As the European seasons wrap up, I'll summarize the stats of YA's overseas. Here is England and Holland. My source is Soccernet. Italy, Germany, and France, have 3, 1, and 2 games left respectively. Soccernet does not appear to have stats for League One (Whitbread, Smith) or the Eerste Divisie (Kazlauskas). England Premiership (38 league games) Everton Tim Howard – 36 games started for 217 saves, 29 goals conceded, 15 wins, 8 losses, 13 draws and 1 yellow card in the Premiership. An additional 2 starts for 8 more saves, 5 more goals conceded, and 2 more losses in cup competitions. Overall GAA of 0.89. Bolton Johann Smith – 1 substitute appearance in the Premiership. 2 additional substitute appearances in cup competitions. Reading Marcus Hahnemann – 38 games started for 247 saves, 45 goals conceded, 16 wins, 15 losses, 7 draws, and 1 yellow card in the Premiership. Was an unused sub in all cup matches. Overall GAA of 1.22 Bobby Convey – 8 games started and 1 substitute appearance for 3 assists in the Premiership. An additional 3 starts and 1 assist in cup competitions. Blackburn Brad Friedel – 38 games started for 241 saves, 54 goals conceded, 15 wins, 16 losses, 7 draws and one assist(!) in the Premiership. An additional 15 games started for 57 saves, 11 goals conceded, 8 wins, 3 losses, and 4 draws in cup competition (includes UEFA). Overall GAA of 1.24. Newcastle Oguchi Onyewu – 7 games started and 4 substitute appearances in the Premiership. Onyewu arrived with 13 games left in the Premiership season, and he was ineligible for any other competitions Newcastle was in. Giuseppe Rossi – 3 games started and 8 substitute appearances for 1 yellow card in the Premiership. Another 2 starts for 1 goal in cup competitions. Giuseppe appears to have been around for 19 of Newcastle's EPL games. Man City Claudio Reyna – 12 games started and 3 substitute appearances for 2 yellow cards in the league. 1 additional start in cup competitions. Claudio’s last game was Man City’s 18th EPL game of the season. Damarcus Beasley – 11 games started and 7 substitute appearances for 3 goals, 1 assist, and 1 yellow in the league. 2 additional starts and 2 substitute appearances for 1 goal in cup competitions. Beasley’s first game was Man City’s 5th EPL game of the season. West Ham Jonathan Spector – 17 games started and 8 substitute appearances for 5 yellow cards (tied for 3rd on the team) in the Premiership. 2 additional starts and 1 additional sub appearance in cup competitions. Fulham Brian McBride – 34 games started (3rd on the team) and 4 substitute appearances for 9 goals (1st on the team, tied for 23rd in the league) and 4 assists (tied for 1st on the team) in the Premiership. 3 additional games started for 3 goals in cup competitions. Carlos Bocanegra – 26 games started and 4 substitute appearances for 5 goals (2nd on the team), 1 assist, and 5 yellow cards (4th on the team) in the Premiership. 3 additional games started for 2 yellow cards in cup competitions. Clint Dempsey – 1 game started and 9 substitute appearances for 1 goal in the Premiership. 2 additional substitute appearances in cup competitions. Clint’s first game for Fulham was their 24th of the season. Charlton Cory Gibbs was injured for the entire season. Watford Jay Demerit – 30 games started (tied for 3rd on the team) and 3 substitute appearances for 2 goals and 4 yellow cards (tied for 3rd on the team) in the Premiership. An additional 7 starts for 1 yellow card in cup competitions. Championship (46 league games) Wolverhampton Jemal Johnson – 14 games started, 6 substitute appearances for 3 goals and 2 yellow cards in the league. An additional 4 substitute appearances in other competitions Sheffield Wednesday Frank Simek – 41 games started (2nd highest on the team), 1 goal, 2 assists (tied for 3rd on the team), 7 yellows and 1 red in the league. An additional 3 starts in cup competitions. Leeds United Eddie Lewis – 39 games started (led the team) and 1 substitute appearance for 3 goals (tied for 5th highest on the team), 5 assists (led the team), and 3 yellows in the league. An additional 4 starts in cup competitions. Jemal Johnson – 3 starts and 2 substitute appearances for 1 yellow card, all in the league. Holland Eredivisie (34 league games) Heerenveen Michael Bradley – 6 starts and 15 substitute appearances for 4 yellow cards in the league. An additional 4 substitute appearances and 1 additional yellow card in UEFA cup, and an additional 2 substitute appearances in post-season playoffs.
The Germany update: Germany 1.Bundesliga (34 league games) Hamburg SV Benny Feilhaber – 6 starts and 3 substitute appearances in the Bundesliga. An additional start and 2 substitute appearances in other competitions. Hannover 96 Steve Cherundolo – 33 starts (tied for 2nd on the team) for 2 goals, 1 assist, 3 yellow cards, and 1 red card in the Bundesliga. An additional 2 starts and 1 yellow card in cup competitions. VfL Wolfsburg Kamani Hill – 9 substitute appearances, all in the Bundesliga. Kamani’s first appearance came in the 18th league game of the season. Mainz Conor Casey – 2 substitute appearances, both in the Bundesliga. Conor’s last appearance was in Mainz’s 11th league game of the season. Borussia M’gladbach Kasey Keller – 28 starts in the Bundesliga for 6 wins, 15 losses, 7 draws, and 34 goals conceded. GAA of 1.24. Soccernet does not have stats for 2.Bundesliga (Berhalter, Wolff, Grenier).
The France Update: France Ligue 1 (38 games) AC Troyes Quentin Westberg - made 1 start and 1 sub appearance in league games. Allowed 3 goals in 130 minutes, made 2 saves. Troyes won the one game he started. GAA of 2.08.
TSV 1860 München Berhalter - 3.62 Kicker rating. 29 matches, 3 goals (1 off PK), 7 yellows, 1 red Yosh Vulf - 3.70 Kicker rating 10 matches (subbed out in one), 2 goals, 2 assists. TuS Koblenz: Josh Grenier, 3.69 Kicker rating 29 matches (once subbed out), 1 assist, 8 yellows.
The Italy Update: Italy Serie A - 38 matches Sampdoria Gabriel Ferrari - made one sub appearance in the Italian Cup. Joined the club in January. Parma Giuseppe Rossi - 19 games started in Serie A for 9 goals, 4 assists, and 3 yellow cards. 1 substitute appearance in European competition. His first game with Parma was their 20th league game, meaning he played in every league game once he joined the club.
Yes, thanks for the summary. Am I the only Yank feeling a bit nervous about the YAs? During the last 10 years, more and more Americans went abroad and established themselves. Guys like McBride, Reyna, Friedel & Keller all became regular long-term starters at big(gish) clubs. Even guys like Hejduk, Beasley, O'Brien, Kirovski, and Tim Howard did enough for big enough clubs to play in the CL. But most of those players (except Howard & DMB) are near the end of their careers as YAs, and it's hard to see the guys who might match or surpass those achievements in the next 5 years. Some promising YA's seem to have plateau'd (DMB, Boca, Gooch?, Wolff)... ... a few are snakebit (Gibbs, Convey) ... one guy doesn't want to be a YA (Rossi) ... a lot are destined to be journeymen, and, ... a few are still young and showing promise So what gives? Am I right? Is this a blip, or are YA's hitting some sort of glass ceiling? If so, why? There are a lot more Yanks giving Europe a shot, why haven't more made a real impact?
To be honest, I think your perceptions are off. Here's last year's version (only England though). https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=346620 As to your specific comments, I tend to disagree. Beasley played in 10 fewer games for Man City this year than he did for PSV last year, but had the same number of goals (4) and assists (1). http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=21583&cc=5901 Bocanegra played much more this year than last - and when he did, he got to play in the center, and the coach even trusted him as a makeshift DM - he played out of position much less this year. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=40914&cc=5901 Gooch played half of a season for Newcastle, and half for Standard, which is a step up from a whole season for Standard, even if he's not there next year. And was Wolff ever really promising? He didn't go abroad until he was 30, and most people agree that it was for a payday. I don't have the numbers to back it up, but I am fairly confident that the number of top-flight (EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Eredivisie plus cup games and UEFA competitions) games played by Americans has monotonically increased each year in the last 5. Even if we exclude Rossi. We, as fans, just have higher expectations every year.