Americans Abroad

O'Brien returns to Ajax lineup; Friedel logs another strong effort.

John O'Brien made his first appearance for Ajax Amsterdam today after recovering from an Achilles heel injury,-- Ajax web site photo --

By Robert Wagman (in Washington, D.C.)
SoccerTimes

(Sunday, March 2, 2003) -- After a season of inaction, United States defender John O'Brien returned to the Ajax Amsterdam lineup this week.

After playing 90 minutes and recording two assists for the Ajax reserves in a 5-0 midweek victory over NAC Breda, O'Brien was declared fit and assumed his left back position today, providing an assist when Ajax shut out Vitesse 2-0 in the Netherlands' Eredivisie.

Considering he had not played since September, O'Brien looked amazingly strong. He defended well, making only one obvious error, while he also aggressively attacked. He overlapped deep into the offensive end several times and, with two minutes into stoppage time, split open the Vitesse defense with a perfect pass, sending midfielder Steven Pienaar through alone for his second goal.

After O'Brien's performance with the reserves Thursday, Ajax coach Ronald Koeman said "It's a piece of good luck that he is fit again. I will let him play (against Vitesse) or start with him on Wednesday against Groningen for the Amstel Cup. In any case I will give him the chance to fight for his position."

Ajax (15-2-5, 50 points) sits in second place, seven points behind PSV Eindhoven (18-1-3) and fourpoints ahead of Feyenoord Rotterdam (14-4-4).

It was an especially frustrating afternoon for City's Robbie Fowler and French international Nicolas Anelka with Friedel stopping the pair on four occasions. Early, Fowler rose above a defender to meet Sun Jihai's well-placed cross only to see Friedel snag the shot. A minute later, a ball was passed back to Anelka at the top of the box, but Friedel tipped his first-touch blast over the crossbar.

Later, Anelka raced deep into the penalty area to catch up to a ball put into his path, but Friedel got there a split second earlier and cleared the ball. Then, Shaun Wright-Phillips put a perfect cross onto Anelka's head, but Friedel flung himself full out to tip the ball away.

The American keeper was much less busy over the final 45 minutes as Rovers controlled play and his saves were mostly routine.

In an online poll on the most popular Blackburn web site, fans overwhelmingly voted Friedel Rovers' most valuable player.

It wasn't a great day for U.S. keeper Kasey Keller and Tottenham Hotspur which fell 2-0 to West Ham United. Keller made several brilliant saves, but had to be faulted, along with his defense, on both West Ham goals.

In the fifth minute, Les Ferdinand put the ball directly into the path of his strike partner Jermain Defoe and Keller did well to parry DeFoe's hard shot. The rebound came directly to midfielder Lee Bowyer, but Keller blocked his shot also.

Two minutes later, Keller again came up big when Defoe raced past defenders and hit a fierce shot from just inside the box that Keller turned away with a dive to his right. Keller again denied Bowyer in the 23rd minute when the speedy midfielder beat an offside trap and blasted a shot from 15 yards, only to see Keller turn it around his right post.

Things came apart for Spurs in the 31st minute. Defoe again beat several defenders and got the ball to an open Ferdinand on the edge of the box. The former England striker took one step forward and let loose a hard low shot. Keller went down in an attempt to smother it, but the ball squirted below him into the net.

Then, just seconds into the second half, Keller paid for a moment of indecision. Michael Carrick sent a right-side cross into the box. Spurs defender Ledley King tried to clear, but mis-hit the ball into the air. Keller thought about coming out, but hesitated, then fumbled it, leaving it for Carrick to steer into an unguarded net to make it 2-0.

Just when it seemed certain that U.S. striker Brian McBride would return to Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew, Everton manager David Moyes added an element of doubt. Moyes told the Everton web site he would like to bring McBride to Goodison Park on a long-term basis, but he thinks MLS's asking price will be more than the club can afford to pay.

"If the opportunity arose, we would like to sign Brian, but we would not want to spend too much on a 30-year-old." Moyes said. "The MLS hold his contract and we have to deal directly with them. They will give us a price, and we will have to see how much it is, but it will probably be too high for us."

Moyes, in the meantime, seemed to be preparing to lose McBride by relegating him to a substitute's role now a number of his injured strikers have returned. McBride came on in the 70th minute yesterday for a tiring Kevin Campbell to give Everton a boost in a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.

While manager of Preston North End in 2000, Moyes made a bid of approximately $2 million to secure McBride's services, but this offer was rejected by MLS as inadequate. After joining Everton in January on a three-month contract, he made an immediate impact; scoring four goals in six games, including both in a 2-1 Everton win over Sunderland.

As it stands now, Everton's March 22 visit to league-leading Arsenal will be McBride's finale before returning to Columbus. The Toffees are 4-2-1 since McBride arrived, climbing to fourth place at 14-8-7 with 49 points.

During the week, Sunderland confirmed that U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna will not return this season. Reyna is rehabilitating after surgery to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and torn lateral meniscus in his left knee, suffered October 29 in a game against Bolton Wanderers.

Reyna had held out hope he could return for the final weeks of the season, but when he returns for 2003-04, he will be with a team likely relegated to the First Divison.

After losing 1-0 to Fulham, Sunderland is in last place in the Premier League, 4-18-7 with 19 points, seven points from escaping the relegation zone.

American attacker Jovan Kirovski scored a goal for the Birmingham City reserves midweek in a 2-0 decision over Sunderland reserves 2-0. Kirovski found net with a 25-yard free kick just before the first half ended, beating keeper Mart Poom.

It remains to be seen if he will dress with the first team for tomorrow's meeting with Aston Villa.

Lewis was involved in several early scoring chances. Richard Cresswell sent a Lewis cross just over the crossbar and then Lewis himself nailed a shot that was well saved by Paul Evans. In the 58th minute, Paul McKenna came close for North End with a hard shot that came off the crossbar. It caromed to Lewis whose effort was again smothered by Evans.

Lewis came off in favor of a third striker, Simon Lynch, with the match still scoreless. The increased pressure up the middle paid off when Cresswell netted the winner.

American keeper Marcus Hahnemann, the model of consistency for Reading this season, was up and down yesterday in a 2-0 loss to host Wimbledon. Hahnemann made a number of excellent saves, especially one on a driven header from Neil Shipperley, but gave up goals to Damien Francis in the 31st minute and Alex Tapp in the 85th.

American Gregg Berhalter put in a good effort in the middle of the Cottbus defense. Through the first half hour, he defended against Bayern's Brazilian striker Giovane Elber and did well, denying Elber the ball on a number of occasions. However, he could not stop Ballack's well-timed header in the 33rd minute.

On the initial cross, Berhalter stepped up, but the ball was quickly crossed to an unmarked Ballack. In the 58th minute, Ballack held off two defenders inside the box and volleyed a shot home to make it 2-0.

With American Steve Cherundolo playing well at right back, Hannover 96 defeated VfL Bochum 2-1. Hannover went ahead 2-0 on first-half goals by Bergantin Vinicius and Fredi Bobic, then held off Bochum which halved its deficit on a tally by Thomas Christiansen in the 62nd minute

Cherundolo picked up yellow card in the 63rd minute, his seventh of the season.

U.S. defender Tony Sanneh is still recovering from minor back surgery and was not dressed for FC Nürnberg which gave up a stoppage-time goal to draw 1-1 with VfL Wolfsburg.

The loss returned Troyes (6-15-8, 26) to last place at the crowded bottom of the French table, but only two points from escaping the relegation zone.

PSG went ahead 3-2 in the 70th minute when Brazilian international Ronaldinho beat two defenders down the wing and passed to striker Fabrice Fiorese who had his back to the goal. Fiorese turned and struck a hard shot from an extremely tight angle which deflected off Regis, changing directions and crossing the goal line.

Former San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon has had an interesting welcome at Lens. For the third match in a row, he sat on the bench as Lens keeper Charles Itandje notched a clean sheet, on Saturday a 0-0 road draw with AC Ajaccio.

Itandje did not have a busy afternoon, but he made solid saves on Bernard Diomede, Abdelnasser Ouadah and Yohan Demont.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent and can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com.