Apart from Michael Bradley, who did not dress for Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Newcastle on Sunday, Americans abroad produced one of their better weekends of 2011 this past Saturday and Sunday.
Jozy Altidore, Alejandro Bedoya and Herculez Gomez all scored, while Eddie Johnson (Preston North End) and Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus) each produced key assists for their respective teams.
Altidore enjoyed his best performance of the season in Bursaspor’s 3-2 loss to 11th-place Antalyaspor. (See here for Altidore’s personal highlights.)
The 21-year-old New Jersey native repeatedly set up target forward Kenny Miller for golden opportunities (which the Scot failed to cash in) and scored his first goal for the Turkish side just before halftime:
Bursaspor stands third in the Super Lig table, 14 points behind leaders Trabzonspor with six games to play
Pachuca’s supersub Gomez came off the bench to score two goals in 28 minutes of action against Jaguares:
Gomez could be playing his way into a place on the U.S. team for this summer’s Gold Cup.
Orebro picked up its second win in two games in the young Swedish season, downing Syrianska 1-0 thanks to a goal by Boston College product Bedoya (about 1:30 into this clip; but note Syrianska defender just completely give up after being nutmegged at 1:00):
Other notable Yank performances from the weekend included Clint Dempsey going the full 90 in Fulham’s 2-0 loss to Manchester United; Jermaine Jones doing the same in Blackburn’s 1-1 draw with Birmingham City; Brad Friedel making seven saves in Villa’s win over Newcastle; and Tim Howard stopping four shots in Everton’s 3-0 blanking of Wolves.
In Germany, Steve Cherundolo went the distance in Hannover 96’s 2-0 win over Mainz, while his potential understudy at right back for the U.S., Timmy Chandler, played the full 90 in Nurnberg’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich.
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