Americans Abroad

Kirovski gets start and scores to lead Birmingham City past Fulham 1-0.

Jovan Kirovski's one early goal was enough to send Birmingham City to a 1-0 decision over Fulham -- Birmingham City web site photo --

By Robert Wagman (in Washington, D.C.),
Mark Flannery (in France)
and Willie Calderon (in England)
SoccerTimes

(Monday, December 16, 2002) -- American Jovan Kirovski made the most of his first start for Birmingham City, scoring early and emerging the hero of a 1-0 road victory yesterday over Fulham before 14,962 at Loftus Road Stadium

Kirovski, who moved to City after spending last season with Crystal Palace, combined with his striker partner Clinton Morrison. Picking up Jeff Kenna's throw-in down the left side, Kirovski fed Morrison who returned a pass to put Kirovski through cleanly, With a defender on his shoulder, Kirovski curled the ball into the net's bottom corner for a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute.

Kirovski's tally "was the one bit of class in the game," Birmingham manager Steve Bruce said. "Jovan had a nasty thigh injury when he first came here and then a family bereavement when he lost his dad six or eight weeks ago, but he's come through and done well."

In the 56th minute, Kirovski returned the favor to Morrison, sending him in alone on net, but Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar was up to the save.

After Birmingham was reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute with Darren Purse's ejection, defense became the priority to seal the win.

The North London rivalry between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal is the English equivalent of the Mets versus the Yankees in New York. It was renewed for the 132nd time yesterday and despite an amazing first half performance by Hotspur, Tottenham managed only a 1-1 home draw before 36,076 at White Hart Lane.

What was perhaps a rash decision by United States goalkeeper Kasey Keller resulted in Arsenal's only goal just before intermission. Most of the first half was played in Spurs' attacking end with the hosts taking a 1-0 lead when Christian Ziege scored in the 11th minute. Tottenham nearly found net twice more, but Arsenal defender Ashley Cole twice took balls off his goal line.

Arsenal did not have a shot on goal until the 43rd minute when French international Thierry Henry lashed one at Keller who dove full length to push away. A minute later, a long ball was played into the box for Henry. Keller came quickly off his line in an attempt to get to the ball first. Instead, Keller caught Henry and not the ball.

Referee Neale Barry promptly called the penalty kich which Robert Pires converted in the 45th minute.

Keller acquitted himself well for the remainder of the match, stoning Henry on a similar play 11 minutes later.

U.S. keeper Brad Friedel and Blackburn Rovers were on their game early, but they dropped a road match to Everton 2-1 before 36,578 at Goodison Park.

Just 90 seconds into the match, Friedel made a sparkling save on a powerful header from Everton captain Kevin Campbell.

Rovers then broke on top 1-0 with a sixth-minute goal from David Thompson, an advantage that lasted six minutes. In the 12th minute Lee Carsley fed Campbell down the right flank. Campbell put a low cross in the path of young Everton star Wayne Rooney for a 15-yard blast on the first touch. A diving Friedel pushed it into the post, but Carsley tapped the rebound in from two yards.

The action went back and forth until the 25th minute when a long punt from Everton keeper Richard Wright bounced deep in the Blackburn end. Rooney flicked it toward Rovers' goal, allowing him to beat defenders Craig Short and James McEveley before unleashing a powerful right-foot shot that cleanly beat Friedel to make it 2-1.

In the second half Rooney nearly scored again, beating Short, but Friedel came out quickly, narrowed the angle and forced Rooney to shoot wide right.

Later, as Blackburn tried to come back despite being a man short, Friedel made an amazing save on Alan Stubbs, but Blackburn could not come up with the equalizer.

Much to the reported relief of his wife, American keeper Marcus Hahnemann can shave again. The Reading goalkeeper had vowed not to shave his lower lip and chin until he let in a goal and, after posting seven straight shutouts in England's First Division, Hahnemann was beaten twice in the second half by visiting Sheffield United which recorded a 2-0 triumph Saturday before 18,534 at Madejski Stadium.

Marcus Hahnemann gave up two goals and then bought a razor.

Hahnemann was sharp in the first half, stopping a near goal from Nick Montgomery early. But with Reading unable to score, the match swung toward Sheffield in the second half.

Hahnemann could do little with shots from Jon Harley and Dean Windass. First, left back Harley combined with Steve Kabba on a give-and-go, sending Harley in alone on Hahnemann who was beaten low. Then, Windass was allowed to stand unmarked at the far post and he headed in Peter Ndlovu's cross in the 76th minute.

"As we got ready to go out in the evening, the razor appeared and I had to shave as promised." Hahnemann said yesterday.

U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis turned in another strong effort for Preston North End which finally played some defense in defeating Grimsby 3-0 Saturday. Preston had been victimized for 10 goals in its last two matches.

Lewis once again moved freely up and down the left flank and took all the corners and free kicks from the left side. While he did not have a direct hand in any of the goals, he again made a strong contribution and was assessed a yellow card in the 81st minute.

American midfielder John Thorrington did not play for Huddersfield Town which defeated Stockport 2-1 on Saturday.

U.S. defender Tony Sanneh, who has been battling back and leg problems, did not dress for FC Nürnberg in a 2-0 defeat of Bayer Leverkusen. Likewise, American defender Gregg Berhalter did not dress for Energie Cottbus which was manhandled by Borussia Dortmund 4-0.

In the 2 Bundesliga, American defender Cory Gibbs perhaps was lucky he continues sidelined with a hamstring pull and thus did not dress for last-place St. Pauli as it lost to Aachen 4-0. St Pauli promptly fired coach Joachim Philipkowski and the club announced it will try to acquire as many as five new players over the winter beak, including a central defender who could be a rival for Gibbs' position.

Stewart has been starting matches on the bench recently with NAC preparing for Stewart to exercise a clause in his contract allowing him to move to Major League Soccer on a free transfer after the Dutch winter break.

A fan favorite for years, Stewart received a fine sendoff from the NAC faithful.

Vanney could not be faulted on either of the Sochaux goals, the first off a well-placed cross into the middle, the second on a sharp shot that Bastia goalkeeper should have handled, but didn't.

Vanney forced a diving save from the Sochaux keeper Teddy Richert with a free kick in the second half.

These could be Walker's final matches in Chile. Reportedly he has been talking with teams in Mexico about a move there after their winter break.

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