Sacha Kljestan

Personal information
Full name	Sacha Kljestan
Date of birth	September 9, 1985 (1985-09-09) (age 24)
Place of birth	Huntington Beach, California, United States
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder/Winger
Club information
Current club	Chivas USA
Number	16
Youth career
2003–2005	Seton Hall Pirates
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2005	Orange County Blue Star	2	(1)
2006–	Chivas USA	104	(14)
National team‡
2004–2005	United States U-20	16	(1)
2007–2008	United States U-23	16	(3)
2007–	United States	20	(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 02:52, 27 October 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 02:52, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Sacha Kljestan (Serbian: Саша Кљештан, Saša Klještan) (born September 9, 1985 in Anaheim, California) is an American soccer player who currently plays for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Youth and College 1.2 Professional 1.2.1 Controversy 1.3 International 1.3.1 International goals 2 Personal life 3 Honors 3.1 Individual 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Youth and College

Kljestan played for the Region IV Olympic Development Program team. He then played three years college soccer at Seton Hall University. He was named first team All-American in 2004 and earned third team honors in 2005. Kljestan was named Big East 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.

[edit] Professional

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.

[edit] Controversy

On April 25, 2007, Kljestan was suspended for two games and fined $1,000 for "a serious foul play". Kljestan fouled Real Salt Lake forward 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]

[edit] International

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.^[3] 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.^[4]

[edit] International goals

#	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

[edit] Personal life

His brother Gordon once played an Open Cup match for Red Bull New York, and currently plays for Cleveland City Stars in USL First Division. Kljestan's father Slavko, an ethnic Serb from Bosnia, was a semi-professional player in Željezničar Sarajevo.^[5]

Kljestan, along with Frank Lampard and Cuauhtémoc Blanco, is featured on the North American cover of FIFA Soccer 2010.

[edit] Honors

[edit] Individual

• MLS Best XI: 2008

[edit] See also

• List of current MLS players

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• MLS player profile
• Sacha Kljestan bio on USSoccer.com

Sacha Kljestan international tournaments v • d • e United States squad – 2007 Copa América 1 Howard • 2 Wynne • 3 DeMerit • 4 Boswell • 5 Feilhaber • 6 Pearce • 7 Califf • 8 Gomez • 9 Johnson • 10 Davies • 11 Gaven • 12 Conrad • 13 Bornstein • 14 Olsen • 15 Moor • 16 Kljestan • 17 Beckerman • 18 Keller • 19 Clark • 20 Twellman • 21 Mapp • 23 Guzan • 25 Nguyen • Coach: Bradley v • d • e United States squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 Seitz • 2 Wynne • 3 Orozco • 4 Bradley • 5 McCarty • 6 Edu • 7 Holden • 8 Szetela • 9 Davies • 10 Feilhaber • 11 Adu • 12 Altidore • 13 Ianni • 14 Rogers • 15 Parkhurst • 16 Kljestan • 17 McBride • 18 Guzan • Coach: Nowak v • d • e United States squad – 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up 1 Howard • 2 Bornstein • 3 Bocanegra • 4 Casey • 5 Onyewu • 6 Pearce • 7 Beasley • 8 Dempsey • 9 Davies • 10 Donovan • 11 Wynne • 12 M. Bradley • 13 Clark • 14 Califf • 15 DeMerit • 16 Kljestan • 17 Altidore • 18 Guzan • 19 Adu • 20 Torres • 21 Spector • 22 Feilhaber • 23 Robles • Coach: B. Bradley

v • d • e Chivas USA – current squad 1 Kennedy · 2 Suárez · 3 Curtin · 4 Thomas · 5 Nagamura · 6 Jazić · 7 Harmse · 8 Trujillo · 9 Razov · 10 Padilla · 11 Galindo · 12 Talley · 13 Bornstein · 14 Conway · 15 Marsch · 16 Kljestan · 17 Braun · 18 Victorine · 19 Flores · 21 Parker · 22 Thornton · 23 Stepanović · 24 Mayen · 27 Lahoud · 28 Zamora · 29 Maicon Santos · 45 Cuesta · 55 Saragosa · 77 Chijindu · 99 Lillingston · Head Coach: Preki Assistant Coach: Llamosa Assistant Coach: Esparza Goalkeeper Coach: Percovich General Manager: Hamilton