American Friedel has Spurs aspiring to new heights

Tottenham’s strong charge into English Premier League title contention has been given a huge boost by an unsung American player: goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

Friedel is 40 years old and may be coming toward the end of his top-level career, but his outstanding form has helped Spurs give itself an unexpected shot at outdueling heavyweights such as Manchester City and Manchester United and claiming EPL glory – in what would be one of the biggest shocks of recent times.

 With Brad Friedel in goal, Tottenham hasn't lost since Dec. 11.

 The impact of Friedel, along with Tottenham’s hopes of maintaining its challenge in the second half of the season, provides the focus of this week’s Yahoo! Soccer Podcast, in conjunction with World Football Daily.

Host Martin Rogers is joined by leading English journalist David Hytner of The Guardian newspaper, Daniel King of The Sun and international football correspondent Andy Brassell in running the rule over all the developments at White Hart Lane.

Later, the BBC’s South American correspondent Tim Vickery joins the show to give his take on Lionel Messi. Barcelona’s Argentinean star won the Ballon D’Or, which recognizes the best player in the world, for the third straight time.

However, Barca isn’t having the same level of success in Spain. The Catalan club trails Real Madrid, which is still in excellent form despite Cristiano Ronaldo being targeted by his own fans, a remarkable development outlined by Spanish-based writer and commentator Graham Hunter.

Rogers touches on this week’s Major League Soccer draft, where the Montreal Impact selected Duke University defender Andrew Wenger with the top pick, before playing the weekly games of Teacher’s Marks and Agree or Disagree with World Football Daily co-host Sophie Nicolaou.

To have your questions answered in next week’s show message Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo.

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