Haven’t done a links post in a while, so let’s dive in to start the week.
Geoff Cameron scored his second career Premier League goal on Sunday (highlights). Cameron is the first US defender to score twice in a Premier League season since Carlos Bocanegra in 2006-07 and he has just as many career Premier League goals as Jozy Altidore. His strong play in Sunday’s win over Aston Villa landed him on ESPN FC’s Team of the Week. We also had a Brek Shea sighting this weekend! Well, he at least dressed and made the gameday roster but did not see any game action.
Also this weekend, Aron Johannsson almost scored a goal (highlights). While it looks like he flicked the ball with his head, Steven Berghuis was credited with the goals so I guess he missed. Speaking of ArJo and AZ Alkmaar, they drew Benfica for the quarterfinals of Europa League.
Fabian Johnson made another start at right back for Hoffenheim and picked up another assist (highlights). If he continues to get playing time at right back, I might be open to a US backline of Johnson-Cameron-Besler-Beasley. While Cameron doesn’t play center back, I still like him over Omar Gonzalez at CB right now (I miss 2011 Omar Gonzalez) and Fabian Johnson playing right back would open that opportunity up. No matter what, Fabian Johnson’s ability to play multiple positions gives Jurgen Klinsmann options.
Also scoring a goal this weekend, Will John netted his seventh of the season in Azerbaijani Premier League action (highlights). Over in Ireland, Pat McCann scored twice in Finn Harps’ 5-0 win over Cobh Ramblers. And Bobby Warshaw scored a goal in his second game with GAIS in Sweden, a 2-1 loss to Helsingborg in the Swedish Cup.
Down in Mexico, Friday saw four Americans see the field as Tijuana (Edgar Castillo and Herculez Gomez) defeated Puebla (DaMarcus Beasley and Michael Orozco). Edgar Castillo assisted on Tijuana’s second goal, while DaMarcus Beasley assisted on Puebla’s lone goal (highlights).
Over the last week, Michael Stephens had scored twice for Stabæk in friendlies. Once against Start and the other game against Mix Diskerud and Rosenborg. Here is a Bob Bradley video interview following the win over Rosenborg.
Duane Holmes officially ended his loan with Yeovil Town last week. He ended up starting five games for the Glovers and now returns to Huddersfield Town where he was an unused sub over the weekend.
Will Packwood was awarded with the Football League’s Young Player of the Month Award for February.
While Packwood has had a resurgence since returning from his horrific leg injury, Marc Pelosi is apparently close to returning to fitness after missing the last year with his injury.
Noah Davis, writing for Grantland, takes a look at the last few months of Clint Dempsey’s career.
Top Draw Soccer’s Travis Clark gives us five “long shots” to keep an eye on for a last minute spot on the World Cup roster.
It looks like US Soccer has decided to start up an U-21 team to help bridge the gap between the U-20 and U-23 teams. With the U-23 team really only existing once every four years, this probably makes sense to keep youth players involved in the US system. The first U-21 camp is rumored to take place in April. Tigres already announced that Juan Ocegueda has been called in via their Twitter account.
It sounds like Erik Palmer-Brown could be playing with the U-20 team at the Dallas Cup. He would be playing up a U-20 cycle. The future looks bright with this one.
This is what Michael Bradley’s head looks like with a bunch of staples in it.
Nurnberg manager Gertjan Verbeek told the press last week that Chandler is likely done for the season with his knee injury. But someone at Nurnberg told Greg Seltzer that Chandler will resume individual training in 2-3 weeks, so maybe not?