Americans Abroad

Lewis continues strong play, assists late goal to give Preston a 1-1 draw with Portsmouth.

Eddie Lewis has come on strong for Preston North End.-- Preston North End web site photo --

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

(Monday, March 24, 2003) -- United States midfielder Eddie Lewis continued his impressive play for Preston North End, turning in perhaps the best in a string of strong performances, assisting a late goal that provided a 1-1 draw with Portsmouth, the leader of England's First Division.

With three minutes remaining in the match, Lewis sent a booming free kick across the face of the goal to Paul McKenna who, positioned at the far post, put away the equalizer.

As has been the case lately, Lewis was the dominant player for Preston which went down 1-0 after conceding a goal to Yacubu Ayegbini in the fifth minute.

Over the course of the match, Lewis triggered three shots that forced good saves from Shaka Hislop who once tended goal for Howard University in Washington, D.C. Several Lewis corners and crosses resulted in narrowly missed headers.

In England's Premier League, U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller was superb in the second half, but there was nothing he could do to stop Augustine Okocha's perfectly-placed penalty kick in the final seconds of stoppage time which sent Tottenham Hotspur to a heartbreaking 1-0 loss tonight to Bolton Wanderers.

Keller guessed correctly and dove to his left, but could not catch up to Okocha's drive inside the right post on the penalty that was awarded after Youri Djorkaeff was taken down in the box

In the first half, Keller got lucky when Gudni Bergsson's powerful header off Djorkaeff's corner kick struck the foot of the post.

In the closing 30 minutes, however, the run of play was very much in Bolton's favor. In the 56th minute, Keller did well to come out to meet beat Bernard Mendy to a through ball from Djorkaeff. He stopped a long range effort from Okocha, then made two saves on Djorkaeff, followed by a beauty on substitute Pierre-Yves Andre who had been set up by Djorkaeff.

Before the match, Keller formally signed a one-year extension to his contract which now runs through the 2004-2005 season. Keller, who started the season considered a backup, has played in 34 matches, including all of Tottenham's 31 league games.

"It has taken a long while for a number of reasons,"' Keller said of the negotiations for the extension. "But I was always hoping to get the situation sorted out before the end of the season."

Against Newcastle United, one of the hottest teams in the Premiership, U.S. keeper Brad Friedel and his Blackburn Rovers teammates managed to keep things close for 85 minutes, but then they collapsed and went down by an embarrassing 5-1.

Newcastle, which is in third place, five points being first-place Arsenal, went up 1-0 in the 24th minute when Laurent Robert darted into the box and broke clear defender Martin Taylor. As Friedel moved to cover his expected shot, Taylor instead sent a perfect cross for Nolberto Solano to nod home into empty net at the far post.

Friedel made several good saves to keep the match at 1-0 going into the second half. On one, he dove full length to his left and tipped away a Robert drive that seemed destined for net. However, when Damien Duff tied the game for Rovers at 1-1 in the 56th minute, Robert needed five minutes to put United back in the lead with an unstoppable blistering free kick.

The score remained 2-1 until the 85th minute despite Rovers having chances to again pull level. Then, after Jermaine Jenas put one under Friedel for a 3-1 lead in the 85th minute, things fell apart. Rovers defender Vratislav Gresko was responsible foran own goal in the 89th minute and Craig Bellamy scored in stoppage time to make it 5-1.

Birmingham City (9-14-8, 35) eased relegation fears with a 1-0 stoppage time win over West Bromwich. American striker Jovan Kirovski did not dress for City with two strikers ahead of him on the depth charge -- Stern John, formerly of the Columbus Crew and Geoff Horsfield -- combining for Horsfield's winning goal four minutes into stoppage.

Kirovski would have started in City's reserve match tonight against Sheffield Wednesday, but was released to play for the U.S. in Saturday's match against Venezuela in Seattle.

Striker Brian McBride ended his loan to Everton a game early and is back with Major League Soccer and the Columbus Crew, but the Toffees probably could have used is presence in a 2-1 loss yesterday to Arsenal which moved back into first place.

McBride made his 2003 debut for the Crew yesterday and assisted two goals by his striker partner Edson Buddle as Columbus defeated Panama's Deportivo Arabe Unido 3-0 to take the CONCACAF's Champions Cup Round-of-16 series by an aggregate 4-2.

At the start of the second half of an English First Division match, Bradford's Andy Gray got off a quick, hard snap-shot from the edge of the box, but Reading keeper, American Marcus Hahnemann snagged it in what was clearly the turning point in the game. Nicky Forster scored in the 66th minute and Reading held on for a 1-0 victory despite playing with 10 players after Nathan Tyson went off with a red card in the 45th minute.

Hahnemann registered his 18th shutout of the season.

O'Brien, who came out of Ajax's 1-1Champions League draw with Italy's Roma in the final seconds with a minor groin strain, was solid at left back over the entire match. Ajax's problems were in the center of defense where Hatem Trabelsi fouled PSV's Arjen Robben in the 10th minute leading to a Mateja Kezman penalty-kick goal and where Christian Chivu was sent off at the 70th minute for a second yellow card.

Kezman sealed the results with a second goal near in the 88th minute.

O'Brien had been pushing forward on the left side, but with Ajax reduced to 10 men, he needed to play defense over the final 20 minutes.

Ajax, which advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals with Wednesday's tie, now must worry about finishing second in order to return to the Champions League next season. The top two Dutch clubs go and third-place Feyenoord (17-4-4) now trails Ajax by only one point after a 5-0 rout of Heerenveen.

Vanney had his hands full, but did well containing Lille's star striker Vladimir Manchev. Vanney was not at fault when Manchev was taken down in the box, leading to Philippe Brunel's penalty kick in the 32nd minute for a 1-0 lead.

Bastia earned the draw when Mickael Essien found net in the 90th minute.

U.S. defender David Regis was serving yet another one-match yellow-card suspension and was not dressed when Troyes fell to Guingamp 2-0.

American goalkeeper Joe Cannon was again on the bench as Lens played to a 0-0 draw with Auxerre. It was the third time in the past four matches that Lens keeper Charles Itandje earned a clean sheet.

It now looks like American defender Oguchi Onyewu will spend the remainder of the season playing reserve matches for Metz in the second division. Coach Jean Fernandez's defense is now set and playing well, having not given up more than a single goal in any match since late January.

Fernandez does not believe in making changes under the circumstances, so Onyewu will continue with the Metz reserves who play in France's fourth division.

U.S. defender Gregg Berhalter was solid over the first hour before getting in trouble. In the 73rd minute, Hertha's Pal Dardai beat a defender to the outside and launched a strong shot which caromed off Berhalter into the net to even the score at 1-1. Alex Alves scored in the 85th minute and Michael Preetz made it 3-1 for Hertha two minutes later, dropping Cottbus further into last place.

American Steve Cherundolo was solid at right back and contributed an assist for Hannover 96 which came up with a tidy 2-1 road win Saturday over Werder Bremen which has now lost six of its last seven matches.

After Goncalves Ailton put Bremen ahead 1-0 after 10 minutes, Cherundolo helped tie it. He carried the ball down the right side, beat a defender and sent in an accurate cross to striker Fredi Bobic who powered home a header from six yards past keeper Pascal Borel. Bobic netted the winner in the 76th minute.

U.S. defender Tony Sanneh's bad back still has him on the sideline for FC Nürnberg whihch defeated VfB Stuttgart 2-0 yesterday.

American defender Cory Gibbs returned to the St. Pauli lineup in the 2 Bundesliga after missing more than a month, but he could do little to help the struggling team which lost again 2-1 to SSV Reutlingen.

St. Pauli is five points deep into the relegation zone and look likely to be playing in the third division next year.

Almost the same thing happened last week when Antwerp fell to St. Truiden 1-0. Yi played well, received a yellow card in the 22nd minute and then was substituted for in the 63rd.

Early, Walker stopped a strong shot from Pascual De Gregorio, just before Luis Ignacio Quinteros scored to give Colo Colo a 1-0 lead.

Walker made several good saves, including stopping De Gregorio and Ivan Alvarez, but in the 84th minute, Rangers' Nestor Zanatta converted a penalty kick for the tie.

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