AMSTERDAM – Freddy Adu's fine start to life in Finland continued on Thursday night, as he started his second straight match for new club KuPS.
Adu worked 72 minutes as the five-time champs scored a 1-0 victory against VPS in their home opener, giving them two wins from two games and moving them up to third in the Veikkausliiga with a game in hand on the top two clubs in the table. Former New England Revolution defender Stephen McCarthy also saw his first league action with KuPS, coming on for an 11-minute substitute appearance.
Over in Norway, Alex DeJohn had perhaps his roughest Tippeligaen outing to date on Friday night, as IK Start squandered a second-half lead to fall 3-2 against visiting table-toppers Valerenga.
The New Jersey native (pictured above, left), who was named Man of the Match on his Norwegian debut less than three weeks ago, was among the culpable on all three Valerenga goals. Start fell behind almost immediately before rallying to grab the lead on 54 minutes, but then held it for mere seconds before former Colorado Rapids forward Deshorn Brown could equalize for the visitors.
DeJohn was most entwined in the play that resulted in Herman Stengel's 84th minute decider. The center back allowed the scorer to dribble through his legs en route to goal, and shouts for an offensive foul for a grab on the American's shoulder were ignored. The loss was Start's first of the young season, leaving them tentatively docked in seventh place.
Over in Germany's second flight, Andrew Wooten and Sandhausen came up empty in a 2-0 defeat at FC Nurnberg.
It was relatively quiet night from the right winger, who still managed to draw a pair of bookings for opposition players and lead a couple of dangerous attacks that just missed early in the second frame. The loss, Sandhausen's first in five games, dipped the visitors to ninth place.
