AMSTERDAM – It was a rough Saturday afternoon for European clubs employing Americans, with Premier league survivalists Aston Villa wasting four fine Brad Guzan saves in a 1-0 home loss to Swansea City.
Just six minutes in, the US netminder robbed Bafetimbi Gomis on the doorstep, and he would cruelly deny the Swans striker again on a break-in midway through the opening frame. Guzan was let off for fumbling a cross near the break, when Villa defender Ciaran Clark cleared the resulting Wayne Routledge effort off the line.
After tipping over a Gylfi Sigurdsson free kick early in the second half, Guzan was finally beaten at close range by Gomis three minutes from time. The American then quickly pulled off a late breakaway stop on Routledge to give his side a fleeting chance to level in stoppage time. Despite seeing their two-game win streak fall by the wayside, Villa remained three points clear of the drop zone.
Elsewhere, Geoff Cameron ably went the distance at right back as Stoke City blew an early lead to fall 2-1 against visiting Crystal Palace.
The US international, who was not involved in either Potters goal leak, rang up three tackles and a pair of cross blocks at the defensive end. By suffering consecutive league losses for the first time since December, Stoke slipped 11 points out of the Europa League race in ninth place.
Over in the Bundesliga, Timothy Chandler and Eintracht Frankfurt had a tough day at the road office in a 3-1 defeat at cellar dwellers Stuttgart.
On a day when the away defense repeatedly became confused, the right back was among several players culpable on the Daniel Ginczek brace that cancelled Eintracht's early second half opener. The Eagles, who have now lost four of five on the road, missed a golden chance to cut their deficit on the last Europa League slot to a single point.
One flight down in the Championship, Tim Ream and Bolton were pegged back by a stoppage-time wonder goal and forced to settle for a 1-1 derby draw at Wigan.
Playing on the left side of a three-man back line, the St. Louis native supplied his side with another busy shift full of defensive stops. In addition to sweeping his line clean of a Josh Murphy shot shortly after the break, Ream notched a grand total of 11 clearances, four tackles and four pass interceptions without committing a single foul.
Despite Martyn Waghorn's equalizing volley near the death, Bolton snapped a six-game road losing slide away from home. The result also bumped Wanderers up two spots to 17th place.
Around the league, the news for Americans only got worse, with Birmingham City Jonathan Spector conceding a penalty late in a 2-0 loss at Cardiff City.
With a quarter hour to go, the Brums veteran was ruled to have upended Eoin Doyle in the box and Peter Whittingham stepped up to fire Cardiff's second from the spot. Spector also had other troubles before leaving in the 84th minute, including a first-half yellow card for tugging back a dribbler.
Spector did manage a solid day on the ball and picked off three passes at the gate to the Birmingham area, but it was not nearly enough to help prevent the 15th-place visitors from suffering their first defeat in five.
Reading midfielder Daniel Williams was sent off with second yellow card during a 3-2 loss at Charlton.
It had been a fairly strong outing for Williams before he went into the book in the 69th minute, and then again five minutes from time. The midfielder completed 45 of 48 passes without a single handling turnover, while adding four interceptions and four clearances at the back. With their away win drought up to four games, Reading slipped down to 19th place.
Nottingham Forest's Eric Lichaj worked a decent left-back outing in their 3-1 loss at Norwich City.
Without committing a foul, the defender piled up three interceptions, three clearances, tackles and a cross block. Lichaj did get away with one marking error, but it was of little consequence on a day when Forest dropped 10 points back of the promotion playoff zone thanks to their first loss in five games.
Aron Jóhannsson and AZ Alkmaar tentatively climbed to within a point of the Eredivisie's automatic Europa League slot with a last-gasp 2-1 win over visiting Cambuur on Saturday night.
It was a largely quiet 70-minute shift from the US forward, who received only 22 touches. Jóhannsson also committed six handling turnovers and had his only shot blocked. However, Markus Henriksen struck in stoppage time to halt AZ's two-game slide.
Turning to France's Ligue 1, Alejandro Bedoya worked 16 minutes to help Nantes hold derby hosts Rennes to a 0-0 draw.
On to play right wing, the Boston College product found enough time to notch three pass interceptions and a tackle. Though winless in six road matches in league play, Nantes held firm in ninth place.
