Howie’s Pick – Charles Kazlauskas (Helmond Sport – Dutch Eerste Divisie)
Charles Kazlauskas scored a goal and drew a penalty that was converted for another goal in Helmond Sport’s 2-1 win over Eindhoven that kept them alive in their title chase (highlights here).
Matt’s Pick - Tony Taylor (Estoril – Portuguese Primeira Liga)
Tony Taylor scored his first top-flight goal over the weekend in the seventh minute of stoppage time to give Estoril a 1-1 draw (highlights here). If Taylor can bag a few more, maybe he can make a run at making the Gold Cup roster.
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 am still playing catch up on links, but here are a few things from the last couple days.
While we have posted a couple times that Cody Cropper has been playing with Southampton’s reserve team in recent weeks, we haven’t known his full status with the club. According to Brian Sciaretta, the club has finally made an offer to the US U-20 goalkeeper.
Rangers manager Ally McCoist told some radio program earlier today that Stoke City have some interest in Maurice Edu. So the two starting centerbacks from the USMNT’s big win over Mexico at Azteca could be paired together in the central midfield.
Tony Taylor recently told Nick Leyden that Panama have been recruiting the 23-year-old forward. Taylor was born and raised in the US, but he holds a Panamanian passport through both of his parents. Since he played with the US at the 2009 U-20 World Cup, he would have to make a FIFA one-time switch if he does decide to swap countries.
As for some other dual citizens, here is a Google-translated article about Anthony Brooks and his recent camp experience with the German U-20 team. While it appears that Julian Green will be getting a US youth call-up in the near future.
Michael Parkhurst talked to Brian Sciaretta this week about Nordsjaelland and the upcoming Champions League matches.
Speaking of Sciaretta, he was interviewed by The Shin Guardian about various young American players in Europe.
And finally, Yale product Max Morice has signed a professional contract with Rennes in France. He has the French ties as his father, Pierre (talk about a French name), played professionally with Nantes.
I am still catching up on life (and I really should be in bed right now), but here are some various links of random things from the last couple days.
Congrats to Clint Dempsey for scoring his 50th Premier League goal of his career this past weekend. As I posted a month ago when he was sitting on 49, only seven active Premier League midfielders have scored 50+ goals in their career, so Dempsey is #8 (with only Tim Cahill doing it in fewer games).
The only change from the originally announced preliminary roster is Sheanon Williams of Philadelphia Union replacing Josh Gatt, who was recalled by Molde.
GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire) DEFENDERS (6): Perry Kitchen (D.C. United), Ike Opara (San Jose Earthquakes), Kofi Sarkodie (Houston Dynamo), Zarek Valentin (Montreal Impact), Jorge Villafaña (Chivas USA), Sheanon Williams (Philadelphia Union) MIDFIELDERS (6): Fred Adu [captain] (Philadelphia Union), Joe Corona (Tijuana), Mix Diskerud (Gent), Jared Jeffrey (Mainz), Amobi Okugo (Philadelphia Union), Michael Stephens (Los Angeles Galaxy) FORWARDS (6): Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund), Teal Bunbury (Sporting Kansas City), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), Tony Taylor (Estoril Praia)
Tony Taylor has been added to the U-23 roster for the Olympic qualifying tournament camp. Caleb Porter also has some quotes on the roster and camp right here.
Zak Whitbread had to be subbed out after 40 minutes due to a tight hamstring on Saturday, although the initial prognosis appears to be positive according to Norwich City manager Paul Lambert. Hopefully it is nothing serious as he was one of two players (Sacha Kljestan being the other) who I was hoping to see in Italy later this month.
Nick Leyden recently caught up to Tony Taylor to talk about his move back to Estoril and potentially playing in the 2012 Olympics in London.
Ives Galarcep has a nice little story on Josh Gatt and his family over at FoxSoccer.com.
Midfielder Justin Moose appears to be on trial at HJK in Finland. The 28-year-old has played for both D.C. United and Vancouver Whitecaps (USL version) before heading to Thailand in 2011 to play for Sriracha F.C..
