Tag: england

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Fulham’s Clint Dempsey will not be punished for throwing an elbow that broke the cheekbone of Chelsea’s John Terry. Referee Martin Atkinson apparently saw the incident and did not call a foul or include it in his game report to the English FA. Under FIFA guidelines, retroactive action is only supposed to take place if incident was not seen by the referee or if there has been a huge error in judgment.

[AMERICANS IN BRITAIN] Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was on the wrong end of a 7-4 loss to Portsmouth. Goalkeeper Tim Howard made his first appearance for English Premier League Everton since dislocating a finger while playing for the USA against Brazil on Sept. 9 and celebrated a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough 2-0. Kasey Keller got his second league start since joining Fulham as the Cottagers held Chelsea to a scoreless tie. Also starting for Fulham were Carlos Bocanegra and Clint Dempsey, who broke Chelsea captain John Terry’s cheekbone with an elbow [VIDEO] .

Everton’s win moved it into fifth place. Fulham remained at 16th place, ahead of 17th place Reading on goal difference.

[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] Two days after scoring for Reading in its 4-2 English League Cup loss to Liverpool, midfielder Bobby Convey limped off the practice field with a leg injury. Preliminary reports indicate Convey won’t be available this weekend, when he was hoping to make his first English Premier League start in 11 games. Convey, who was used as a sub in five EPL games this season, missed most of last season with a knee injury, appearing in only nine games (one start).

Arsenal, whose major shareholders include American Stan Kroenke, has laid claim to being England’s richest club after reporting an income of $400 million for the year ending May 31, 2007. Operating profits increased 274 percent, to $103.7 million, from the previous year.

So he could leave the Irish national team camp and skip a Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic, Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland claimed his maternal grandmother, who had helped raise him from age 5, had died. The Irish federation put him on a private plane to return home. When the grandmother announced that reports of her death were greatly exaggerated, the 21-year-old said it had been his paternal grandmother who had died. And if he had known it was that grandma, he wouldn’t have skipped the game. Well, that grandmother was also able to prove her existence – and she wasn’t too pleased to learn her demise wouldn’t warrant a national team absence.

[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] Benny Feilhaber made his English Premier League debut on Monday as an 80th minute sub for Derby County in a 1-0 win over Newcastle. Feilhaber, 22, joined Derby from Bundesliga club Hamburg SV in the offseason but was prevented from an earlier debut because of delays in his visa processing. The win was Derby’s first of the season and moved it out of last place.

[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND, GERMANY, BELGIUM] Days after being elected by fans as Fulham Player of the Month, Clint Dempsey scored his third EPL goal of the season in the 11th minute of Fulham’s 1-1 tie at Wigan. Fulham’s American defender Carlos Bocanegra hit the crossbar on a header. Blackburn, with Brad Friedel in goal, tied Chelsea, 0-0. Friedel made an acrobatic save in the 27th minute and stifled superbly a 84th minute effort by Andriy Shevchecko, who injured defender Christopher Samba on the play with a kick to the head.

Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson was attacked by a 40-year-old man at London’s Euston train station while en route to a 9/11 charity event. Ferguson suffered a leg injury but was able to attend the event.

An increase in television revenues and the arrival of new owners have triggered record spending by English Premier League clubs on the transfer market. English teams spent more than 530 million pounds ($1.1 billion) on players on the 2007 winter and summer markets, according to a report by Deloitte & Touche LLP. Spending by teams from Europe’s big 5 leagues during the summer window that ended Aug. 31 totaled about $2 billion.