Yanks Abroad Weekend Report

Another Yanks Abroad weekend in the books, another shut out for Carlos Bocanegra and Rennes. What’s new?

- This weekend, Carlos helped shut down St. Etienne in Ligue 1 action, helping lead Rennes to a 3-0 smashing, and subsequently driving them to 4th place in the league table. This marked Rennes 11th shutout in all competitions so far this year. Seriously, if Boca can make such a huge impact to this iron curtain that Rennes has for a defense at left-back, makes you wonder what he could do there for the national team as well. Especially if that Neven Subotic fellow, or anyone else willing to step up, makes a run on the road to 2010. Heath Pearce, wherever he went, should begin worrying right about now.

- Another stalwart of the USA backline, this time from the right side, Steve Cherundolo continues to enjoy a decent season with Hannover 96 in the German Bundesliga. Sadly, Hannover doesn’t seem like it can following suit. Steve played another full 90 this weekend away to FC Köln in a 2-1 loss in which he collected a yellow card. The loss dropped Hannover to 13th place in the table.

- Michael Bradley continued his streak of good playing time with Borussia Monchengladbach (even after writing this in countless posts over the last few months, I cannot get over how ridiculous a name and spelling that is. Truly remarkable when you stop and think about it. Honestly) this weekend as he put in another full 90 to help lead M’gladbach to a crucial victory Away to Arminia Bielefeld. With the way the season has been going for Mike’s team thus far, 3 points is always a holiday. They currently sit at 14th in the Bundesliga and are staring right in the face of a terrifying match up against powerhouse Bayern Munich. Hmm, as I recall, true or not, Bayern was rumored to be in for Michael’s signature at one point, and with Jurgen Klinsmann, a man with many a USA soccer and connection, in charge, could this be a little tryout for Michael in case M’gladbach were to go down after this year? You never know… I sure would appreciate it from a typing standpoint.

- Oguchi Onyewu had himself some extended play this past week, as he was showing his stuff in both UEFA Cup and Belgian League action for club squad Standard Liege. Going 90 minutes in both encounters, Gooch helped lead Standard to a 1-0 win over Spanish power Sevilla in the midweek, then provided some more strength in the backline against Germinal Beerschot in a 3-1 result. Standard Liege now sits in second place in the table.

- As for the youngsters, Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu, the weekend provided them no action. Jozy did not suit up for Villarreal in a 2-1 win over Almeria a week after scoring his first La Liga goal, and Freddy Adu failed to get off the pine for Monaco in a 1-0 loss to Lyon.