Americans Take Lead as European Soccer Returns

They're the best athletes most Americans don't know and don't care about, but a number of them can claim with full authority that they are popular in Europe.

August marks the start of the European Football calendar, which means that the biggest clubs in soccer have just retaken the fields, and a number of them will depend on their American footballers.

DaMarcus Beasley, who recently moved to Scottish side Rangers, likely made the biggest splash of all this weekend. Beasley, who helped his team qualify for the next round of Champions League qualifiers by tallying a goal against Zeta, earned his first assist of the Scottish Premier League season. His assist to Daniel Cousin gave the Glasgow club a 1-0 lead in the first ten minutes of their match against St. Mirren. The match ended 2-0 in favor of Rangers.

Beasley, who spent most of last season out on loan to Manchester City in the English Premier League, was not welcomed back by PSV Eindhoven after his stint in England. Manchester City also did not opt to sign the left wing, but after a strong showing at the end of last season, the American earned a go in Scotland. Oddly enough, Rangers is also the club that helped Claudio Reyna (former U.S. National Team captain) earn his name in Europe. A good season or two at Rangers could help Beasley earn a real run in England. For now, his focus will likely be on finishing off qualification for the Champions League, as Rangers faces Crvena Zvezda in the final round of qualification.

Elsewhere in the U.K. this weekend, American goalkeepers put on good shows as both Brad Friedel and Tim Howard earned wins for their respective clubs. Friedel, who minded the nets for the U.S. in 2002, held off all but one of Stuart Downing's attacks for Middlesborough, helping Blackburn earn a 2-1 win against Boro. Fellow American keeper, Tim Howard, enjoyed a win by the same margin as Everton managed to overcome a remarkably improved Wigan Athletic side. Emile Heskey of Wigan kept Howard on his toes all game, but a late goal by Sibierski was the only ball that got past the American net-minder in Everton's 2-1 victory.

American defenders in England did not have the fortune of their goalkeeping-countrymen. Despite each defender earning a full 90 minutes in their openers, only one of them managed to earn a win. John Spector and West Ham United fell 2-0 to Manchester City in the Premier League. Meanwhile in the next tier down, Frank Simek earned a yellow card in Sheffield Wednesday's 4-1 loss to Ipswich Town.

Jay DeMerit, who spent last year in the Premier League with Watford before the team was relegated back to the lower tier, started once again for the Hornets as they faced Wolverhampton. Solid marking by DeMerit prevented a number of opportunities for Andy Keogh, but it was not enough to prevent Wolves from finding one goal in a 2-1 win for Watford.

In the Bundesliga this weekend, more frustrations came for American defenders, as Hannover 96 fell 1-0 Hamburg SV. Struggles for Steve Cherundolo and Hannover became apparent last season when the team was almost relegated to the Bundesliga 2. A loss to the start the season could certainly dent any confidence the team managed to build during the pre-season.

Kamani Hill, the young American forward at Wolfsburg failed to see action this week in Wolfsburg's 3-1 loss to Arminia Bielefeld. The youngster earned a number of appearances off the bench last season and even a handful of call-ups by the U.S. National Team, but for now, he'll have to endure some time on the bench as Wolfsburg looks to Sergiu Radu for goals.

Americans continued to struggle in the Bundesliga this weekend, when Bayern Munich faced Hansa Rostock. Hansa's newly acquired defender, Heath Pearce, was no match for the likes of the 2006 World Cup Golden Boot, Miroslav Klose, and the high powered Munich attack which includes Luca Toni of the reigning world champion, Italian National Team. Munich crushed Hansa 3-0.

In the Bundesliga 2, Ian Joy of St. Pauli had to sit on the side and watch St. Pauli fall 2-0 to FC Köln. The Köln attack supported by Maynor Suazo of Honduras and Kevin McKenna of Canada along with fellow St. Pauli bench-warmer, Johnathon Beaulieu-Bourgault of Canada, made it an all North American reunion, but their was no joy for the pair from St. Pauli.

Other Americans will soon make their 2007-2008 appearances. Brian McBride, Clint Dempsey, and Carlos Bocanegra are slated to make their first appearances tomorrow when Fulham FC faces Arsenal in an all London match. Meanwhile in Manchester, Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann will hope to lead Reading FC to victory against last year's Premier League winners, Manchester United.

On the continent, fans are waiting for the rest of the Bundesliga 2 to get started. Josh Wolff and Gregg Berhalter will try once again to pull Munich 1860 out of Liga 2 and into Liga 1. They'll have to face fellow American, Neven Subotic, when Munich travel to Mainz later this season, but hopes seem to be high that 1860 could rejoin their rivals, Bayern Munich, in the top level of German football.

Even more Americans will see action in top-flight European football as the Italian Serie A, Portugal's BWIN League, and the Dutch Eredivisie all begin in just a handful of days. Gabriel Ferrari of Sampdoria will hope to improve on his U-20 World Cup form; while fellow U-20 teammate Freddy Adu begins his European adventure with Benfica in Portugal. Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Michael Bradley and Lee Nguyen will likely face each other again this season when Heerenveen plays PSV Eindhoven later this year.

With more and more Americans playing larger roles at big European clubs, the chances of seeing American players in the Champions League continues to increase. Last year, Americans waited to catch a glimpse of Benny Feilhaber (formerly of Hamburg SV, now with Derby County in the Premier League) come off the bench or waited to see if FC Copenhagen would actually play Jamil Fearrington. This year, U.S. fans should anticipate seeing Freddy Adu and DaMarcus Beasley in the Champions League, and if Lee Nguyen can earn some regular minutes in Holland then there could be a third American in the Champions League.

For now with the season's openers largely behind us, it's time for American fans to smile as the yanks abroad continue to perform well across the Atlantic. With their club success comes success and respect for the U.S. National Team.