Who said Clint Dempsey would be hurt by Bobby Zamora's exit to Queens Park Rangers? 

Dempsey may just be the most in form goal scorer in the English Premier League right now after notching his 10th league goal of the season and 16th across all competitions. Today's finish puts Dempsey behind only Robin van Persie (25), Wayne Rooney (18), and Sergio Aguero (17) for the most total goals from a Premier League player. 

However, Clint's goal in the 69th minute was not enough for the Cottagers to grab all three points, as West Brom found a late 82nd minute equalizer to split the spoils.  

Here are the match highlights... 
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In what was a fairly uneventful Deadline Day in the European transfer market compared to previous years, movement from US players was even less exciting. However, it is my duty to provide a quick rundown of all the "interesting" US moves from Friday....


1. Mikkel Diskerud moves from Norwegian club Stabaek to Belgium club KAA Gent

Diskerud's move is a loan arrangement with an option for Gent to purchase the contract at the end of the season, which would make the deal permanent. The 21-year-old attacking midfielder has played for Stabaek the past 4 seasons and has become a regular starter over the last 2, but the Norwegian club was forced to sell Diskerud due to financial problems. 

Diskerud is in contention for a spot on the US olympic team as he participated in Caleb Porter's January camp. Diskerud also has two senior caps.

Gent is currently in the 2nd position in Belgium's top tier league, but are 7 points behind Sacha Kljestan's club- Anderlecht.



2. Edson Buddle was officially released by Bundesliga 2 club FC Ingolstadt 

Edson Buddle has not yet moved, but we know where he will not play as FC Ingolstadt has officially released the US forward. Buddle like Diskerud was a victim of a club in financial trouble with Ingolstadt releasing Buddle despite his productivity with the club. Buddle scored 9 goals in his 31 club appearances and was one of Ingolstadt's leading goal-scorers this season. 

Buddle, who trained unsuccessfully on loan with Everton last month, is now rumored to be headed back to MLS with the LA Galaxy. This rumor was further perpetuated throughout the soccer world after former Galaxy GM Alexi Lalas confirmed Buddle's likely return. The Galaxy have right to first refusal if Buddle is to re-sign with the MLS since they never received a transfer fee when Buddle left for Europe. As a result, LA held on to Buddle's rights if he were to return.  



3. Charles Renken was signed by the MLS and the Portland Timbers
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After Friday gave US fans an early Super Bowl present with Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan squaring off against each other for the first time since 2006, the weekend had its far share of dramatic Yank moments as well. Goals from Fabian Johnson in the Bundesliga, DaMarcus Beasley in Mexico's Primera Division, and Oguchi Onyewu in the Portuguese Primeira Liga highlighted US success abroad over the last couple of days. 

Here is a quick rundown of what you might have missed including video highlights...


*Landon Donovan won the battle between the top 2 American players, as his two assists lifted Everton over Fulham by a 2-1 scoreline. The win advances the Toffees to the 5th round of the FA Cup and eliminates Fulham from this domestic competition.

Donovan played two perfectly weighted crosses, which allowed Denis Stracqualursi and Marouane Fellaini to score headers in the 27th and 73rd minutes respectively. The goals completed an Everton comeback after Danny Murphy converted a penalty kick early on in the match to initially put the Cottagers in front. 

Here are the match higlights and Donovan's assists...

I can’t lie to you. I was so bored watching the USA v. Panama match that I actually dozed off in the 42nd minute. As much as I love my country and US soccer, a USA v. Panama friendly was never going to be a sexy match after spending the day watching knockout soccer featuring Liverpool v. Manchester City and The Classico between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Even so the USA-Panama game was just boring. With that said, here are some quick thoughts.

We have come to the end of the January friendlies for the US Men's National Team and this can only mean one thing - time to find out who helped their case for when World Cup qualifiers roll around and who fell flat on their face.

Both matches during this past week were rather uneventful and quite lackluster with the U.S. scrounging out two 1-0 victories over inferior opponents. These matches were meant to be learning experiences for many of these players, a test to see whether or not they will be of any use to Klinsmann once World Cup Qualifiers get underway. To be blatantly honest, there was not one player who grabbed this opportunity by the throat and took it.  

Some of you may say Jermaine Jones did, after all he had two solid performances in which he went 90 minutes and captained an inexperienced side, but we already knew what Jones is capable of and this just confirmed his abilities.

If anybody made a bit of a splash in this friendly you would have to say it was Graham Zusi. He put in two soid performances along with a game winning goal in the Panama match. One telling sign that Klinsi liked what he saw out of Zusi was the fact that he chose to start Zusi on the right side of midfield instead of a more experienced player in Benny Feilhaber (don't worry, i'll get to Benny shortly).

The US sported a new formation Wednesday night in Panama City, but Klinsmann saw a similar lackluster performance from his squad. Despite the unorganized mess the US put forth on the pitch, they did come away with the result with Graham Zusi providing the lone goal of the match. It was the Yanks 3rd 1-0 win in the Klinsmann era out of the 4 victories the German born coach has accumulated thus far and only the US' 7th goal in 9 matches played in this stretch of games I like to call the "goal-less friendlies". To put it lightly the US have had trouble scoring. 

In case you missed the match I will quickly breakdown what you missed, although you didn't miss much trust me....

1st Half:

- Klinsmann opted to align his squad in a 4-4-2 formation, instead of his popularized 4-3-3

- The starting lineup was as follows: (Rimando; DeLaGraza, Cameron, Parkhurst, Loyd; Zusi, Clark, Jones, Shea; Wondolowski, Bunbury)

- GOAL! 1-0 US. Both teams started off slow until the 9th minute when Graham Zusi was given a late New Years present. Zach Loyd started it all of by swinging in a dangerous cross into the box. Wondolowski attempted to get his head on the cross and may have barely succeeded but ultimately the ball landed on the heels of Teal Bunbury. Bunbury luckily knocked it to Zusi, who was left completely unmarked from about 7 yards from goal. The goalie rushed out to Zusi, but Zusi made no doubt about it and slammed the ball home. 

Check out Zusi's goal... 

Last time out the US Men's National Team recorded a rather routine 1-0 victory over Venezuela, despite the fact they did not breakthrough until Rico's 97th minute goal. Wednesday night figures to be anything but routine for the US squad, even though Panama is ranked 47th in the FIFA rankings, it is NEVER an easy task to go to any country in Central America and get a result. Also when you take into account that a good deal of the US roster has never played a full national team match in Central America, let alone Panama's raucous Estadio Rommel Fernandez, well that is a recipe of a dish I would be a bit hesitant to try.

For many of the guys on this roster, this game is quite possibly their final chance to show Jurgen Klinsmann that they can compete on the international level and can contribute to the US' efforts to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. There is no way to simulate a World Cup qualifier, but this game is about as close as some of these players may get to stepping on the hot grounds at Azteca.

A good performance in a game like this will not necessarily guarantee a player a spot on the 'A' squad but it will undoubtedly put them on the short list of last minute replacements for World Cup qualifiers. We all know that this list will come in great use once qualifying is under way, as depth is important when you are dealing with injuries and inconsistent player form throughout the long and arduous path to Brazil in 2014.

Now to the players and who needs to have a good performance....

US Soccer announced today that Richie Williams will be appointed head coach of the US U-17 Men's National Team. This comes after the recent dismissal of Wilmer Cabrera who managed the head coaching duties for this position over the past five years. 

Richie Williams has been involved with the US set up for a greater part of his professional career. A UVA graduate and MLS champion with DC United, Williams was capped 20 times for the senior side as a player. More recently, Williams was named by Klinsmann to be the head coach of the US U-18's, which is the position he currently holds and is vacating for the U-17 job.

With qualifying in CONCACAF for the U-17 World Cup in 2013 quickly approaching this critical position was finally filled by Jurgen Klinsmann and US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati.  

“His experience as a player and coach at the highest levels will allow him to continue to provide a professional environment for the players in our U-17 Residency Program,” said Sunil Gulati.

The U-17 residency program, which is breeding ground for a select group of young US players to train and go to school, has strengthened the player pool for US Soccer and has consistently provided talent for the senior team, the MLS and other clubs abroad. However, it has come into question in recent years as to what its true effectiveness really is and Klinsmann seems to be willing to try a different route when it comes to developing young talent.

There is not much doubt to how connected he is to US Soccer, but, I ask, is he too connected?

The US U-17 Men’s National Team’s first foreign competition of the year ended with a 4-0 defeat to the Czech Republic Friday. This loss puts the US toward the bottom of the table in this two group competition and sees Wilmer Cabrera’s last tournament as head coach end in disappointment.

The two group tournament consisted of 8 teams- France, Czech Republic, host nation Turkey, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the US and Ukraine. The two winners of Group A and Group B go on to play in the final. While, the second place teams play for third place.

The US started off the tournament with a 2-1 defeat to Turkey, the host nation, with a lone goal from DeAndre Robinson six minutes into the second half.

A 3-2 win against Denmark sent the US temporarily to second place in the group A table, as goals came from Conor Donovan, Wesley Wade, and DeAndre Robinson, who notched his second of the tournament. However, their final performance insures a finish second to last in the overall standings and finalizes a disappointing tournament for the youngsters.

The Yanks in Mexico highlight of the weekend was Xolos 2-0 win vs. Chivas on Saturday. The win put Tijuana at the top of the leader board for the 2012 Apertura. Edgar Castillo featured for 55 minutes before being subbed off. And for the second straight week earned the praise of both fans and players alike. As for his compatriots, Joe Corona traveled to Costa Rica with the US U-23 squad, while Greg Garza did not make the bench. The Xolos are now level on points at the top of the Mexican first division.

Michael Orozco–Fiscal and his defense finally came down to earth as they conceded two goals in their 2-0 loss to Morelia. For Orozco, it was the third match in a row that he went the distance. Speaking of which…

José Francisco Torres continues showing no signs of rust as he goes the full 90 for the 3rd straight week in Pachuca’s match against Cruz Azul. The final score here was 1-1.

Following a week that saw him pulled over by police hungry for bribes, DaMarcus Beasley and Puebla continue to skid off the road. The 2-1 loss to Atlante gives La Franja one point from three games to start off the 2012 Clausura.