Americans Abroad

Keller, Hahnemann, Lewis shine while others sit overseas.

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

(Sunday, November 24, 2002) -- Given the number of players who are injured or out of favor with their coaches, relatively few Americans played in Europe over the weekend.

At least some of those who did play recorded effective outings. In England, American goalkeepers Kasey Keller and Marcus Hahnemann registered shutouts while midfielder Eddie Lewis assisted both goals for Preston North End in a 2-2 draw with Brighton.

United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel of Blackburn Rovers and midfielder Claudio Reyna of Sunderland, both in the English Premier League, are just starting rehabilitation after knee surgery early in the week. U.S. midfielder John O'Brien remains on the sidelines with Ajax in Amsterdam while he tries to recover from a bad Achilles heel strain.

In England, U.S attackers Jovan Kirovski of Birmingham and Joe-Max Moore of Everton are in disfavor with their Premier League coaches.

Kirovski was on the bench, but did not play when Birmingham City won 1-0 yesterday at Sunderland while Moore was in street clothes when Everton defeated West Bromwich 1-0. Both played in reserve matches during the week.

In the England's Second Division, American midfielder John Thorrington has seen his playing time diminished at Huddersfield Town, not coming on until the 70th minute in yesterday's 3-2 loss to Swindon.

U.S. defender Gregg Berhalter has been relegated to the bench at struggling Energie Cottbus which managed a 1-1 tie with Hamburg SV.

U.S. defender David Regis was not in evidence for Troyes which defeated Sedan 2-0.

Several who did see action, played well. Keller was in net for Tottenham Hotspur's 2-0 triumph over Leeds United. It was not a busy day for the American keeper with Leeds not managing its first shot until the 34th minute, a long range effort from 25 yards by Harry Kewell that Keller handled easily. From that point, he commanded his box and snuffed out any chances by gathering crosses or balls played into the area.

In England's First Division, Hahnemann produced another terrific match for Reading, notching his third consecutive clean sheet in a 1-0 decision over Watford. Among a half dozen brilliant saves, Hahnemann stopped a penalty kick.

Almost immediately after kickoff, Hahnemann stiffed Micah Hyde. In the 17th minute, he stopped Allan Nielsen's well stuck right-footed shot. Three minutes later, he extended his full 6-foot-3 length to deny Neil Cox penalty kick, awarded for a hand ball call against Nicky Shorey. Before half time, he denied Heidar Helguson's point-blank header.

In the second half, Hahnemann first stopped Jamie Hand, then denied Helguson again and finally Neal Ardley whose corner kick almost drifted into the net after 85 minutes.

"Marcus is something else at the moment," Reading coach Alan Pardew said. "He's trained like a demon and has lost weight, and looks better for it. He's as good as it gets. He was without doubt the best player on the pitch today and we feel his goalkeeping has improved since he's been working here with Nicky Hammond."

Lewis, on left wing for Preston North End, went the distance and recorded two assists to help his team jump out to a 2-0 lead before conceding a pair of goals after intermission in the 2-2 deadlock.

Lewis was issued a yellow card in 43rd minute.

Preston went ahead 1-0 when Chris Lucketti buried a perfectly-placed Lewis corner kick in the 16th minute. On a similar play 20 minutes later, Richard Cresswell made it 2-0 after connecting with an outswinging Lewis corner.

In the meantime, it was reported by Metz that Onyewu suffered an unspecified training injury this week and will miss at least six weeks of training.

United States keeper Kasey Keller (in green) had no answers for Arsenal which ran over his Tottenham Hotspur 3-0.

There was little the American keeper could do as the league leader came at him in waves, especially when Hotspur was reduced to 10 men with Simon Davies' red card in the 27th minute.

Arsenal went ahead 1-0 in the fourth minute when French international Thierry Henry collected a loose ball deep inside his own half and glided forward, first beating Matthew Etherington, then Stephen Carr, before curling an impressive over and around Keller from 10 yards in one of the most exciting goals of the year.

Although Spurs regained their composure and played well defensively for a while, they could only hold a relentless Arsenal off for so long. Freddie Ljungberg and Sylvain Wiltord added second-half goals handing Spurs a second straight loss for first time this season.

U.S. forward Jovan Kirovski got back into action, playing the final nine minutes of Birmingham City's 0-0 draw with Fulham. It was Kirovski's first league match appearance since a September 28 match against Newcastle United.

U.S. attacker Joe-Max Moore did not dress for Everton's win over Blackburn, but he looked like he was regaining match fitness, playing 90 minutes for the Everton reserves in a 2-1 decision over Bolton last Monday.

In England's First Division, U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis logged another fine showing for Preston North End which came back with two goals in the final 10 minutes to earn a hard-fought 3-3 draw with Grimsby Town.

Preston spent much of the afternoon back on its heels when Lewis was forced to play very defensively. Preston's leads the league with nine draws.

American keeper Marcus Hahnemann and Reading saw their match with Sheffield United postponed because of wet grounds.

American midfielder John Thorrington played the final couple of minutes as Huddersfield Town was eliminated by Swindon 1-0 in the second round of the FA Cup on a goal by Andy Gurney in the 85th minute.

After Sasa Ciric's penalty kick pulled Nürnberg even at 1-1 in the 40th minute, Sanneh was at fault on one of two Hamburg second-half tallies when he failed to clear a free kick and saw the resultant shot wind up in the net. It was the first league match this season Sanneh did not finish and the setback ended a three-match unbeaten streak, dropping Nürnberg back into 12th place, just two points clear of the relegation zone

Sanneh received derisive whistles from the home crowd after the goal. "From the beginning on. I was a scape-goat here," he told the local media. "They never liked me. I was playing on a position I don't like. I played though I was having problems with my back. And, also, if I wasn't good, I always tried to give my best. In the summer they wanted to sell me. Let them do it."

Said Nürnberg coach Klaus Augenthaler, "I understand the crowd. After all, Tony is no 20-year-old any more. Also, I am incredibly disappointed. He didn't realize anything of what we practiced throughout the whole week."

U.S. defender Gregg Berhalter had a nice match for Energie Cottbus in a 2-1 defeat of Arminia Bielefeld 2-1. Berhalter came on in the 42nd minute as lowly Cottbus, which stands 17th among 18 teams, won its first home match of the season, getting goals from Andrzej Kobylanski (eighth minute) and Christian Beeck (67th ) before giving up only a 72nd- minute goal to Rudiger Kauf.

American Steve Cherundolo went 90 minutes at right back for Hannover 96 which was edged 1-0 by Hertha Berlin. After giving up an early goal, the Hannover defense gave a good accounting for itself, but the team could not finish despite forcing eight saves from Hertha keeper Gabor Kiraly.

American forward Conor Casey did not dress for Hannover which fell to 15th place.

In the 2 Bundesliga, American defender Cory Gibbs started his fifth straight match and went the distance for St. Pauli in a 3-2 loss to FC Koln.

St. Pauli went ahead in the second half, but could not prevent two late goals.

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