A Football Report

By Saf Hossain, writing hours after returning from Craven Cottage

Attending a live match is, obviously, an entirely different experience to watching on TV. When you are free of the director’s control, you might choose to follow an individual on the field for long periods of the game. This happened as I was sitting in the Putney End of Craven Cottage as Fulham took on Juventus in the Europa League. Seventy-one minutes had elapsed, and the sign went up to signal that Clint Dempsey was coming on. I tracked everything Dempsey did after entering the game for ten minutes. Ten minutes later he floated the winning goal over the ‘keeper’s head, slaying a giant of the European game. Since then, I’ve been singing Deuce’s praises to any football fan who will listen.

Only now are the British football audience truly waking up to Dempsey’s quality. It isn’t a surprise that they are finally doing so, since the Texan today completed a brace of hat-tricks in January. Moreover, Dempsey has become the all-time American top-scorer in the Premier League and Fulham’s record scorer in the top flight of English football. Impressive titles, and the notion that a larger, richer, possibly Champions League-playing suitor will come in for the attacker seems an eventuality. How do (all due respect) smaller clubs’ fans rationalise one of their superstars moving on? Even as the most casual of Fulham followers (I support Liverpool, go figure) I’ve romanticised that Dempsey would stay loyal to the little club on the banks of the Thames. However, from what I know of soccer in the US, it certainly sounds like Dempsey has earned his place in the limelight.

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By Eric Beard, writing from Boston

“You brought us across the Atlantic for this?” - Piqué may or may not have been saying.

After a season of controversy and division amongst Real Madrid and Barcelona’s stars, the United States decided to present Spain with a gift. The team that knocked out La Furia Roja in the 2009 Confederations Cup would submissively allow the best in the world to do whatever they please. Vicente Del Bosque, hoping to recreate a unified ambiance in the dressing room, could not have been more grateful. The largest crowd ever to see at US Soccer match at Gillette Stadium, over 64,000 fans, including myself, paid to see a well played match, however, by the end of the second half there were fans in the American Outlaws supporters section shouting, “Bob Bradley stole my wallet.” That argument is wholly fair, though perhaps the blame partially lies within the US Soccer federation for scheduling this friendly three days before their Gold Cup opener against Canada, which the US coach never let out of his focus.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in New England, “The Greater Good” took precedent over the opportunity to challenge the world’s best given Bob Bradley’s machiavellian mindset. But it’s hard to look past what was lost.

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By (dead tired) Chi Huynh, from Los Angeles

Several news outlets are rehashing the rumour that Fulham’s utility forward & winger, Clint Dempsey, may be preparing for a transfer to Merseyside.  The transfer would reunite Dempsey with his former Fulham boss, Roy Hodgson.

The rumour connects Deuce with the sum of 10-million pounds.

Although Liverpool are stacked with fowards, injuries to both Torres and Kuyt this season have seen a depleted goal-scoring frontline.  Hodgson’s move for Dempsey could be a good choice in some eyes.  But is it a good idea is the question.  With Monday night’s beautiful showing of David N’Gog and barely used Ryan Babel against Villa, Hodgson may not need to add another striker/winger to the line-up but rather look to his bench for more inspiration.

The other factor to look at is whether or not Mark Hughes is willing to part with his best player.  Dempsey has scored 5 goals in Premier League play this season as it stands, and with the Cottagers standing just outside of the relegation zone, Hughes may want to hold onto Dempsey as his only saviour.

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By Eric Beard

Fulham fans are a lively bunch. You don’t hear too many people bashing the way Fulham goes about with their business. So when the 20,000 Cottagers chanted “Disgrace to the Premier League” about Mick McCarthy’s Wolverhampton Wanderers, there was reason behind the gesture. Not only had Wolves earned six yellow cards and a red, but Fulham’s living legend Bobby Zamora had his right leg broken by Wolves captain Karl Henry and won’t be back on the pitch for about four months..

Fulham managed to pull themselves together and fight back from 1-nil down to win 2-1 in injury time. But three points isn’t enough to compensate for four Zamora-less months. And the Fulham players knew that, as Clint Dempsey came right up to Karl Henry and verbally abused him like only a part-athlete, part-rapper could do. Clint’s colourful language essentially accused Henry of deliberately breaking Zamora’s ankle. Surely it’s a serious declaration to accuse a fellow professional of hurting another internationally, but did Dempsey’s outrage have merit?

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Posted by Eric Beard.  The interwebs are dangerous, but don’t worry, here’s the best of the beautiful game that I found this week.

Spain’s legendary announcer Camacho celebrating with uncontrollably passionate gestures [Dirty Tackle]

Emotion no substitute for clear thinking: Tim Vickery’s brilliant analysis on why Dunga and Maradona failed. [BBC]

Cristiano’s accidental son is American. Can we get him ready for 2022? [Who Ate All the Pies]

Are the Oranje favourites? Don’t act so surprised! [Yanks Are Coming]

Bandwagon World Cup fans are fine, until they start questioning the beautiful game’s legitimacy. [TwoFootedTackle]

Arne Friedrich scored his first goal for Germany in the World Cup, and now he’s on his way to Wolfsburg. [In the Stands]

Is AC Milan about to say hello to Il Deuce? [The Shin Guardian]

South Africa is showing us a new generation of legends [The Soccer Guys]

Dunga’s resignation letter [Fútbolita]

Does Roy Hodgson have his eyes set on Ashley Young? [Football Corner]

By Eric Beard

Before the World Cup, I was able to talk to Dempsey the day before the US National Team’s Czech Republic friendly. In response to whether he would like to play for a bigger club than Fulham Dempsey said, “Yeah, that would be awesome to one day play for a big club and play Champions League, but right now I’m enjoying my football at Fulham and we’ll have to see what happens.”

Well, the opportunity to play Champions League football may have just come for Dempsey, who was one the United States’ best players at the 2010 World Cup, scoring against England and creating chance after chance against Ghana in the Round of 16. AC Milan are seriously looking into making a bid for the Fulham star, who was part of Roy Hodgson’s incredible Europa League campaign. Though Dempsey signed a contract extension with Fulham through 2013, he may be able to leave the Premier League relatively easily because Roy Hodgson is reportedly leaving Fulham to manage Liverpool.

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By Eric Beard, writing from Boston

Over the course of 90 minutes I felt like I was slowly starting to lose faith in humanity. After all, the United States were going up against everything from well-worked goals being disallowed to red card offenses being ignored. It looked hopeless, and yet the air in Pretoria was incomprehensibly filled with hope. And thankfully, the game lasts a little longer than 90 minutes. As Emerson once wrote, “Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.” Though I may have pondered Bob Bradley’s decision to start Jonathan Bornstein over the gargantuan Oguchi Onyewu, I never, for a second, stopped trusting them. And after the likes of Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Tim Howard proved themselves to be world-class throughout the last two matches, I knew that these men embodied greatness.

Great teams have composure, self-belief, and, most importantly, talent. If the US side was not as talented as they were, no one would have expected a win this Wednesday. As Landon Donovan stated after his seemingly immaculate 91^st minute game-winner, the United States’ leader said, “I’m so glad it culminated this way. When you try to do things the right way, it’s good to get rewarded.” It is worth noting that the “right way” does not include throwing elbows that cause your opponent to bleed, trying to hurt someone recovering from an ankle injury (Jozy Altidore), and losing confidence in yourself. The beautiful game often turns ugly, but that is only because it is so easy to see when a team is playing the game with a positive or negative mindset.

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