What does the early season shakeup really do for a club? If you're Tottenham, quite a lot, as USSoccerPlayers' Graig Carbino explains. Also over the weekend, Jozy Altidore got his first goal in La Liga.
By Graig Carbino
ALBANY, NY (Nov 3, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- I’ll buck the trend this week and write about something that doesn’t have a ton to do with any American’s playing abroad. The reason is that this past weeks worth of action has pretty much stuck to the script as far as playing time and results for US players abroad go.
Clint Dempsey, despite recent success, is still seeing limited time with Fulham. Eddie Johnson, on loan to Cardiff City from Fulham, is in the same boat. Bobby Convey hasn’t made the bench for Reading in weeks and the injured (Spector, Simek, etc.) are still injured. Same thing goes for Germany and France as playing time trends have stayed just about the same.
With that in mind, the recent upheaval at Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier has jumped off of that page at me. Can a change in management really mean that much to a team? Apparently for Tottenham it can and has.
The much-maligned Juande Ramos was finally relieved of his duties as manager of Spurs on October 25th. The club was off to their worst start ever in league play and sat at the very bottom of the Premier League table. Former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was named his immediate replacement, and Tottenham haven’t looked back since.
Spurs have beaten Bolton Wanderers and Liverpool and came back from two goals down in the final minute to draw with cross-town rivals Arsenal 4-4. The Arsenal game in particular featured a 40-yard goal from David Bentley and saw Spurs fight back numerous times throughout the match to eventually earn the draw.
If you have followed Tottenham at all this campaign you know that the kind of result against Arsenal just would not have happened under Ramos. It has nothing to do with tactics or team selection. It appears to be down to respect and comfort.
There have been reports that many Spurs players grew increasingly disillusioned with a Ramos regime that included strict guidelines on what types of food the players could eat and constant fitness work that didn’t translate into success on the field. Redknapp came in with an impressive record in English football that his players immediately respected. He also loosened up the buffet restrictions and allowed the players to eat whatever they wanted as long as they could string a few passes together.
Team morale is something that seems to be taken for granted in modern professional sports. The players get big money and we expect them to perform, no matter what. Maybe if they were robots this would be the case. When it comes down to people, it takes a real manager to get the best out of them.
Americans Abroad Report Card
English Premier League: Clint Dempsey came on for the final few minutes as Fulham lost 1-0 at Everton on Saturday. Former Fulham ace Louis Saha scored the game winner in the 87th minute to hand Everton the victory. Tim Howard started in goal for Everton and made three saves in preserving his second straight clean sheet. The toffees move up to 7th place in the standings with the win.
Jonathan Spector is injured, missing West Ham United’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough. Hayden Mullins scored for the Hammers while Mido notched a late leveler for ‘Brough.
Brad Friedel should start for Aston Villa on Monday in their match at Newcastle United with Brad Guzan serving as his backup.
The Championship: Reading beat Bristol City 4-1 on Saturday. Marcus Hahnemann started in goal for Reading while Bobby Convey was once again left off the game day roster. Two goals from Kevin Doyle and one apiece from Noel Hunt and Kalifa Cisse eased the Royals to victory. Former MLS standout Stern John scored for Bristol City.
Watford lost 4-3 at home to Blackpool. Jay Demerit started and played 90 minutes for Watford. Will Hoskins, Grzegorz Rasiak and Tommy Smith scored for the Hornets while Keith Southern, Ben Burgess, Gary Taylor-Fletcher and Alan Gow scored for Blackpool.
Eddie Johnson was a 55th minute substitute in Cardiff City’s 2-1 loss to Wolverhampton. Chris Iwelumo and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake scored for Wolves while Ross McCormack tallied for Cardiff. Frank Simek did not make the bench for Sheffield Wednesday in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.
Germany: Steve Cherundolo started and went 90 minutes for Hannover 96 in their 3-nil win over Hamburg. Sal Zizzo did not make the substitutes bench. Bastian Schulz, Jan Schlaudraff and Jiri Stajner scored for Hannover. Michael Bradley was a 56th minute substitute for Borussia Monchengladbach in their 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt. A Marco Russ own goal gave ‘Gladbach the early lead before goals from Martin Fenin and Michael Fink led the visitors to victory.
Neven Subotic started in the heart of defense for Borussia Dortmund in their 1-1 draw with VfL Bochum. Mohamed Zidan scored for Dortmund while Tomasz Zdebel provided the Bochum tally. Bryan Arguez was not involved for Hertha Berlin in their 5-1 loss to Werder Bremen.
Heath Pearce was a half time substitute for Hansa Rostock in their 1-0 loss to RW Oberhausen in 2.Bundesliga action. Julian Luttmann scored the only goal of the game. Grover Gibson came on for the final 8 minutes of Ahlen’s 2-0 loss to Mainz. Feliz Borja and Tim Hoogland scored for Mainz.
David Yelldell started and played 90 minutes in goal for TuS Koblenz in their 1-1 draw with MSV Duisburg. Matt Taylor also started for Koblenz but was removed after 73 minutes of action. Emmanuel Krontiris scored for Koblenz while Cedric Makiadi answered for Duisburg.
Gregg Berhalter and 1860 Munich take on Luis Robles and Kaiserslautern at the Fritz-Walter Stadion on Monday evening.
Scotland: DaMarcus Beasley was a 74th minute substitute for Rangers in their 5-0 win over Inverness at Ibrox. Maurice Edu had to be content with a place amongst the substitutes. Kris Boyd scored a hat trick for Rangers who also received goal-scoring contributions from Nacho Novo and Kenny Miller.
France: Carlos Bocanegra started at his usual left back position for Rennes in their 1-0 win over Sochaux. A second minute Jimmy Briand penalty kick proved to be enough for Rennes to preserve the victory. Freddy Adu did not make the game day roster for Monaco in their 3-2 win over Le Harve. Andrew Jacobson was not named to the squad for Lorient’s 1-1 draw with Grenoble.
Spain: Jozy Altidore scored his first goal in Spain for Villareal in their 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao. Giuseppe Rossi, Robert Pires and Santi Cazorla also scored for Villareal. Altidore, who had only come on moments early, scored in the 90th minute off a feed from Cazorla to finish off the scoring.
Belgium: Oguchi Onyewu started and played 90 minutes for Standard Liege in their 2-1 loss to Royal Charleroi on Friday. Mouhssine Lajour and Mahamedou Habibou scored for Charleroi while Benjamin Nicaise scored for Liege. The loss drops Standard to 4th place in the Jupiler League standings.
Italy: Danny Szetela and Brescia take on Livorno in Serie B action on Monday night.
Graig Carbino covers American Abroad and writes a weekly column for USSoccerPlayers. Contact him at graiger11@yahoo.com
