Claudio Reyna has a broken ankle and will have surgery on it. The tough guy even played through it before tests revealed what the real problem was.
Let’s hope he has a full and speedy recovery. Reyna, like a John O’Brien, is one of the guys the US National Team needs to have a successful run in th World Cup. But also much like O’Brien, Reyna has a history of injuries which have hampered his career at times.
Get well soon Claudio…we need you…
Let us all welcome the arrival of Freddy Adu to the US national team fold. Bruce Arena announced his 30 man roster for the January camp today. Included, for the first time with the senior team, is young Adu. Not saying he will play a lot of minutes in the upcoming friendlies, or even feature at all, but it will be very interesting to see how he performs in camp with the big boys. Perhaps as big of a story is whether Adu, gaining a negative reputation, is a distraction during camp.
Aside from Adu, there are a lot of new faces in camp, including left back Todd Dunivant, goalie Brad Guzan, defender Ugo Ihemelu, and forward Nate Jaqua. Out of the 30 players, only left back Heath Pearce plays outside of MLS. Another interesting call-up is goalie Jonny Walker, who didn’t appear for the NT in 2005 after playing 3 games in 2004. Notable omissions include Jeff Cunningham, Clint Mathis, and other European players on winter break like Brian West, who is playing in Norway.
After finishing with the league’s best record the Earthquakes ,formerly of San Jose, officialy moved to Houston yesterday. After drawing about 12,000 in San Jose and no agreement on a soccer specific stadium the franchise made the move. The team has agreed to play its first three years in Robertson Stadium where the University of Houston’s football team plays and hopefully get the ball moving on a soccer specific stadium. The new name for the team will be decided by a contest in January. Good luck to the new team, they survived a hurricane this summer, lets see how they do with the Earthquakes.
Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra both started in Fulham’s 1-nil defeat to Birmingham City.
Claudio Reyna started in midfield but was subbed off in the 69th minute in Manchester City’s 2-nil loss to West Bromwich Albion.
Brad Friedel was in goal for Blackburn Rovers’ 3-2 win over West Ham United.
Tim Howard watched Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Everton from the bench.
After a poor team defensive performance, Jonathan Spector was benched for Charlton Athletic’s win over Sunderland.
Jay DeMerit, a defender, curiously started as a forward in Watford’s 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle.
Marcus Hahnemann was in goal and Bobby Convey started in Reading’s 5-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Eddie Lewis started in Leeds United 1-nil home loss to Cardiff City.
Frankie Simek started in Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-loss to Hull City.
Zak Whitbread started again on the backline in Millwall’s 1-nil loss to Coventry City.
Danny Karbassiyoon was an unused sub in Burnley’s 3-nil loss to Sheffield United.
Kasey Keller was in goal for Borussia Monchengladbach’s 1-1 draw with Hannover 96. Steve Cherundolo, who picked up an injury last game, was not named to the matchday squad.
Gregg Berhalter started but had a rough game in Energie Cottbus’ 2-1 loss to Kickers Offenbach.
In Holland, DaMarcus Beasley, John O’Brien, and Cory Gibbs are all still out through injury.
On Wednesday, Oguchi Onyewu returned to the Standard Liege starting lineup in their 2-nil win over Anderlecht.
In a rematch of the last world cup quaterfinals, USA will play Germany on March 22 in Dortmund as a warm-up to the world cup.
Good move, they played the host country last time around and playing the host country again is great. Not only do they get to play a European team on European soil, but they get to have a feel for Germany and how things will be in June (and hopefully July) and we can have redemption for the 1-0 loss.
Before Germany they have some other pre-world cup friendlies:
Jan. 22 USA vs. Canada
Jan. 29 USA vs. Norway
Feb. 10 USA vs. Japan
Also thought i’d pass this along, its a few days late but if you haven’t heard about it yet….. Ghana wants Adu. Fat chance.
… the USSF screws up the application process. We were, along with countless others, trying to fax our application for tickets to Chicago but were getting endless busy signals. We eventually had to get back to our lives and had it overnighted… along with everyone else. Anybody who had to mail their stuff because USSF had one fax machine running better get their tickets or they will be bombarded by phone calls and e-mails and one guy even threatened legal action. If that isn’t enough pain, let me remind you of one thing:
Group E
Italy
Ghana
USA
Czech Republic
But we will pull through, we always do.
In a matchup of Americans, Claudio Reyna’s Manchester City beat up on Jonathan Spector’s Charlton Athletic 5-2. Reyna played well in his first game back from injury, while Spector, and the entire Charlton defense, had a very rough game.
Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra both started in Fulham’s nil-nil draw with West Bromwich Albion. McBride was subbed off in the 83rd, while Bocanegra went the full 90 in the center of defense.
Brad Friedel gave up two goals in Blackburn Rovers’ 2-nil loss to Everton. Jemal Johnson was not named to the matchday squad.
Tim Howard watched Manchester United’s 3-nil win over Portsmouth from the bench.
Marcus Hahnemann recorded his 15th clean sheet of the season, and Bobby Convey started and played 66 minutes in Reading’s 3-nil win over Luton Town.
Eddie Lewis started in Leeds United’s 2-1 win over Leicester City.
Frankie Simek started in Sheffield Wednesday’s 1-nil loss to Sheffield United.
Zak Whitbread again started in the center of defense for his loan team Millwall in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.
Jay DeMerit was subbed on in the 73rd minuted in Watford’s 1-1 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Danny Karbassiyoon was on the bench for Burnley’s 1-1 draw with Southampton.
Steve Cherundolo scored the first goal in Hannover 96’s 2-nil win over Borussia Dortmund. Cherundolo was subbed off in the 71st with a calf injury.
Kasey Keller was in goal for Borussia Monchengladbach’s 1-nil loss to Nurnberg.
DaMarcus Beasley, John O’Brien, and Cory Gibbs remain out injured for their respective club teams.
In midweek, the opening group stage of the Champions League completed, with PSV Eindhoven advancing with a 2-nil win over Fenerbahce, and Manchester United bowing out of the Champions League with a 2-1 loss to Benfica. United finished tied for third in the group with 6 points with Lille, while Villarreal (10 points) and Benfica (8) advanced.
The newest Yank Abroad is Danny Califf. Califf will join Danish side Aalborg BK in January on a 2 1/2 year deal.
The final draw for the 06 World Cup has been completed, televised Live on Espn2. USA’s result:
Group E
USA
Italy
Czech Republic
Ghana
This will be a rough group for the USA. Italy and Czech Republic are very strong teams and I have a feeling Ghana won’t be a pushover. More analysis to come, for now…
The Overall results from the draw:
Group A
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador
Group B
England
Paraguay
Trinidad and Tobago
Sweden
Group C
Argentina
Côte d’Ivoire
Serbia and Montenegro
Netherlands
Group D
Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal
Group E
Italy
Ghana
United States
Czech Republic
Group F
Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan
Group G
France
Switzerland
Korea Republic
Togo
Group H
Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia
Sorry it’s been a while, but work has been busy…
Over the weekend of November 26 & 27:
Brian McBride scored twice and Carlos Bocanegra returned to Fulham’s defense in their 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers.
Brad Friedel was in goal for Blackburn Rovers’ 3-nil loss to Arsenal.
Jonathan Spector was on the bench for Charlton Athletic’s 1-nil loss to Aston Villa.
Tim Howard watched Manchester United’s 2-1 win over West Ham United from the bench.
Claudio Reyna remained out due to injury. Manchester City lost to Liverpool 1-nil.
Eddie Lewis started for Leeds United, and Zak Whitbread, on loan from Liverpool, started for Millwall in United’s 1-nil victory.
Jay DeMerit started in Watford’s 1-1 draw with Preston North End. Jemal Johnson was not named to the matchday squad for Preston.
Marcus Hahnemann and Bobby Convey started in Reading’s 2-nil win over Plymouth.
Frankie Simek started in Sheffield Wednesday’s 2-nil loss to Stoke City.
Danny Karbassiyoon came on in the 89th minute for Burnley in their 3-nil victory over Crewe Alexandra.
Kasey Keller was in goal for Borussia Monchengladbach’s 2-2 draw with Hertha Berlin.
Steve Cherundolo started in Hannover 96’s 5-1 shalacking of Kaiserslautern.
In Holland, DaMarcus Beasley, John O’Brien, and Cory Gibbs are all out with injuries.
In midweek Carling Cup action:
Tim Howard got a rare start in Manchester United’s 3-1 victory over West Brom. Howard had little to do the entire game, and had no chance on West Brom’s only goal.
Jonathan Spector came on with twenty minutes left and Charlon Athletic up 2-nil, and left the pitch a loser, as Charlton surrendered 3 goals to Brad Friedel’s Blackburn Rovers. Spector appeared to not have been involved in the goals, while Friedel was in net for Rovers.
Marcus Hahnemann played the last 8 minutes in goal in Reading’s 3-nil loss to Arsenal. All of Arsenal’s goals were scored by the time Hahnemann entered. Bobby Convey was on the bench but did not play for Reading.