Le Toux's turkey cupcake. (Photo: Courtesy of Sebastien Le Toux)

A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at the Philly Soccer Page. Here are a few more holiday messages from the Philly soccer community:

Sebastien Le Toux: "Happy turkey day everybody!

Since yesterday's post dealt with a former Houston Dynamo player who was a member of the squads that won the 2006 and 2007 MLS Cups, a video, shown below, that I came across made me decide to do a post about another member of those Dynamo championship teams: Stuart Holden.

Holden, who grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston, joined the Dynamo in 2006 and made his MLS debut in a 1-1 draw at New England Revolution on May 27th.

Photo by Katy Umaña

The Houston Dynamo beat the Philadelphia Union on Thursday night, 1-0, to advance to the 2011 MLS Cup Eastern Conference Semifinal. This episode of The Zygo Soccer Report features raw post-match audio from Stuart Holden, Chris Canetti, Bobby Boswell, Adam Moffat, Brad Davis, Brian Ching, and Dominic Kinnear.

by Dru Boyer The Yanks Abroad returned to Europa League play on Thursday with a vengeance ... not a single Yanks' squad lost a match. It was a pretty decent Thursday, in fact the Yanks were 7-2-0 in the matches (Dominic Cervi and Brad Friedel did not dress for Celtic and Tottenham, respectively.) The Player of the Week honor goes [.

This young, confident man is expecting a start against his former part-time employers.

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Photo: Garrett Field

DC United Watch

Sporting Kansas City's 2–1 win over Columbus on Wednesday night puts them in first place in the East with 44 points. The Union would move into sole possession of second place with 43 points with a win tonight.

Freddy Adu says of tonight's game, "For me, it definitely has a playoff feel to it, and that's how I think we all are approaching it.

Having already successfully undergone surgery following the horrific tackle during USMNT duty against the Netherlands, Stuart Holden is set to undergo "follow-up surgery" on his knee according to several news outlets. They describe it as routine and was most likely going to happen in the offseason, but after consultation had it moved up.

Bad news struck an all-around good guy today in a way that, in another situation, would have seemed almost comical. Bolton and U.S. national team midfielder Stuart Holden is out for six months, according to his club. The initial reports ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

USA international Stuart Holden will be sidelined for six months after it was discovered that he has cartilage damage yesterday following a "routine procedure".

The news soon broke after he tweeted:

"Floored, devastated, gutted, just a few words I can think of. I will continue to fight and I'm ready for another tough journey.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Kansas City Watch

Chris Vito reports that the Union will be using a MLS pool goalkeeper as a backup to Zac MacMath for the Kansas City game.

The Kansas City Star expects Sporting to defeat the Union, saying, while they "might plan on playing the 'bunker' game on the road," the Union haven't shown "the strength to withstand anyone.

Union

What's that feeling I have? It's a familiar feeling but one I haven't felt for a long time...a general sense of well-being and good will mixed in with a sense of purpose and forward-looking confidence...I've got it—it's the feeling of victory. Welcome back, old friend.

Peter Nowak said of the Philadelphia Union's win over Columbus, "We came back to the mentality we had in the beginning of the season.

WPS

Unwelcome news for WPS: The CEO is stepping down after less than a year on the job.

Paul Riley spoke about the future of WPS in a conference call yesterday. Any time Paul Riley speaks, everyone should listen. Two people should be allowed to call a joint session of congress: The President of the United States of America and Paul Riley, President of AwesomeQuotes.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

Stuart Holden returned to action for the first time in five months on Tuesday with an 80-minute appearance with the Bolton reserves, and while his team suffered a 7-0 thrashing in London, Holden accomplished a very important mission.

He took the field and played.

From the more obscure corner of the Americans Outsourced to Europe™ file comes this fine display of 18 yard-box badassitude. Young Euan Holden may be best known for being Stuart's brother but the kid showed some balls on this one. Go on son.

Quick Reminder, Real Life A hot start to the season seemed to fall apart when rising playmaker Stuart Holden was injured and Elmander, who started the season blazing hot, cooled dramatically. Bolton fell to 14th in the final accounting. Much-ballyhooed summer signing MPet (Martin Petrov) failed to recapture the form he demonstrated in his first season with Manchester City.

...and march to the Reebok with pitchforks and torches to demand the head of Owen Coyle for playing a friendly with non-league Newport County and Chung-Yong Lee picking up a long term injury as a result of said friendly, please do keep in mind that it's not the manager's fault.
Our good friend Quentin made a point yesterday that by playing a side outside of the League, the risks for injury to players are greater.

By Andrew Villegas If Mexico's U-17 World Cup win this week has shown us anything, it's that the gap between U.S. Soccer and FMF development has widened into a gulf. In that tournament, the U.S. lost to Uzbekistan in the group stage after beating the Czech Republic, tying New Zealand and ended taking 4 points [.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Jordan Harvey, 2010-2011

From @Jordan Harvey: "After a LONG day it was nice to sit down and read all of your messages. Thank you @PhilaUnion fans for all the amazing memories. @SonsofBen"

From @JordanCHarvey: "Bummed to be leaving such great fans, but everything happens for a reason, right?

Bolton Wanderers | News | Latest News | General | Wanderers Snap-Up Pratley I missed this news over the holiday weekend, but Bolton bolster their central midfield options - in the wake of releasing Joey O'Brien and Tamir Cohen - by signing Swansea's Darren Pratley. Also, they have sold Ali Al Habsi to Wigan after his loan spell there last season.

On Wednesday night, American midfielder Stuart Holden, who plays for Bolton in the EPL, was in Philadelphia for the Union v. Sporting Kansas City match and spent some time with Sons of Ben.

Union

Peter Nowak said before Wednesday night's supremely disappointing draw with Kansas City, "We want to give other guys a little time...We can mix things up, create a different look, make other teams guess who's gonna be playing and what kind of quality. All of [the strikers] have different qualities.

I love it when our Stuart talks like a Scotsman. It's like he's bilingual but without all the hassle of having to learn new words for things that you already know what they are. I also love that Zat Knight is f***ing with all of us Fulham fans with a claim that he's coming to America. Too bad he'll be 34 then; retire in Florida cousin, not in MLS.

This season started so brightly with this Bolton side surprising everyone with beautiful play in the midfield and strikers that could actually score. Not so much anymore with the Wanderers claiming just 6 points of their possible last 18 and recording 4 straight losses. There's lots to be analyzed about this campaign but that will be left for another day and another series of blog posts.

An interview with the currently-recuperating-in-Houston, formerly-employed-by-Houston midfielder.

Didn't seem like too long ago that Holden was injured yet again. Here's a little something to get you caught up with the USMNT midfielder during his recovery:I had a torn ACL and meniscus myself, and didn't get the use of the stretcher that he has for his leg, but I'll tell you regardless, the road to recovery on a knee injury is painful and long.

Hopefully Michael will give a more detailed post-game analysis. But to me there are two takeaways from the US draw with Argentina tonight. First, that we are better off with a 4-4-2 than a 4-2-3-1. Second, that the second half of the 2 should be Juan Agudelo.

The first half was like a bad display of catenaccio for the US.

I suspect few of you get the reference to old Wendy's commercial from the '80s about how their new burger was unlike the drab competition. Unfortunately, our USMNT seems unlikely to be much like Wendy's in this respect.

Players are in the camp now for upcoming friendlies against Argentina this weekend and Paraguay shortly thereafter.

By Dr. Raf Crowley First – a few housekeeping issues to report. Steve Cherundolo and Zak Whitbread both have nagging injuries (groin and back respectively) and have been cut from the roster for the upcoming injuries. Both have had (and have been playing through)these injuries for a while, and the move is likely designed to [.

Following Carragher's tackle on Nani in the match between Liverpool and Man U, Ferguson complained non stop, believing the tackle deserved red and that his team had been wronged.(....Diddums). Again that week, Fergie made known his feelings about JC and the injury inflicted on Nani, with no mention about the tackle by Rafael moments later - also deserving red - and the fact that Nani was back to full training after just 1 week, despite claims that he was going to be unavailable for a month.

Yeah, not a good day for US soccer. Holden was the lucky recipient of a Jonny Evans cleat first, leaving the ground slide. To say this wasn't intentional is a joke. He may not have intended to actually hit Holden, but when you lead with that and expect someone to get out of the way because a sane person would most likely recognize they are going to get seriously injured, then it's all just
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Bolton Wanderers midfielder Stuart Holden will be sidelined for six months with a knee injury meaning the U.S. international will miss June's CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Premier League club said on Monday. Holden, 25, sustained a deep cut in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Manchester United after a tackle that defender Jonny Evans was shown a red card for.

By Dr. Raf Crowley Our esteemed Coach Bradley announced his roster for the upcoming friendlies against Paraguay and Argentina. The rosters and some day-old reaction to it below: Goalkeepers: Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton), David Yelldell (Duisburg) Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Jonathan Bornstein (UANL Tigres), Timothy Chandler (Nuremberg), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jay DeMerit [.

The talk is that the Dynamo are trying to line up a friendly with Stuart Holden's Bolton Wanderers in Houston this summer. I like the idea, lets the dude get some hometown shine for a couple of days.
I kind of wish there was a a whole series of these: Run-DMB's Hannover in Indianapolis, Herculez Gomez's Pachuca in Las Vegas, Jay DeMerit's Whitecaps playing in Green Bay etc.

As Matilda so eloquently put it in her match preview, Fulham FC ain't nothin' to mess wit' in the FA Cup. A side that's much more in form in this competition that they have been in the Premier League this season and have been averaging a goal every 17 minutes at the Cottage in the Cup. The fixture between Bolton and Fulham is one of only two matches in the fifth round between two Premier League sides.

Wigan away. What an unsavory meat pie of a fixture. This match, no matter when or where, is hardly ever an exciting prospect. Still, to advance to the 5th round of the FA Cup, it has to be played. The home result was a very predictable 0-0 back on January 29 meaning that the trip away was winner-take-all.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! With the Egyptian friendly canceled, it was a slow week in American soccer. MLS clubs are playing pre-season matches against youth clubs, colleges, and each other, and the season is less than one month away. Besides the schedule release last week, here are some other news items flying under the radar:

• Real Salt Lake were the big winners this weekend as they acquired former Wake Forest striker Cody Arnoux in an MLS weighted lottery.

What we thought was the start of a resurgence after the Wolves results was quickly snuffed out by Niko Kranjcar's stunner of a strike to end the Tottenham match. Still, new signing Daniel Sturridge has started like multiple houses on fire with two goals in his first two matches. The young Chelsea lad has provided a creative spark to the offense.

As Robbie Savage laments (on a daily basis, I might add) players below the top four are not given enough credit. Well, we will aim to rectify that by celebrating the talent of those who are, let's face it, unlikely to win anything except the odd match and maybe a player of the Year award at their prospective club.

David Wheater, of Dancing With the Trotters fame, is our one signing in this transfer window which is just a few days from closing. To say that this silly season has been frustrating would be the understatement of the year. Let's have a roll call, shall we?
Curtis Davies: Just signed with Birmingham City
Ivan Rakitic: Just signed with Sevilla
Carlos Vela: Decided to go to West Brom for 6 months and help them get relegated.

Winless in five of their last six Premier League matches, the Wanderers would look to turn fortunes around at the Reebok. Bolton would try to make an impact on what was already an emotional night following the death of the greatest Wanderer ever, Nat Lofthouse.
Bolton came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, keeping the ball in the Chelsea half for the entirety of the first three minutes.