With Anderlecht in 2011 |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sacha Bryan Kljestan | ||
| Date of birth | September 9, 1985 | ||
| Place of birth | Huntington Beach, California, United States | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Anderlecht | ||
| Number | 19 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2003–2005 | Seton Hall Pirates | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2005 | Orange County Blue Star | 2 | (1) |
| 2006–2010 | Chivas USA | 114 | (15) |
| 2010– | Anderlecht | 37 | (4) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2004–2005 | United States U-20 | 16 | (1) |
| 2007–2008 | United States U-23 | 16 | (3) |
| 2007– | United States | 34 | (4) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19 June 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Sacha Kljestan (Serbian: Saša Klještan, Саша Кљештан) (born September 9, 1985 in Anaheim, California) is an American soccer player who currently plays for Anderlecht in the Belgian First Division.
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Kljestan played for the Region IV Olympic Development Program team. He then played three years college soccer at Seton Hall University. He was named NCAA Division I First-Team All-America in 2004 and earned third team honors in 2005. Kljestan was named Big East Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2005 and earned first-team All-Big East in 2004 and 2005. He holds the single-season assists record at Seton Hall with 15 in 2005 and ranks fifth all-time at the school with 28 over a three-year career. Kljestan finished his college career with 20 goals and helped Seton Hall University to three NCAA Tournament appearances. He then signed a Generation adidas contract with MLS, and played USL Premier Development League soccer for Orange County Blue Star in 2005. Kljestan was taken fifth overall at the 2006 MLS SuperDraft.
He was a finalist for 2006 MLS Rookie of the Year and played for the US in Copa América 2007. He also played for the US Under-23s at the 2008 CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament and scored in a 3-0 win against Canada to send the US Under-23s through to the Olympics.
He was nominated for the Starting XI in the 2008 MLS All-Star Game, but chose instead to play for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His performance for club and country has drawn attention from many clubs overseas, and he left the U.S. team's winter training camp in mid-January 2009 to go on trial beginning January 17 at Celtic,[1] the Scottish Premier League reigning champions.
On April 25, 2007, Kljestan was suspended for two games and fined $1,000 for "a serious foul play". Kljestan fouled Real Salt Lake midfielder Andy Williams in the second half of Chivas USA's 4-0 win on Saturday, April 21, and received a yellow card. Although the referee saw the incident and exercised his on-field judgment not to award a red card, a serious injury to Williams resulted. In this circumstance, the MLS disciplinary committee reviewed the play and concluded that the challenge was an unequivocal red card offense and egregious.[2]
In June 2010, he signed a 4-year contract with 2009–10 Belgian First Division champions Anderlecht.[3] He made his competitive debut and scored his first goal in the same game on July 27, 2010 in a 3–1 win over Welsh club The New Saints in the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League.[4]
Kljestan was part of the United States Under-20 team at the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. He had entered the U-20 program in 2004, earning a total of 16 caps, scoring 1 goal with the team up to 2005.[5] In early 2007, Kljestan was called into training camp with the senior U.S. national team, but did not earn a cap in the following games. Kljestan made his debut for the senior national team on June 2, 2007, tallying an assist on Benny Feilhaber's winning goal, a 4-1 friendly match victory over China in San Jose, California. Kljestan was selected to Peter Nowak's roster for the U-23 Olympics in Beijing. He started all three games and finished the tournament as the United States' highest goal scorer with 2, an equalizer against Holland in the 2-2 draw,which was voted goal Best U.S. Mens Soccer goal of 2008, and a penalty against Nigeria in the 2-1 loss that knocked them out of the tournament. Since then he has been starting consistently for the United States under Bob Bradley as a central midfielder and has two assists (three total) in World Cup Qualifying. In a 3-2 victory over Sweden on January 24, 2009, Kljestan scored a hat trick, his first three goals with the senior team. The only other American to notch a hat trick in the same game as his first international goal was Aldo "Buff" Donelli who scored four goals on May 24, 1934. It was also the 11th hat trick in national team history. On February 24, 2010, Kljestan scored a 92nd minute goal that won the USA a friendly against El Salvador. Sacha proceeded to celebrate what was his 4th national team goal in emotional fashion. The goal, along with Kljestan's performance, was enough to keep Kljestan in contention for a World Cup spot.[6] He was not picked in the final 23 man roster for the 2010 World Cup, but featured in a friendly against Brazil on the next international fixture date.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 24, 2009 | Home Depot Center, Carson, California | Sweden | 1–0 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| 2 | 2–0 | |||||
| 3 | 3–1 | |||||
| 4 | February 24, 2010 | Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida | El Salvador | 2–1 | 2–1 | Friendly |
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| USA | League | Open Cup | League Cup | North America | Total | |||||||
| 2006 | Chivas USA | Major League Soccer | 32 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 0 |
| 2007 | 25 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 4 | ||
| 2008 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25 | 6 | ||
| 2009 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 5 | ||
| 2010 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | ||
| Belgium | League | Belgian Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 2010–11 | Anderlecht | Belgian Pro League | 25 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 32 | 2 |
| 2011–12 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 24 | 3 | ||
| Total | USA | 114 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 125 | 16 | |
| Belgium | 42 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 56 | 5 | ||
| Career total | 156 | 19 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 181 | 21 | ||
Last updated December 14, 2011
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | |||
| 2007 | 4 | 0 | |
| 2008 | 8 | 0 | |
| 2009 | 9 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 4 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 9 | 0 | |
| Total | 34 | 4 | |
Statistics accurate as of match played November 15, 2011
His brother Gordon once played an Open Cup match for the New York Red Bulls and currently plays for FC Tampa Bay Rowdies in USSF Division 2. Kljestan's father Slavko Klještan, an ethnic Serb from Bosnia, was a semi-professional player in Željezničar Sarajevo.[7]
Kljestan, along with Frank Lampard and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, was featured on the North American cover of FIFA 10.
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