Three American Abroad clubs involved in second-legs of Europa League qualifying, though one of them featured no American involvement. Fulham advanced with a 1-0 loss to Amkar Perm, holding up their 3-1 opening leg win. Eddie Johnson was an unused substitute and Clint Dempsey didn't travel after picking up a slight ankle injury in training. Considering it was a five hour flight with a game against Aston Villa on Sunday, early reports had Dempsey's absence as precautionary.
Villa was also in action, with Brad Guzan getting the start against Rapid Vienna. Though Villa won 2-1, it wasn't enough to overcome the aggregate goals tiebreaker. They exit the Europa League with a missed penalty in the 31st minute. James Milner converted his penalty in the 38th and John Carew had Villa up two goals in the 53rd. Nikica Jelavic scored the goal that put Vienna through in the 77th. "At 2-0 we had a number of chances to see off Rapid but it didn't materialize," manager Martin O'Neill told the club's official site. "Then you're open to the possibility of a goal at the other end and that's exactly what happened."
Everton started Tim Howard in a game where they carried a 4-0 advantage from the first-leg. Sigma Olomouc kept it closer in game two, drawing 1-1 with Everton going down a man after Tony Hilbert was sent off in the 7th minute. Steven Plenaar scored for Everton in the 43rd and Pavel Suites got Olomouc's equalizer in the 80th to end the series at 5-1 Everton on aggregate. Howard had ten saves on the night. "I am pleased we got through, Everton manager David Moyes said. "It was important for us. I thought we got better as the game went on. They put us under pressure but thankfully we defended well enough and got one ourselves."
