Altidore Crushes Goal-of-the-Year Candidate in Alkmaar Loss

AZ Alkmaar’s U.S. striker Jozy Altidore bagged his 14th goal of season, and 18th in all competitions, when he drilled a 25-yard shot into the upper 90 against PSV Eindhoven on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the 22-year-old former Red Bull forward, his side gave up a late goal and lost the game 3-2 to fall six points behind first-place Ajax in the Eredivisie standings.

Here is Altidore’s strike:

PSV’s late winner was the second straight last-gasp goal AZ has conceded in the season’s stretch run. Last week they gave up an 89th-minute equalizer in a 2-2 draw with FC Twente.

Altidore Bags Two, But AZ Gives Up Crucial Late Equalizer to FC Twente

U.S. midfielder Jozy Altidore scored two goals—giving him 13 in the league and 17 across all competitions this season—but AZ Alkmaar surrendered a 90th-minute goal to FC Twente and dropped into a 2-2 tie that left them three points behind league-leaders Ajax, and two ahead of Twente in a crowded stretch run atop the Dutch Eredivisie.

A win would have kept them within a point of Ajax, which routed Herenveen 5-0, and put them five ahead of Twente. The first-place finisher gets a berth in the UEFA Champions League, while the second-place team enters Champions League qualifying, and third and fourth play in the Europa League. There are five games remaining in the Dutch season.

Here are the AZ–FC Twente highlights:

With Altidore’s goal-scoring resurgence, and the recent hot streaks of Clint Dempsey and Herculez Gomez, the U.S. strike force is looking pretty good lately.

And it was a solid Wednesday overall for Yanks Abroad as Fabian Johnson scored for Hoffenheim in their 4-0 win over Hamburg, Timmy Chandler set up a goal in FC Nurnberg’s 4-1 triumph over Jermaine Jones and Schalke 04, and Sacha Kljestan had an assist in RSC Anderlecht’s 4-1 win over Mix Diskerud and KAA Gent.

How Cool Is This?

Our pal George at Howler Magazine tipped us to this terrific piece of soccer art by Steve Welsh, a Middlesborough-based artist, fan, and proprietor of the site miniboro.com.

Welsh just published a new project (go see it right here), which, in addition to the piece above, titled Johan Cruyff—My Turn, includes striking tributes to Mario Balotelli, Brian Laudrup, Leo Messi, Carlos Valderrama, and Bobby Charlton, among others. (We were partial to the Charlton “combover” and the “El Pibe.”)

Of the Cruyff-turn piece, Welsh says the following:

“A tribute to Dutch Master, Johan Cruyff. Basically I wanted to play with the idea of ownership regarding the Cruyff Turn, hence the copyright symbol. But I also wanted to show it in all its glory, especially as its original entrance to World Football was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ 9-second affair.”

Here are the nine seconds he’s talking about:

The Cruyff Turn, as it came to be called, had never been seen before that moment. Now it’s a dribbling maneuver taught at the U8 level—and just one reason Cruyff is in the game’s pantheon.

You can buy Welsh’s creation as a framed art print or a stretched canvas. (It’d make a killer T-shirt too, but so far not available in that format.)

UPDATE: It is available in T-Shirt form. Right here. H/t to Abraham Thinkin’.

Altidore Scores in AZ Alkmaar Debut

Former Red Bulls striker Jozy Altidore wasn’t called in for Wednesday’s Mexico friendly, as new U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann opted to let the New Jersey native get settled with his new club, AZ Alkmaar of the Dutch Eredivisie—the fifth team Altidore has been with since leaving MLS in 2008.

That decision paid some short-term dividends on Sunday, when Altidore came on as a second-half sub and scored in the 80th minute, helping AZ to a 3-1 opening-day win over PSV Eindhoven.

Here’s the goal:

Nice darting run to beat the defender, and a solid finish.

Altidore was always a handful for defenders in his last two loan spells, at Hull and Bursaspor, but the goals were in short supply in those stints (one in 28 appearances for Hull, one in 12 for Bursaspor).

Now that he’s made a permanent move to the Netherlands and gotten off to a good start, maybe this is the season he breaks through and fulfills the potential he showed while scoring 15 goals in 37 appearances for New York from 2006 to ’08.

Altidore Joins Dutch Side AZ Alkmaar

U.S. striker Jozy Altidore confirmed it on his Twitter feed ten minutes ago: He’s joining AZ Alkmaar of the Dutch Eredivisie.

AZ will be the 21-year-old striker’s fourth team since he left MLS’s New York Red Bulls in 2008 for a record $10-million transfer fee, going to Villareal.

In addition to playing for the Yellow Submarine, Altidore has had loan spells at Hull City in the Premier League, and Bursaspor in the Turkish top flight. He scored one goal in 12 appearances for Bursaspor last season, and bagged two for the U.S. in this summer’s Gold Cup before going out with a hamstring injury in the quarterfinals against Jamaica.

Altidore did not say whether his deal with AZ was a loan or a permanent transfer.

What do you think of this move for Altidore? Do you see him thriving in the high-finesse Dutch league, or are you worried he’s become a journeyman at age 21? Let us know in the comments.

You Cannot Stop, or Hope to Contain, Johan Voskamp

Tip of the hat to Old 27 for this one, and as he said, someone (maybe MLS) should sign this Voskamp fella.

The 25-year-old striker scored eight goals—five in the first half—in Sparta Rotterdam’s 12-1 shellacking of Almere City in the Dutch second division.

And unlike Wilt Chamberlain’s famous 100-point game against the Knicks back in the day, there is video evidence of this one (complete with awful Swedish house music for a soundtrack):

Overheard in the Almere City locker room at halftime: “Who’s marking Voskamp?”

And in the Sparta Rotterdam locker room: “Johan, I’m open.”*

Click here for the rather spectacular match report.

*Both jokes retrofitted from Adam Sandler‘s comedy bit on Chamberlain’s 100-point game.

Viva Espana!

Spain etched its name in the history of international soccer yesterday with a 1-0, extra time win over the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final. Andres Iniesta scored the winner in the 116th minute, giving Spain its first World Cup crown and making it just the third team in history to hold the European Championship and World Cup titles at the same time.*

The victory was also a win for stylish soccer, as Spain stuck to its precise, short passing game and creative attacking movement in the face of disruptive and occasionally dirty tactics from the Dutch. There were 14 yellow cards in the game and one red, to Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga, with 11 minutes remaining in extra time.

In the 28th minute, Dutch midfielder Nigel De Jong, the same fella who broke Stuart Holden’s leg with a nasty tackle back in March, karate kicked Xavi Alonso in the chest and somehow escaped without a red.

(Here was Holden’s reaction, in real time, via Twitter: “How is de Jong not sent off there?? Reckless challenge.. Again…” @stuholden22)

That play typified, at the extreme end, the Netherlands’ approach to the game: They wanted to disrupt Spain’s rhythm and, apparently, to intimidate them out of their trademark style of attractive soccer. Fortunately for Spain, and for the sport, it didn’t work. La Furia Roja kept playing its game and kept creating opportunities until finally cashing in on Iniesta’s strike late in extra time, after a pass from second half sub Cesc Fabregas:

Note the nifty backheel by Iniesta at the start of the sequence.

So why did the Dutch go so far with their physical tactics when they have a full complement of skillful players, seemingly capable of competing with Spain without breaking out the brass knuckles? Here is coach Bert van Marwijk after the match (via The New York Times)

“It was still our intention to play beautiful football, but we were also facing a very good opponent. Spain is the best football country the past few years. I think both sides committed fouls. It may be regrettable this happened in a final. That’s not our style. But you do play to win.”

Translation: We didn’t have faith that we could play with them, so we took our best shot at winning—pounding them wherever and whenever possible. And as for his “both sides committed fouls” comment, Spain committed 19, while the Dutch racked up 28.

So it’s a stretch to say that the Netherlands tried to play beautiful soccer, but they did create some chances, including two breakaways by winger Arjen Robben. On the first, he was thwarted by a desperation kick save from Spanish keeper Iker Casillas, and on the second, Casillas smothered the ball at Robben’s feet after a rugged challenge on the Dutch speedster by Spain defender Carlos Puyols.

There was an irony there, as Backpost reader Old 27 pointed out: Robben was in some ways the poster boy for diving at this tournament, but he stayed on his feet on this play. If he had gone down, Puyols likely would have gotten his second yellow (if not a straight red as the last man back) and the Dutch would have had a free kick in a dangerous area.

But that’s water under the bridge now. All in all, it was not a great final, but the better team did win, we got an exciting finish, and we avoided the dreaded penalty shootout.

Other big winners in this tournament were the host nation, South Africa, which staged a successful World Cup in the face of worldwide skepticism about its ability to do so , and of course, Paul the incredible soothsaying octopus, who went eight-for-eight in predicting matches down the stretch.

Unfortunately for the betting public, given the average life span of octopi, Paul will not be around to call matches at Brazil 2014

*Spain won Euro 2008; the others in this club are West Germany, 1972 Euro, ’74 World Cup; and France 1998 World Cup, 2000 Euro.