Americans Abroad

Hobbled Friedel still sensational for Blackburn in 2-1 upset of Arsenal.

By Robert Wagman (in Washington, D.C.)
and Christopher Courtney (in Germany),
SoccerTimes

(Saturday, October 26, 2002) -- United States goalkeeper Brad Friedel has cartilage damage in his left knee that will require surgery and he aggravated the problem in warm-ups this afternoon. With help of a knee brace, however, he made save after save for Blackburn Rovers who defeated second-place Arsenal 2-1 in an English Premier League road match at Highbury.

Friedel who was awarded "Player of the Match" honors, recorded 10 saves, a half dozen which left the Arsenal fans shaking their heads in amazement as their club could only fund net once on 27 shots.

"I think we've got the best keeper in the country, but he has a cartilage problem and it popped out again during the warm-up when his knee jarred," Blackburn manager Graeme Souness said. "It obviously hampered him greatly. He will have to have an operation when he feels that it's giving him too many problems. But we hope that we can get away with it until it suits us."

In the first half, Friedel made inspired saves on Sylvian Wiltord, Thierry Henry, Kanu and Fredrik Ljungberg. After intermission, he denied Henry from 10 yards, produced another great save on Wiltord and then denied Henry's free kick.

The only time Friedel was beaten was when Edu, filling in for suspended star Patrick Vieira, drove home a fierce free kick though a crowd and into a corner seconds before the first half ended to tie the score for Arsenal (7-2-2, 23) at 1-1. Edu was responsible for Rovers' first goal too, sticking his foot out on Dwight Yorke's cross and inadvertently lobbing the ball into his own net in the sixth minute.

Yorke netted the game-winner in the 51st minute, giving Rovers a 5-3-3 mark with 18 points, tied for sixth place and one point behind third.

U.S. keeper Kasey Keller and Tottenhham Hotspur came up on the short end of a 2-1 score at first-place and undefeated Liverpool (8-0-3, 27) when Michael Owen won it with a penalty kick in the 86th minute.

Keller was undefeated in his last three starts at Anfield, drawing twice and winning once while with Leicester City.

Keller was sharp early when he took the ball off Owen's foot deep in the box in the ninth minute. He was active and controlled crosses into his area in what was not a busy afternoon.

Danny Murphy beat Keller with a sharply curving drive from 25-yards into the top corner to put Liverpool ahead 1-0 in the 67th minute. Dean Richard pulled Spurs even at 1-1 in the 82nd minute, but the Spurs lost the game after Owen was taken down in the box.

The last time Owen was fouled in the box at Anfield was against West Bromwich and he missed the resulting penalty, but today he got Keller going the wrong way and drilled his shot home.

Tottenham is 6-4-1 with 19 points, tied for third place.

In England's First Division, U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis returned to the Preston North End lineup after missing several matches with a rib injury to earn "Man of the Match" honors in a 1-0 victory over Reading. In the losing goal was American Marcus Hahnemann.

Lewis was extremely active throughout the match, sending David Healy through for a near miss at 10 minutes. In the 22nd minute, Lewis a perfect cross on the head of Richard Cresswell whose point blank shot easily beat Hahnemann for a 1-0 lead.

Lewis almost scored himself near the end of the first half, cutting in from the left flank to get off a blistering shot from 25 yards, forcing a magnificent save from Hahnemann. The keeper was also up to stopping a curling free kick from Paul McKenna moments later.

In the second half, Lewis broke free in the 58th minute but was taken down by a crunching tackle by Nicholas Shorey who was booked. Two minutes later, he almost scored with a point-blank back-heel. Soon after, he forced Hahnemann into his best stop.

Lewis was given a yellow card 10 minutes later for a retaliatory foul.

In the Second Division, American John Thorrington went the distance in an offensive midfield role for Huddersfield Town which used a goal in injury time to draw with Colchester 1-1.

Hannover took a 2-1 first-half lead and held that lead under increasing pressure until quick Bayern goals in the 75th and 80th minutes but the home club ahead 3-2. Hannover needed two minutes before Kostas Kostantinidis came back to even things at 3-3.

American Tony Sanneh and his FC Nürnberg teammates had a strong effort compromised when Sven Vermant's goal in injury time gave heavily-favored Schalke 04 a 1-1 draw.

Sanneh again played in the midfield and started the played that ended up with Sasa Ciric's 12th-minute tally for Nürnberg. Then he backtracked for much of the afternoon to give defensive help as Schalke applied increasing pressure.

U.S. defender Gregg Berhalter, still a bit in his coach's doghouse, again spent 90 minutes on the Energie Cottbus bench in a 0-0 tie with VfB Stuttgart.

In third-division Regionalliga Süd action, Elversberg, with American Russell Payne in goal, gave up several bad goals, including a very late one, to lose to Frankfurt Ama 4-3.

Payne gave up two soft first-half goals as Elversberg fell behind 3-0. Then, former U.S. international Michael Mason put back a rebound to score Elversberg's first goal and ignite a comeback. Mason was sent off in the second half, but Elversberg drew level before an 86th-minute goal was its downfall.

Tim Lawson went 90 minutes in the Elversberg midfield.

American John O'Brien is still out of the Ajax lineup with a Achilles injury and watched his club come back to draw on the road against RKC Waalwijk. Referee Rene Temmink suspended the match for 20 minutes after he sent off Ajax's Romania international Cristian Chivu for a heavy tackle and Waalwijk scored on the resultant free kick, spurring incensed Ajax fans into a protest that police had to stop.

Chicago Fire defender Carlos Bocanegra is with fourth-place Feyenoord for two weeks, in what Major League Soccer characterizes as a "training" stint and the Dutch club has termed a tryout. MetroStars' goalkeeper Tim Howard just completed two weeks with the Dutch club and returned to the U.S.

U.S. defender David Regis is in the midst of a red-card suspension and watched Troyes draw 2-2 with Montpellier in a battle of the two teams at the bottom of the First Division. The match was witnessed by a crowd of 8,000.

Former U.S. youth national and Clemson defender Oguchi Onyewu's status with Metz remains very much unsettled. On Thursday, club president Charles Molinari traveled to Paris to try to convince the French Football Association's so-called National Committee on Management Control to review its two previous decisions denying Metz the right to finalize a contract with the young American. The committee refused, instead putting off a decision until its reviews and approves Metz's 2003 budget, some time in mid-November.

Molinari, whose club is under FFA supervision because of its dire finances, said he is hopeful the contract will then be approved once Metz shows it can afford it. In the meantime, Onyewu is in the U.S., but expected back in France in about a week to resume training.

Robert Wagman is a SoccerTimes senior correspondent and can be e-mailed at bobwagman@soccertimes.com. Christopher Courtney is an American living in Mainz, Germany, and can be contacted at yanksgermany@yahoo.com.