Friedel/Kirovski: Birmingham City vs. Blackburn Rovers, 8/24 10a (R)

Hey BuffloSoldier...

Thanks.

 

I'll second that, and add "very much"

 

FT City 0-1 Rovers
icBirmingham

TeamTalk

Rovers MAD

The Guardian

Ananova

SoccerNet

The Beautiful Game

SkySports

icBirmingham

Scotsman

 

something just occurred to me

Were Brad and Stern John ever teammates? Because if so, I think this would be the first time ex-MLS teammates have ever faced each other in a European game.

 

Re: something just occurred to me

No. Friedel left for Liverpool after the 1997 seaon. John was a Crew "Discovery" signing in the preseason of 1998.



And gee, it sure is nice of Brian to post 3,412 quotes about Dwight Yorke, (including two sets of identical ones - ya really ought to take a second and actually READ what you post, IMO) but, well, last time I looked Dwight was from T & T, which sort of disqualifies him for the "Yanks Abroad" appelation.

Maybe we should ask to have a "Trinidad and Tobagians Abroad" Forum.

It seems it might be just a tad more appropriate to post quotes about the Yank who DID play, whose name is, um, well, Friedel. Quotes like the ones from Sky:

MAN OF THE MATCH: Brad Friedel (Blackburn)
An absolutely world class save denied John a late equaliser. The Rovers keeper was outstanding throughout.

...City had numerous chances to equalise but were constantly denied by some world class goalkeeping from Brad Friedel.

A Johnson right-wing cross found John on the rise, the striker hanging in the air superbly before powering in a header destined for the top left-hand corner, only to be denied by a world class save from Friedel.


...or TEAMTALK:

Birmingham showed courage as Stern John's effort was cleared off the line before Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel made wonderful blocks to deny a Martin Grainger free-kick and goal-bound John and Darren Purse headers.

...or Soccernet:

Before the break, Stern John saw a thunderous drive cannon off the legs of Craig Short, while United States international Brad Friedel superbly tipped away a Martin Grainger 22-yard free-kick.

After the interval, the pressure remained intense with Friedel first plucking a Geoff Horsfield flick header out of the air, prior to a moment of inspiration which seemed to take the heart out of City.

A Damien Johnson right-wing cross found John on the rise, the striker hanging in the air superbly before powering in a header destined for the top left-hand corner, only to be denied by the brilliance of Friedel as the American somehow clawed the ball away.

It seems to me that it's not particularly noteworthy that Dwight Yorke managed to sober up long enough to do his damn job, but that a "Yank Abroad" apparently had a superlative match.

One man's view.