Michael Parkhurst's whole professional career has been about beating the odds so it only makes sense that his good fortune continues to this day. This morning, the U.S. men's national team defender (15 CAPs) went on a free transfer to Augsburg (Germany) from FC Nordsjaelland (Denmark). He signed a three-year deal with Augsburg, which begins in January 2013 and ends in June 2015.
Coming from the smallest state in the country (Rhode Island), Parkhurst was great at Wake Forest and after being drafted by his hometown MLS team-the New England Revolution-he carved out a nice four years in Foxborough. He's spent the last four seasons in Denmark's Superliga. No disrespect to Denmark but I don't think anyone would argue that the Superliga is a superior league to Germany's Bundesliga.
For me, the Bundesliga is a very close third behind England's Premier League and Spain's La Liga. The only bad news with this move is that Augsburg is currently tied for last place in the Bundesliga with SpVgg Greuther Furth (haha who?). The last two teams in the 18-team Bundesliga get relegated and the 16th-place team has a relegation playoff with a club from the lower division.
For Parkhurst's sake (he turns 29 in January), let's hope that his first taste of Germany isn't spent on a last-place team that gets dumped out of the Bundesliga in his first season there. With a record of 1-10-6 in its first 17 matches in 2012-13, things can only get better for Augsburg.
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Although Ricardo Clark probably would not have been called into duty for the U.S. in the upcoming El Salvador friendly, a muscle pull in his leg may not all for the defensive center midfielder to play in the far more important friendly with the Netherlands on May 3.