Yanks Abroad Ticker

Slow week for soccer folks, but here are a few tidbits to get you through till Saturday:

Eddie Johnson is having a stellar preseason for Fulham, scoring a goal and recording two assists in two games during Fulham's preseason tour through Australia. Granted it's not Premiership opposition, the fact that hes scoring goals and getting chances shows that he's growing after a full season spent on loan with Cardiff City. With Bobby Zamora likely to leave for Hull City soon, this will only give Johnson more opportunities to impress Roy Hodgeson. I for one am glad to see him playing (finally) to his potential. He impressed in a few games at Cardiff City during a season where he made 30 appearances and scored two goals, after getting only six games for Fulham after his transfer from Kansas City.


Danny Szetela is set to return to MLS after stints with Racing Santander in Spain and Brescia Calcio in Italy. Szetela, who could never nail down a starting spot at either club only made a couple appearances for Santander, and even though he saw the field 26 times for Brescia and scored a goal, his loan ended and has let go from La Liga. FC Dallas are tops in the allocation spot, but are expected to pass which would mean he's likely to end up with DC United.

UPDATE: Szetela has officially signed with DC United.

The players for the game against Panama continues to dwindle. With overseas commitments the following players have left:

Charlie Davies- FC Sochaux
Freddy Adu- SL Benfica
Steve Cherundolo- Hannover 96
Michael Parkhurst- FC Nordsjaelland
Benny Feilhaber- AGF Aarhus

That group forms a strong core of players that would've made the trip to a third consecutive Gold Cup much easier, now, the group looks quite thin. Here is a potential starting line-up vs Panama on Saturday:

--------------------Perkins

Evans------Goodson------Marshall------Pearce

------------Beckerman----Holden

Quaranta------------------------------Rogers

-------------Ching---------Cooper

Of course there are still the now six extra players allocated to the US for the Gold Cup, who are Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein, Josmer Altidore, Brad Guzan, Conor Casey and Ricardo Clark. Kljestan or Clark would be a good addition to partner Beckerman because Holden is better on the right wing. Nothing much you can do about Evans starting at right back, unnatural, but he'll have to deputize for now.