3-0, in a friendly.
While most of Brøndby’s players are looking for new homes with the club’s financial issues, Clarence Goodson is not ready to return to the US/MLS.
Michael Parkhurst, out of contract with Danish champions Nordsjælland, has landed in a top five league. He has signed with Augsburg, currently sitting 17th in the Bundesliga.
Augsburg has enjoyed a decade-long rise. They were in the 4th division in 2001-02 and were in the 3rd division as recently as 2005-06. They were promoted to the top tier for the first time after the 2010-11 season.
Famout natives of Augburg include tennis player Philipp Kohlschreiber (a 2012 Wimbledon quarterfinalist ranked #19 in the world) and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.
It is hard to imagine both Parkhurst and the Americans at Hoffenheim staying up next year.
15: Wolfsburg 19
16: Hoffenheim: 12 (relegation playoff)
17: Augbsurg: 9 (relegation)
18: SpVgg Greuther Fürth 9 (relegation)
With his move it doesn’t seem likely that he will be at January camp.
Clint Dempsey was named Fútbol de Primera’s US Soccer 2012 Player of the Year for the second straight year. It was Dempsey’s third time winning the award (also in 2006), but Michael Bradley probably would have won my vote.
Speaking of Dempsey, Fulham have accepted Liverpool’s apology over their recruitment of Dempsey over the summer and have withdrawn their complaint.
Tim Howard will be making his 200th consecutive Premier League appearance on Saturday. Timmy!
Steve Davis had breakfast with Jurgen Klinsmann recently and they talked about Carlos Bocanegra’s current role with the USMNT.
Bobby Wood has played his way into a new contract with 1860 Munich through the 2014-15 season.
Brian Sciaretta caught up with Sebastian Lletget to talk about breaking through with West Ham United.
Bryan Gerzicich has been cleared to play again for Ironi Kiryat Shmona after picking up a calf injury.
Benny Feilhaber signed with Sporting KC this week, but he apparently had some European suitors according to Greg Seltzer.
Seltzer also tells us that Alejandro Bedoya has been offered an extension by Helsingborg, while Swedish champions Elfsborg are also interested in his services.
A bunch of clubs are interested in Michael Parkhurst, who is now a free agent.
According to this report, Klinsmann has contacted Aron Johannsson about playing for the US and he “is now in doubt” over his decision.
Conor O’Brien has turned down a couple offers already and is meeting up with some more new teams according to his agent.
Rapid Vienna might be interested in Mix Diskerud. Much like with Boyd’s move, USMNT assistant Andreas Herzog was the reference. Speaking of Boyd, here is a Google-translated interview he recently did.
Adam Henley was invited to the upcoming US U-20 camp, but Blackburn nixed that idea.
San Antonio Scorpions defender Karsten Smith is currently on trial at Finnish side VPS.
Michael Parkhurst went 90 minutes in this 4-1 defeat for Nordsjælland. The loss leaves the defending champions nine points behind perennial power Copenhagen. It may be prove to be Parkhurst’s final match in Demark as he is out of contract.
