The handsome lad on his happy return. In other Bolton news, midfielder Martin Petrov is off to Espanyol, meaning there should be more time on the pitch freed up for Holden. [Via]
One of America’s top midfielders made his long-awaited return to action on Tuesday, as Stuart Holden returned to action with English club Bolton Wanderers after a very long absence due to a knee injury.
Holden spoke to the club website after going 65 minutes in a development squad match:
Continue reading
My sense of humor is poo. Which is why I found this so entertaining. No Holden Back, indeed.
Have u ever sat on the can so long ur butt goes numb? #reallifeproblems
— Stuart Holden (@stuholden) June 26, 2012
How does the fight to stay afloat in England compare to the MLS Playoffs here in the US? Talk to ex-Red Bulls and current Bolton Wanderers defender Tim Ream, and there’s no comparison. The intensity to stay up in the UK trumps all else by a long shot.
Ream talked to the AP about the pressure he’s feeling with Bolton’s own relegation-avoiding finale approaching on Sunday and he had some very impactful words about what a player goes through at a time like this. As published on FOX News Latino:
“I don’t know if anybody who follows American sports like basketball, baseball or American football would even understand what (relegation) is like,” Ream said. “You watch the [Blackburn] game and as the game progresses and Wigan scores, you see Blackburn and how they react.
“The pit that I had in my stomach watching them be relegated was something I’ve never experienced,” Ream said. “You don’t get that watching a playoff game in MLS. I can’t compare it to anything. It’s a horrible feeling. Sitting there watching the game and you think about your own team and the games that you’ve had in the past two or three weeks that were ties but could have been better results.
“It was heartbreaking to watch and I wasn’t even playing in the game.”
The blondie is a golden boy, indeed.
USMNT midfielder Stuart Holden isn’t just an affable star soccer player in England who has a gorgeous girlfriend. He’s also built for loyalty. To his club. Even if they drop out of the premiership.
Speaking at length to the Bolton News, the injured Holden said that he was very happy with the greater Manchester-area club and wouldn’t leave this summer if they were relegated on Sunday.
Continue reading
Top, top work by Stuart Holden in this video diary-type-thing that was (very well) produced by Kick. From slagging on both baseball and cricket to being just about the most charming young fellow this country (with the UK’s help) has ever produced, it’s pretty much a must-see vid if you’re a ‘SMNT supporter. Watch. Now. Seriously. You won’t be disappointed.
Surprising no one, it appears that injured USMNT midfielder Stuart Holden is shutting it down for the season with his club, Bolton Wanderers.
During press availability on Thursday, Bolton manager Owen Coyle said that Holden “won’t be fit for the season.” Football writer Richard Jolly also later tweeted that Coyle said that Holden won’t play in any remaining first-team games this season.
Coyle did heap plenty of praise on Holden’s character, however.
Continue reading
(UPDATE: Bolton Wanderers official website is now reporting that Holden will be out six months, not six weeks, after the procedure revealed cartilage damage in his knee. More to come.)
Not a good day if you’re a Bolton supporter, a USMNT fan, or, for that matter, a Holden. According to Bolton Wanderers’ official Twitter account, American international Stuart Holden is expected to miss the next six weeks to “undergo a routine follow-up procedure on the knee injury sustained in last season’s game against Manchester United.”
Basically, this would seem to say that Holden’s knee, which was wrecked during a tackle last season by Manchester United’s Jonny Evans, hasn’t recovered the way the club or the player had hoped and that it’s still giving the talented midfielder trouble.
Continue reading
I had planned on sending the humor meter spinning off the charts by wishing him a return to form that would see him playing better than someone on a Waitrose-sponsored club, but given Bolton’s play of late, they’d probably be happy to match Reading’s abilities on the pitch these days. Either way, here’s to a successful return for Holden on Tuesday night in the Carling Cup against Aston Villa. Your club’s larder — and country’s pantry — have been a bit sparse in your absence.
Nearly six months after suffering a serious knee injury (that, to this day, the exact nature of which has eluded fans and experts alike), it appears that an American lynchpin is set to return. Against Man U. And the defender that wrecked his knee in the first place.
No pressure, Stewie.
According to Soccer by Ives, Bolton Wanderers midfielder Stuart Holden is back training with the first team and has a September 10 match against Manchester United targeted for his return to action.
Continue reading
I’m asking nicely, so please don’t read too much into last night’s result. The US did not lose to Mexico for the first time in three matches, which is good, but to try and use this match to assess the gap between the two teams is foolhardy. A 1-1 friendly in August is not revenge for the Gold Cup final slaying.
Still, it was encouraging to see the US rebound from a shaky first half with a solid second half performance. Some thoughts on what we learned from the players and their new leader, in the form of a digestable list.
The Wantaway is TDK’s soccer link dump where we finally bend to meet your demands and chuck your kit from the dressing room that is our site.
It’s only fitting that we’d kick things off with some ‘SMNT news now that Goldenkaiser Jurgen Klinsmann is running the show for the US. And our first item is a curious bit of news involving American international Eddie Johnson. Apparently, Johnson got in trouble for a super-late 3 a.m. sit-down with Klinsmann at a Florida Hampton Inn! His wife was so furious with the Grown-Ass Man for taking such a late work meeting that she rammed his Camaro! With her Jeep! In the hotel parking lot!
OK, so the G.A.M. wasn’t meeting with Klinsmann. Johnson was apparently meeting with a female soccer coach. OK, so she wasn’t a coach. She was a female. And they weren’t discussing soccer tactics at the time. We don’t think. You never know with people that don’t have time for video games.
Either way, we’re just hoping someone ran coverage of the story under the headline “Groan, Ass-Man!” Although we’re quite certain that no one did.
Continue reading
From the vantage point on this side of the pond, it’s easy to hyperbolize any successes that US players have in the EPL. If a player so much as cracks a lineup in Ol’ Blighty, it becomes incontrovertible evidence over here that he’s the next great American hope; a star that can clean up our name overseas and carry us to World Cup glory when the next four-year cycle hits.
This outsized enthusiasm is because we don’t have much of a history of exporting talent to the top-flight European football clubs. So it’s understandable that we’d fly off the handle when one of our boys even cracks an S11 in England, Germany, Italy or elsewhere.
But in the case of midfielder Stuart Holden, there’s actually a chance that we’re not celebrating him quite enough over here. Based on the way the 26-year-old blondie is viewed by the English media, we might just have a bona fide footballing star playing abroad, one that the Brits appear to be even more excited about than we are.
Continue reading
Details of Stuart Holden‘s knee injury have been scarce since his injury in March. Now, The Washington Post reports that Holden suffered a broken bone in his knee, not ligament damage, that required surgery. Holden is back in England now, but he spent recent weeks rehabbing in Delaware with the US national team training staff, where he showed off this high-tech anti-gravity treadmill for the Post’s cameras.
[Photo via @PhilaUnion]
World class hunk Hugh Jackman took in the Philadelphia Union – Sporting Kansas City affair Wednesday night at PPL Park. The Aussie has shown his affection for the Union before, knocking a blue and gold ball around New York City. Yellow is usually his color though. Jackman was an ambassador for Australia’s failed 2018/2022 World Cup bid and he supports another yellow-clad squad, Norwich City. Tough times for the Socceroos, but heady days for the Canaries who earned promotion to the Premier League.
UPDATE: Video evidence of Wolverine working the sidelines.
Bolton manager Owen Coyle is a big fan of Major League Soccer. Coyle plucked Stuart Holden from the Houston Dynamo simply from watching him in MLS on TV. And now Coyle elaborates on his affection for MLS in a recent interview with MLSSoccer.com:
Despite suffering a horrible knee injury that knocked him out of action in March, popular American midfielder Stuart Holden earned a high honor by being named Bolton Wanderers’ Player of the Year on Monday.
According to the team’s website, the 25-year-old Holden was the unanimous choice for the award. Due to his high skill level and tireless work ethic, Holden is widely seen by both fans and media as a Bolton cornerstone for the future.
Continue reading
In the first video of a series profiling US Men’s National Team players in England, Stuart Holden gives an inside look at his rehab regiment. Details of Holden’s injury have been scarce. The official diagnosis was simply that he’d be out for six months and would need surgery. A few British media outlets have reported Holden suffered “cruciate ligament damage,” and from the looks of his extensive rehab that appears to be the case.
During his long lay-off, the frosty-tipped Houston-native will miss the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Bolton’s summer tour of the US, including a match in his hometown against the Houston Dynamo. If the six month prognosis is correct, we won’t see Holden back in action until early fall.
Keep your head up Stu – you’re still the boss in TDK’s heart.
Stuart Holden’s status for the upcoming U.S. National Team friendlies against Argentina and Paraguay is in doubt after he was the victim of a hard studs-up tackle by Manchester United’s Jonny Evans. The United defender was sent off for his challenge, while Holden was stretchered off in visible pain.
“I think his knees badly gashed,” said Bolton Manager Owen Coyle after the match. “I’m hoping it is superficial and that it’s just been cut and no more than that but I won’t know that.”
The tackle was no Nigel DeJong hack job that broke Holden’s leg nearly a year ago and with any luck the result will be more of the bruise variety rather than a break.
UPDATE: Holden needed 26 stitches to close his knee wound and has pulled out of the upcoming U.S. National Team friendlies.
A trio of American field players went the distance in England on Saturday with only a limited amount of success to show between them, while a U.S. mainstay was unable to find any playing time in a winning effort.