Szetela earns first start for Racing

Clifton native and U.S. Under-20 national team standout Danny Szetela earned his first official start for Spanish club Racing de Santander on Wednesday. He played 65 minutes in Racing's scoreless tie against Malaga in the fourth round of Copa Del Rey.

The start is a promising development for the former Columbus Crew midfielder, who hadn't made an appearance yet in a first team match since signing with Racing in August. The start on Wednesday is made even more significant by the fact that Racing had most of their top starters in the lineup for the match.

He may not have scored a goal, or played a full 90 minutes, but it is certainly a start.

What do you think of this news? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[Richard]

nice, im happy for him...

hope he gets more and more playing time...

[lakaix15]

thats my boy woopie

[Brooklyn Zoo]

too bad it was the copa del rey.... any one see this game? how did he play?

[Brooklyn Zoo]

too bad it was the copa del rey.... any one see this game? how did he play?

[Dannyc58]

Nice job Danny.

[Lawrence]

Blah!!! my brain can't take it. How do you get all these midfielders on the field!!!!!!! To be honest, a 3-5-2 would be ideal but I don't see us having 3 defenders good enough.

[Edward]

Man, if he doesn't keep his head on straight I could see him loving the nightlife over there a little too much. Hope he focuses on soccer first and not the Spanish chicks.

Having said that, good for him; he needs all the playing time he can get.

[randall]

ives, where did he play?

i see him as a natural center mid, but he has played on the outside at times- and if he plays on the right that certainly helps as far as the nats go.

so- fuel my delusion that hes the right mid weve all been waiting for ;)

[Tom in Newark]

cool

[Tom]

Santander had 3 regular full time starters playing and 3 rotating/sometimes starting guys playing.

A mix, but definitely not near a top team "full" squad.

Great news however and I hope he can earn time as the year goes on.

[YankatOxford]

Keep working hard Danny, it may be awhile before you consistently crack the league lineup. Good first step though! Keep the nose the to grindstone. Bah, and I missed this match too in.

The U.S. should never play 3-5-2. That said...

Having many central midfield prospects is a good quandary to have... Its a conundrum real footballing countries have, so it is a credit to U.S. progress that now competition exists for places. The Olympic U23 team is shaping up to be a real threat. Adu, Bradley, Edu, Szetela, all in contention for the center.

Now if only this problem existed at forward.

[Yossarian]

That's AWESOME!! I haven't seen Danny play that much outside of the u-20's and the Switzerland game. Why wasn't he impressive in MLS? Was it just injuries or something else? How can he and Freddie struggle in MLS yet thrive in more difficult European leagues? Has MLS become a poor place to develop talent (though Jozy is doing well)? Is it over-reliance on the English model that's hindering the development of our young players?

[Ives]

Tom, I wrote "most of their top starters." I saw Garay, Tchite and Duscher in the lineup and only Munitis on the bench among the team's very best players so that's where the line came from.

Appreciate the Racing insight though. Feel free to provide more in the future.

[Yossarian]

Didn't Szetela play some forward with Jozy in the U-20s World Cup?

[doug]

awesome. he's played more in one match then Benny Feilhaber has played all season at Derby

[pete]

Ives,

earlier this week you said you would have an update on Danny. Have you been able to speak with him or anyone close to him about the move? Would love some info.

thanks

[Dominghosa]

USMNT will use a 3-6-1 in the 2010 and 2014 World Cup. With Jozy up top.
Kidding aside, good stuff by Danny. Hopefully, this series of events will turn out like Freddy's -- showing what you can do during domestic cup play and turn that into playing time in league.

[Scott]

I echo the other comments about Danny's time in MLS. I didn't get a chance to watch Crew games so I'm in the dark. Did anyone, and can you tell me if he played poorly in the minutes given or did his lack of minutes seem strange? He looked very good in the U-20 World Cup.

[randall]

our best option at this point may be a 4-6-0, till jozys ready to correct our 4-5-1 woes ;)

[Thomas Rongen]

Marcelino, the coach of Racing, was asked about Szetela and he said, «bastante hizo, con 20 años, y debutando en España en una posición que no es la suya» ("He did enough, for a 20 year old making his debut in Spain in an unfamiliar position for him").

But one of the Spanish newspaper reports (Diario Montanes) lauded others but said Szetela did not make much of an impression.

Hope is Liga debut comes soon.

[adam]

Nice foto of Danny from the Marca website.

[adam]

here is the URL for that foto...

http://www.marca.com/fotogalerias/2007/futbol/copa_rey/02.html

[adam]

here is the URL for that photo...

http://www.marca.com/fotogalerias/2007/futbol/copa_rey/02.html

[Joamiq]

All I have to say is that a year or two ago, I was making fun of him in MLS.

I don't need him to start. Keep dressing, Danny... play occasionally... and I'll be happy.

[mza]

funky kit.

we talk all the time about how we'd all like to see yanks go to italy or spain instead of england and germany...let's hope that danny can reblaze the trail (gotta give props to tabare-tabare-tabare... and ante razov, or course...har har...oh, and what's his name, the lefty defender I'm too lazy to look up right now. I'll mention him, casue if I don't I know someone else will. or was he just in france? sorry, just got home from work, a late night ramble.)