The 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League kicked off yesterday and we had a few Yanks in action with their respective clubs.
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Well, I guess this will be my final FC Shirak update. After quite an extesive search, I was unable to find any articles regarding Edgar Espinoza and/or Eder Arreola and their status with the Armenian club, but Shirak’s roster on their wiki page has finally been updated and neiter of these guys were listed with their first team or their reserves. So, it looks like nether of these guys took place in their 1-1. home leg draw where they conceded an 87′ equalizer v FC Spartak Trnava from the Slovak Super Liga.
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Will John started and played 82′ in RoPS’ 1-1 draw v Croatian club NK Lokomotiva. It looked like the Finnish club was on the way to a loss after defender Abdou Jammeh conceded an own goal in the 74′, but he redeemed himself when he grabbed the equalizer only 3 minutes from full time. Back up goal keeper Tyler Back was not in the 18 for the home side for this one.
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Perry Kitchen came off injured in the 30′ which “brought a premature end to what had been a fine display by the USA international” in Heart of Midlothian’s scoreless draw v Maltese club Birkirkara FC. It looks like he tweaked his hamstring so he probably won’t be fit for the home leg next week.
A couple of the Grand Poobah-type USMNT writers have put together some pretty good summaries of the younger guys in the system from different points of view.
Brian Sciaretta over at ASN discusses where our youngsters stand and what we can expect from them with their clubs over in Europe while Will Parchman put together a list of the top, uncapped lads coming through the pipe-line.
Lyndon Gooch wasn’t on either of the previous lists, but was put on another one. The Daily Mail gives us the Premier League starlets pushing to make a first-team breakthrough this season which spotlights 2 guys from each club who will hope to break in with their respective 1st teams. The 20 year old attacking midfielder made some great strides last season which earned him a contract extension this summer.
Out of contract keeper Cody Cropper is apparently training with Minnesota United FC. The 23 year old shot stopper was released from his English 2nd tier club MK Dons at the end of last season and hasn’t found a new home yet. This training, however, looks to be nothing more than him trying to stay fit as opposed to a possible permanent move.
I really don’t know much about this cat, but he just joined Sheffield Wednesday FC in the Football Championship.. James Murphy
is an 18 year old midfielder from New Jersey and he’s just signed a 3 year deal that will keep him at the storied Hillsborough Stadium through the 2018-19 season.
Well, I didn’t see an official “no” anywhere, (and believe me, I’ve been looking!) but it looks like Oguchi Onyewu was not offered a contract with Rangers FC. The 34 year old center half spent 10 days on trial with the Scottish club while they were training in the US last week.and played in an exhibition match v the Charleston Battery. So, the reason I believe that he wasn’t offered a contract is that Rangers have released a full list of this season’s squad numbers and I didn’t see The Gooch…too bad. I would’ve liked to see him get another shot.
Sam's Mini Army 