El Guzano Debuts / America Gets Pillaged in War for Playing Time

First off, sorry all for such a long delay in posting; been a little busy recently but it looks like Brooks has debuted enough new features to keep you busy for a couple blue moons.

Anyhoo…

Another Yank Abroad made his European club debut this week, and that man is goal keeper Brad Guzan. Guzan started and went the full 90 for Aston Villa in their Carling Cup match against Queens Park Rangers. That’s nice and all, but it’s about where the good ends. Guzan didn’t play bad, he made 4 saves and only conceded one goal, but that one goal was enough to put Villa out of the cup with a 1-0 decision going to Rangers in an early round upset. The Carling Cup was supposed to be a main source of Guzan’s playing time, as fellow American Brad Friedel has a stranglehold on the starting keeper possession in prem and fa cup matches. Sadly, barring an injury or freak accident or mental breakdown on Friedel’s part (not happening); this will be the last playing time Guzan sees all year. Even so, backing the best American keeper ever for a European contender ain’t a bad place for the kid to be.

Guzan wasn’t the only Yank Abroad to go out in a cup competition and have his hopes of playing time dashed this week. Freddy Adu, another young yank looking to impress his manager in the French cup competitions, played 69 minutes in a 1-0 Monaco loss to PSG. Now Adu is going to need to fight even harder to beat out manager favorite Park Chu-Young for playing time in the midfield.

And just for good measure, although he doesn’t need to impress anyone for playing time, Tim Howard’s Everton side bowed out of the Carling Cup as well in a 1-0 loss to Blackburn.

Oh yeah, and Jozy didn’t dress for Villarreal’s 2-0 winning over Danny Szetela’s old side, Racing Santander. This marks the second fixture in a row Jozy did not see the field. It is understandable though, as Turkish Euro 2008 hero Nihat has just recently returned from injury. Jozy may still see sporadic opportunities throughout the year, as Villarreal seem to have a pretty injury prone front line, and if not will be loaned out to a smaller side to gain the experience he needs to compete in La Liga in the very near future.

A rough week for Yanks Abroad indeed.

Thoughts?