Americans Abroad

Friedel, Rovers come back from bad loss to beat Charlton 4-1.

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

(Tuesday, November 8, 2005) -- American goalkeeper Brad Friedel and Blackburn Rovers went into Saturday's match at home against Charlton Athletic hoping to bounce back from a 4-2 drubbing they received last week at the hands of English Premier League-leading Chelsea. They did, defeating visiting Charlton 4-1 with Friedel coming up with 10 saves.

Charlton came into the match with five straight road victories, but Blackburn dominated from the beginning. Friedel was not challenged often and most of his saves were routine. But late in the second half, he came up with good stops on Hermann Hreidarsson and substitute Jay Bothroyd, a former Rovers striker.

The only goal Friedel gave up was in the 36th minute to Bryan Hughes on an odd play. Friedel stopped a flick-on from Darren Ambrose, but as he went for the ball he was beaten to it by Hughes who stabbed it into the net before the two crashed together and into the post.

U.S. defender Jonathan Spector continues to play 90 minutes per match for Charlton, but there was little he could do to help stop the Rovers onslaught.

Charlton is in eighth place at 6-4-1 with 19 points. Rovers stand 11th at 5-5-2 with 17 points.

In what might have been an interesting clash of Americans in the Premiership, host Fulham, with U.S. striker Brian McBride and defender Carlos Bocanegra faced off against Manchester City at Craven Cottage. However, City clearly missed its American, Claudio Reyna, in the midfield, and Fulham prevailed 2-1 on a pair of first-half goals by Steed Malbranque.

McBride, who has spent most of his time on the bench for the past several matches, received the surprise start when Claus Jensen was unable to go. He almost had a goal in the early going, but his header off a free kick from Danish left-back Niclas Jensen was slightly off target.

McBride's pinpoint pass put Tomasz Radzinski cleanly through on goal later in the first half, but the striker stumbled before he could get a shot off. After intermission, McBride had three excellent chances, narrowly missing from long range and then having a shot from close in held by City and England keeper David James.

McBride came out in the 77th minute.

Bocanegra played well in the back and Fulham limited City to only a few chances. The visitors, who got a goal from Lee Croft in the 20th minute, thought they had equalized late, but had a goal negated by an offside call.

Reyna has resumed light training and, with next weekend off for international matches, might be back for City's November 19 home match against Blackburn.

City (6-4-2, 20) is in a three-way tie for fifth place with Arsenal (6-3-2) and Tottenham Hotspur (5-2-5). Fulham is in 14th place at 3-6-3 with 12 points.

Despite losing 1-0 to Manchester United (6-2-3, 21), Chelsea (10-1-1, 31) still has a healthy hold on first place, six points ahead of Wigan (8-2-1, 25).

In a Premier League reserve-team match, U.S. keeper Tim Howard may have damaged his chances of getting playing time with the first team when he made a terrible blunder though Man. United still defeated Wigan 2-1 Friday night.

Howard allowed a punt from opposing keeper Floyd Croll bounce over his head, a play that one commentator called "the worst clanger I ever saw a goalkeeper make." Midway through the second half in the rain, Croll booted the ball from his penalty area and, aided by the strong wind, the ball went far down the field, took a skidding bounce off the wet field and bounced over the head of the frantically back-pedaling Howard who had come out of his goal.

United ended up winning on a pair of goals from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, the second thanks to an assist from American\Italian striker Giuseppe Rossi, who headed down a cross into Ebanks-Blake's path. Rossi himself twice came close to scoring in a strong performance.

"It was one of the flukiest goals I have ever seen," United's Irish defender Jonny Evans said of Croll's tally. "It took a real bounce off the wet turf."

Saturday, Reading needed heroics in the second half to dispatch Queens Park Rangers 2-1 on a 66th minute goal from center back Ivar Ingimarsson.

Both teams struggled through much of the match. American keeper Marcus Hahnemann did not have a busy first half for Reading, but did make a good save on a low shot from QPR midfielder Lee Cook. Hahnemann was not able to stop Cook's low blast, only getting his fingertips on the ball in the 47th minute as Rangers leveled the score.

U.S. midfielder Bobby Convey played 71 minutes, but contributed little for Reading.

U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis seemed like a marked man for Leeds United which played a physical 0-0 draw with Lewis' former team, Preston North End.

Lewis had wanted to stay at North End and asked for a new three-year contract (reportedly for about $1.7 million over the three seasons) when his contract expired at the end of last season. Preston did not want to make a three-year commitment, so Lewis moved to Leeds.

Lewis was extremely popular with North End fans and they made their displeasure with management known, and this has been magnified with Leeds currently sitting in fifth place and Preston in 14th place. So Saturday, when Preston met Leeds for the first time this season, Lewis was the recipient of some very harsh marking, though he escaped injury. Both sides had their chances and Preston had a slight edge in the run of play, but no one scored.

Jemal Johnson, the 20-year-old American striker on loan to Preston, did not dress against Leeds despite scoring his first goal for North End last Tuesday in a 3-0 decision over Hull. Preston played five men in the midfield with only a single striker, leaving Johnson the odd man out.

On Saturday, Hull became Watford's victim as the Hornets recorded their fourth consecutive league victory with a 2-1 win at Hull's Kingston Communications Stadium.

As he has since returning from injury four weeks ago, defender Jay DeMerit started and played the 90 minutes as part of an increasingly effective Watford defense that allowed Hull few chances over the final 45 minutes. Hull's Stuart Green missed a potential tying penalty kick in the 72nd minute.

Interestingly, Hull's keeper, Boaz Myhill (aka Glyn Oliver Myhill), is technically eligible to play for the U.S. internationally. He was born in California, his American father and English mother having met at college.

Myhill, 22, returned to the England as an infant, and came up through Aston Villa's youth system, which he joined at age 12. At 6-foot-3, Myhill, who played for the England under-20 men and was a reserve on the under-21s, hopes to play for England someday.

American defender Frank Simek helped an outplayed Sheffield Wednesday hold together through a rough first half, giving up only one goal, before rallying two score twice and beat Derby 2-1.

Leeds (7-4-6, 27) remains in fifth place, one point behind Luton (8-6-4). Leeds holds a game in hand on the four teams above it.

Preston North End (4-4-10, 22) is in 14th place, but only three points out of sixth place in the tightly bunched middle of the table. Sheffield Wednesday (4-6-7, 19), which missed relegation last season by two points on the final day, sits in 16th place among 24 teams and is slowly climbing in the standings.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent. E-mail Robert Wagman.