Americans Abroad

Friedel, Rovers stop Manchester United 2-1; McBride comes up big for Fulham in Carling Cup.

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

Brian McBride celebrates his winning goal against Craven Cottage in Carling Cup play. -- Fulham web site photo --

(Tuesday, September 27, 2005) - It was a big weekend for American goalkeeper Brad Friedel and his Blackburn Rovers teammates who traveled to Old Trafford Saturday and handed host Manchester United its first English Premier League defeat of the season, 2-1.

By making six saves, Friedel helped propel lowly Blackburn to an improbable upset thanks to a pair of goals from midfielder Morten Gamst Pedersen. It was Rovers' first road victory over United since 1962.

Friedel turned away shots from Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo, only surrendering a goal to Ruud van Nistelrooy on a tap-in in the 67th minute after the keeper failed to hold Wayne Rooney well-placed blast. United played without Gary Neville, Gabriel Heinze, Wes Brown and Quinton Fortune and lost John O'Shea.

Pederson, who scored first in the 33rd minute, put away the winner in the 81st. U.S. keeper Tim Howard watched the match from United's bench.

Man. U. slipped to 3-1-2, one of three teams tied for fifth with 11 points, 10 behind perfect Chelsea (7-0). Rovers are one of three teams at 2-3-2 with eight points, tied for 10th.

U.S. striker Brian McBride came off the bench to score the winning goal in the dying moments of overtime to send host Fulham into the Carling Cup third round with a dramatic 5-4 triumph at Craven Cottage over lowly Lincoln, which competes in the fourth-tier League Two.

In a match that bordered on the bizarre, Fulham was cruising to what appeared to be an easy win, holding a 2-0 lead in the 70th minute. But Lincoln drew level at 2-2, the equalizer coming on an own goal. Both teams then scored twice in the extra time, setting up McBride's last-second tally in the 120th minute.

McBride came on in the 73rd minute and twice almost won the match in regulation, only to be thwarted by Lincoln keeper Alan Marriott. The match looked to be going to a penalty-kicks tiebreaker when McBride skied to head home a Adam Green free kick in the final seconds.

"It was a nice win to get, especially as we had to fight so hard for it," McBride told reporters after the match. "The win was very important for us. We needed it, regardless of where it came from. There were a lot of tired legs and a lot of cramps, and we've got to make sure we finish teams off a little bit better. But there were a lot of positives too. We gave some guys some rest, which allowed some other members of the team to get much needed games, especially some of younger players. A game like that is invaluable in terms of experience."

Fulham rested American defender Carlos Bocanegra against Lincoln.

Last night, in League play, visiting Fulham dropped a 1-0 decision to Tottenham Hotspur in a defensive struggle. Jermain Defoe's goal in the eighth minute was the only scoring, only Tottenham's second goal in its last five matches. Bocanegra went 90 minutes and played well helping to limit Spurs to only a few quality chances. McBride, who started and played for 75 minutes, probably came the closest, but his blast was turned away by Spurs keeper Paul Stalteri.

Fulham, which has only five points on the season (1-4-2, 5) is tied with three teams mired in sixth place. Except for McBride, who has four of his team's nine goals this season, the rest of the attacking players are simply not producing, leading to unhappiness from manager Chris Coleman.

"I thought we deserved a point. I thought we looked solid enough," he said. "I'm very disappointed in our attacking third. Our last pass was not there. It is one area where we have looked exciting, but today we were under par. We defended well enough and looked strong in midfield, but when we got our chances, we didn't finish them."

It was disappointing weekend for U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna and Manchester City which fell to newly revitalized Newcastle United on an 18th-minute goal by Michale Owen, the extremely expensive recent acquisition.

This was formerly high-flying City's third loss in a row, including a midweek Carling Cup to the third-tier League One' Doncaster in a penalty-kicks tiebreaker following a 1-1 draw. .

Against Newcastle, Reyna played hard but, as has been the case in recent matches, City has failed to generate much offense. In the Carling Cup loss, Reyna came out in the 90th minute of the scoreless match. Each team converted a penalty kick in overtime before City sealed its unlikely fate by missing its first three PK attempts.

American defender Jonathan Spector recorded some more minutes for second-place Charlton Athletic when he entered in the 83rd minute of a 2-1 defeat of West Ham United. He did well in helping kill off the final minutes of the match in which West Ham had an 18-8 shot advantage.

Midweek, he played 90 minutes as Charlton dispatched League One Hartlepool 3-1 in second-round Carling Cup action. He picked up a yellow card in the 90th minute of the easy win.

In was a busy week for English League Championship, but a bit less busy for a number of Americans playing in the second-division league.

American keeper Marcus Hahnemann registered a pair of clean sheets this week for Reading, a 1-0 league defeat of Norwich Saturday and 1-0 midweek Carling Cup second-round defeat of League Championship rivals Luton Town.

Against Norwich, he made good saves on Darren Huckerby and Dean Ashton. Against Luton, he had an easier time, but had to be sharp to stop Warren Feeney in the 55th minute after he started the wrong way on the shot, but recovered quickly to push it aside.

U.S. midfielder Bobby Convey went the distance for Reading against Norwich, but had a disappointing afternoon. He missed several open chances, though he did create a number of opportunities for teammates they could not convert. In the 90th minute, playing defense, he became tangled with Norwich's Calum Davenport in the box. The referee pulled a yellow card and was about to book Davenport for diving, but after consulting with an assistant, instead warded a penalty kick, but Ashton pulled PK wide of Hahnemann, preserved the one-goal decision.

Convey was rested and did not play the Cup match against Luton.

Reading (7-1-2, 23) is in second place, seven points behind Sheffield United (10-1)

U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis had a fine match, but Leeds United (4-3-2, 14) slipped to a three-way tie for 10th place after losing 2-0 to visiting Ipswich. Lewis created numerous chances for teammates with solid crosses, and then he lashed a shot that Ipswich keeper Lewis Price stopped with a great save.

Lewis was rested midweek as Leeds easily defeated Rotherham 2-0 in Cup play.

Bottom-dwelling Sheffield Wednesday earned a badly needed point Friday with a 2-2 draw with Luton. American Frank Simek went the distance for Wednesday in central defense and played well. He and a number of other starters were held out of last Tuesday's Carling Cup 4-2 loss to Premier League side West Ham as manager Paul Sturrock thought the league match more important. At Watford, Jay DeMerit was finally handed the opportunity to slip back into the starting side following the three-game suspension handed to Malkay Mackay. But because of a shoulder injury sustained the week before in a reserve match, DeMerit could not dress for Watford's Carling Cup victory over Wolverhampton.

DeMerit was also forced to sit out the 0-0 draw with Crewe Saturday and the feeling is he might be out for awhile.

Seb Orton contributed to this story from Watford, England.

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