Another fun weekend abroad for Americans. Some played very well and others either did not or didn’t play at all. We had a couple game-winners from Americans, and a couple guys on the wrong end of a defeat.

If there are players I forgot to list feel free to list them below, also if anything is incorrect please let me know. Thanks to a couple readers who e-mailed in a couple players that I missed last week to add to this list.

England

• Bobby Convey (Reading): Dressed but did not play.
• Jay DeMerit (Watford): Started and played a full 90 minutes in a 2-1 win vs. Ipswich.
• Clint Dempsey (Fulham): Club did not play this weekend.
• Brad Friedel (Aston Villa): Started, played a full 90 minutes, and made one save in a 0-0 tie vs. Liverpool.
• Brad Guzan (Aston Villa): Dressed but did not play.
• Marcus Hahnemann (Reading): Started, played a full 90 minutes and made two saves in a 4-2 win vs. Crystal Palace.
• Tim Howard (Everton): Started, played a full 90 minutes, and made four saves in a 3-0 loss to Portsmouth.
• Eddie Johnson (Cardiff City): Came off the bench and played five minutes in a 0-0 tie vs. Sheffield United.
• Frank Simek (Sheffield Wednesday): Did not dress in a 1-1 tie vs. Swansea.
• Jonathan Spector (West Ham): Did not dress in a 4-1 win vs. Blackburn.

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A lot has been made of the players this summer who have left Major League Soccer for higher wages in Europe. I figured since today was a slower news day I would take a look at the next group of guys that could potentially cash in on a move across the pond.

Feel free to give your thoughts on a player listed here or bring up a name that isn’t being talked about that could see a move across the pond.

I will do this in a couple different sections too. Players who could go now or have tried and players who are more in line to be the next Brad Guzan or Maurice Edu.

Players Who’ve Tried:

1. Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas: We all know Coopers attempts this summer to go to either Rosenborg or in Cardiff City. FC Dallas said no way to any and all transfer fees, even the really nice ones like Cardiff’s $4 million offer. I think we all know his name will be thrown out again come winter, even though his club has a couple options left on his contract AND they are still actively working to get him a new deal.

2. Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy: We’ve heard him say he wants to try his hand at Europe once more. I would say if this whole deal with Bruce Arena falls apart you could see him throw his name out a bit more. But in all reality he is a whipped man at home and he doesn’t appear ready to leave his wife and TV star Bianca Kajlich behind just yet. I think its more of a thing if her TV career falls in the tanks, you could see him go. For me its a ‘never-say-never’ kind of thing with Landon and Europe.

3. Taylor Twellman, New England Revolution: He tried to leave and it didn’t happen. Sort of like what Dallas did with Cooper. Said no way and good day. I think Twellman’s injury status this season and the Revs quality play may help him out if he still wants to leave this winter. The Revs know they can win without him, but the biggest question will be if anyone still wants him. I’m sure they do but it may not be as high of a value as it could have been back in January.

4. Shalrie Joseph, New England Revolution: The man should be in the big-boy leagues but he isn’t yet. He nearly went to Celtic at one point and I would not be shocked to see him try to go once again if he isn’t happy. If the right deal comes along you could see Joseph land a nice contract with a good team in Europe. I think that’s what he is waiting on if he still has European aspirations.

5. Pablo Mastroeni, Colorado Rapids: He wants to go after this year and he will. It is just a matter of where. I’d kind of love to see him get traded this year to an actual contender and see him get a MLS Cup before he goes. Continue Reading…

Call it a new feature here on WVH, while I’m trying to maintain focus on the MLS playoff race; this is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, a focus on the Americans abroad in other leagues. I was going to debut this last week but honestly ran out of time early in the week so I put it off until today.

Hopefully this will evolve a bit more over time but for now its just going to be a simple rundown of how everyone did this weekend in their respective leagues.

Some Yanks had the weekend off, some didn’t make it back to their respective clubs after the World Cup qualifier on Wednesday in Guatemala.

Biggest news may be out of France, Freddy Adu did make his debut for AS Monaco this weekend, playing just three minutes in place of Jeremy Menez. We could see Adu replace Menez at Monaco here real soon as from what I’ve been reading Menez is looking to transfer out. That could be a very good thing for Adu as we all want to see him get more playing time, wherever he is.

If there are players I forgot to list feel free to list them below. Or if something is incorrect, also please post it below. As much as I try to focus on everyone I know I will miss or slip up on someone, somewhere.

ENGLAND

• Tim Howard started, played 90 minutes, and made three saves in Everton’s 2-1 win against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday. Give this man an iron-man award for actually making the hustle back to England for this match, despite getting knocked in the head by Carlos Ruiz on Wednesday.
• Brad Friedel started, played 90 minutes, and made zero saves in Aston Villa’s 3-2 loss to Stoke on Saturday. Ugly game really, I caught some of it and felt kind of bad for Friedel, his defense really looked bad in this one.
• Marcus Hahnemann started, played 90 minutes and made six saves in Reading’s 4-2 loss to Charlton on Saturday. Another ugly game, lots of goals though which was fun but defensively it was not pretty.
• Bobby Convey started and played 73 minutes for Reading.
• Clint Dempsey came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Fulham’s 1-0 win vs. Arsenal on Saturday.
• Jay DeMerit started and played 90 minutes in Watford’s 3-2 loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
• Eddie Johnson did not dress in Cardiff City’s 2-2 tie vs. Norwich on Saturday. Might wanna cut Eddie a break, if you’ve seen this video you will know what I am talking about. The Grown-Ass Man clearly is a bit jet-lagged right now and knows very little of why he is playing in the Coca-Cola division.

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