Featured / Philadelphians Abroad

Philadelphians abroad

Photo courtesy of US Soccer

You’ve all read the weekly Americans Abroad roundups on various sites, ranging from Sports Illustrated and Yanks Abroad to MLSSoccer.com.

Well, PSP is now going to start doing the same with players from the Philadelphia area.

Of course, what’s a Philadelphian? Does the player have to hail from the city itself? For our purposes, we’ll follow anyone with established ties to the region that generally roots for Philadelphia teams. So from Trenton, Cape May and Wilmington in the east, to Allentown, Harrisburg and Lancaster County out west, that’s our area. If the player grew up in that area or spent four years playing at one of our colleges, then that’s enough time to earn local street cred in PSP’s eyes.

As we follow these players, please feel free to let us know of any we missed. Early on, there are bound to be some, so just give a shout in the comments or via email, and we’ll add them for the following week.

Anyway, with the first weekend of the 2012 MLS season in the books, here’s our first roundup of Philadelphians abroad.

Chris Albright — Was not in the 18 in Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss to Portland.

Christian Barreiro — Has been on trial with Harrisburg City Islanders since being released by  New York in February.

Bobby Convey — Started at left wing and played 85 minutes for Kansas City in a 1-0 win over D.C. United.

Dan Gargan — Chicago did not play this weekend.

Bill Gaudette — Not in the 18 for the LA Galaxy’s 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake.

Cristhian Hernandez — Was in the 18 but did not play in Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss to Portland.

Corey Hertzog — Was not in the 18 in New York’s 2-1 loss to Dallas.

Antoine Hoppenot — Was not in the 18 in Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss to Portland.

Jeff Larentowicz — Started at center midfield for Colorado and played 90 minutes in a 2-0 win over Columbus.

Jimmy McLaughlin — Was not in the 18 in Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss to Portland.

Jeff Parke — Started at center back for Seattle and went the full 90 in the club’s 2-1 win in Champions League play over Santos Laguna.

Zach Pfeffer — Was not in the 18 in Philadelphia’s 3-1 loss to Portland.

Zarek Valentin — In the 18 but did not play in Montreal’s 2-0 loss to Vancouver.

Jeremy Vuolo — In the 18 but did not play in New York’s 2-1 loss to Dallas.

Andrew Wenger — Came in as a sub and played 18 minutes in Montreal’s 2-0 loss to Vancouver.

Jeremiah White — Signed with New England on Friday. Was not in the 18 on Saturday in New England’s 1-0 loss to San Jose.

18 Comments

  1. Jeff Larentowicz seems to make the most impact. Hope he’ll feature a bit more in the National Team. Quite amazed that he is a Brown product and was picked quite late in the 2005 draft.

  2. So, the Caleb Porter calls up Zarek Valentine over Sheanon Williams and he doesn’t even start for an expansion team!!

    Amazing

    • DarthLos117 says:

      After his performance last night, his exclusion from the u-23s is validated, IMO.

      • I don’t think it has anything to do with Williams honestly (though he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory). Valentin, Sarkodie and Kitchen (Kitchen is clearly deserving regardless) are Akron guys that Porter knows well. With so little time to put his team together, its hard to fault him for going with the guys with whom he’s comfortable.

  3. Not to nit-pick (cause I would’ve missed a bunch of local guys) BUT Reading’s Corey Hertzog (NYRB) did not travel to Dallas and Downingtown’s Jeremy Vuolo was on the bench for NYRB.

    • Thanks for noting. Like I said in the post, it’s totally cool to point out what we miss. Early on, there are bound to be some guys, particularly since this particular kinda-sorta adopted Philadelphian is abroad too, hitting the occasional post in between stops in Europe.

  4. PennQuaker says:

    Christian Barreiro spent 4 years at penn and is now a rookie for the Red Bulls.

  5. I have nothing constructive to add. Just wanted to say that this feature is AWESOME.

  6. big fan of this feature do we have an philly kids playing in foreign leagues?

    • I wasn’t aware of any on my first look through, but it’s definitely possible I missed some guys. Gustaffson (below) looks to be an example.

  7. Hey, I would take a player who plays every game over guys that warm the bench any day. I can undersand some of the Akron players being called up but some of them just can’t be justified. Williams deserved to be there and Porter is just really playing favoritism at this point.

    • I would agree in general and certainly if the U-23s didn’t look awesome. But they look AWESOME, especially in wiping the floor with Mexico, so i’m compelled to give Porter the benefit of the doubt.

  8. Eddie Gustafsson is a Philadelphian goalkeeper that plays for FC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga.
    Wiki Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Gustafsson

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