Americans Abroad

Reyna turns in strong performance for Rangers; Kirovski appears headed for Crystal Palace.

(Monday, July 30, 2001) -- If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Glasgow Rangers must have some respect for arch-rival Glasgow Celtic.

After falling from grace and first place in a subpar 1999-2000 season, Rangers have adopted the 3-4-2-1 formation that Celtic used last season to take the Scottish Premier League title. So far so good with Rangers’ quest to regain its crown after posting a pair of easy 3-0 triumphs.

Over the summer, Rangers cleaned house and announced they were junking their traditional 4-4-2 system. Various rumors had Claudio Reyna being dealt away or being sent to the bench, but in Wednesday’s trip to Slovenia for a Champions League play-in, the United States national-team captain found himself in his accustomed spot in the right midfield, playing beside newcomers Christian Nerlinger and Russell Latapy.

Rangers jumped off to a fast start and easily disposed of NK Maribor.

Nerlinger and Latapy were both speculated to be replacing Reyna, but instead they played together in essentially a six-man Rangers midfield with only Norwegian Tore Andre Flo, who scored two goals, at forward.

If Rangers move ahead to the next round as expected, they will have the unenviable task of meeting Turkey’s Fenerbahce in a home-and-away series. No team from the United Kingdom relishes a trip to Istanbul.

On Saturday, Reyna again went the distance as Rangers easily handled Aberdeen in the league opener. Again, he played along side Nerlinger and Latapy, both of whom scored. Reyna had a tremendous assist on Nerlinger’s goal.

It looks like U.S. midfielder\forward Jovan Kirovski has played himself onto Crystal Palace of England’s first division, already the home of American defender Gregg Berhalter.

In a training match tour last week, Kirovski started and played about the first 70 minutes in two Palace wins, 5-0 over Exeter City and 4-0 over Plainmoor. Against Plainmoor, Kirovski twice missed by inches scoring his first goal for Palace.

On Saturday, Kirovski stared and played the full 90 minutes with the full team, as did Berhalter, with Palace soundly beaten by Cardiff City 4-0.

Press reports say club officials have been pleasantly surprised at Kirovski’s form and have begun talks with his agent to work out financial terms, and with Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon, which owns his contract, for transfer terms.

It had been expected that Sporting would make Kirovski a free transfer, but now that there is interest from a club with fairly deep pockets, that could change. How much, if anything, Palace would be willing to spend is unclear, but Kirovski’s value to the team increased markedly when the expected acquisition of England under-21 striker Andy Campbell from Middlesbrough fell through.

U.S. midfielder\defender John O’Brien is in the running for a starting role with Ajax of Amsterdam, but is far from securing it. In Ajax’s annual preseason tournament featuring some of the biggest name teams in European football, he played the first half in the midfield for a young Ajax squad which lost 1-0 to Italy’s powerful AC Milan.

He was on the bench Saturday night when Ajax surprised Liverpool 3-1. Daniel Cruz, who replaced him against AC Milan, was impressive and went for the entire 90 minutes.

Newly-promoted Nürnberg received a rude welcome to the German Bundesliga with Brazilian Marcio Amorso scoring twice to give Borussia Dortmund a 2-0 victory. American Tony Sanneh played a solid 90 minutes in the midfield, but was called on to play mostly defense and seldom was able to venture into the attack.

On Sunday, in Hamburg, former Brown University defender Corey Gibbs made his debut for FC St. Pauli, watching from the bench a 0-0 draw with visiting Hertha Berlin.

The Le Championnat season has also started again in France where U.S. defender David Regis returned to Metz, with a new two-year contract signed a week ago. In the opener, Regis found himself in his accustomed left central defensive spot and Metz lost 1-0 on a late goal to newly-promoted F.C Lorient, one of three new teams in the French first division this season.

In an interview with Metz’s web site, Regis said he hadn’t had much time off because of U.S. national-team duty, but he thought he fully fit to make a full contribution to his club.

He also said he looked forward to the two U.S. qualifiers in September. "We control our own fate," he said, "I’m sure we will qualify."

Moore came on as a midfielder, replacing defender Alessandro Pistone. Less than a minute after the kickoff, Moore picked up the ball on the right side, dribbled forward and sent a sharply angled drive past Preston keeper David Lucas. A few minutes later, he controlled the ball and led defender David Unsworth for Everton’s second goal.

Moore’s strong performance undoubtedly improved his chances of staying with Everton and getting back in manager Walter Smith’s good graces following an injury-plagued 1999-2000 campaign.

In the second division, American defender John Thorrington had a "Man of the Match" performance, setting up both goals in a Huddersfield 2-1 preseason win over Halifax Town in a match that Huddersfield manager Lou Macari said would go a long way in determining who would start in the season opener in two weeks.

On Saturday, the American put in a solid first half, but Huddersfield could do no better than a 0-0 draw with third-division Lincoln City. Macari used eight subs in the second half.

The wandering of U.S. striker Ante Razov will continue for a bit longer after he could not work out a contract with Kilmarnock of Scotland’s Premier League despite an impressive trial.

Kilmarnock's manager Bobby Williamson told the Scottish media that Razov's agent Paul Stretford wanted "the same level wage" that a top-level striker could demand from a major European club, which was well above the level of what the Ayrshire club could afford.

"Ante has returned home because he has received an offer that we couldn't match," said Williamson, adding Razov had returned to Spain where he played last year with Racing de Ferrol of the second division. "He would have liked to stay, and we wanted to keep him. But it wasn't to be, and we wish him well."

In Norway, U.S. under-20 men’s goalkeeper D.J. Countess rejected a contract offer from Lyn, and could return to UCLA.

"I had a wonderful time in Norway, both with Lyn and in Oslo," Countess told the Norwegian media. "It is a beautiful country and I could be very happy living here and playing here. However, I don't want to rush my decision to turn pro and am going to continue to explore all my options further."

Countess has been contacted by Major League Soccer and reportedly has an offer from a team in Germany. He is also considering medical school as an alternative to a soccer career.

Senior correspondent Robert Wagman can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com. Mark Flannery is an American teaching English in France and can be e-mailed at flan.overseas@wanadoo.fr.