by Greg Seltzer for Soccer365

Plenty of Americans worked off their Thanksgiving Day meals with weekend action in Europe, including Tim Howard, who backstopped Everton up to seventh in the Premiership with a 1-0 win at Tottenham.

The U.S. international was on top of his game, most notably in cruelly denying Roman Pavlyuchenko an equalizer.

Elsewhere, Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel had a light day at the office and Fulham's Clint Dempsey worked a quiet 90 minutes as the two teams played out a scoreless draw at Villa Park.

A flight below in the Championship, Marcus Hahnemann was in net for Reading and Cardiff forward Eddie Johnson came on for the final 24 minutes as the clubs battled to a 2-all share in Wales.

Watford skipper Jay DeMerit was string in defense as the Hornets hosted a 1-1 draw with Doncaster.

Recovering defender Frank Simek watched from the bench as Sheffield Wednesday topped Norwich 3-2.

In Spain, Josmer Altidore started and worked 77 minutes as Villarreal remained second with a 2-1 win at Recreativo Huelva - one of the teams previously linked with a loan spell for the American youngster.

Over in the Bundesliga, Steve Cherundolo went the distance as Hannover 96 downed Karlsruhe 3-2 at home. Compatriot Sal Zizzo watched from the dugout.

Michael Bradley had a very rough 70 minutes in midfield as Borussia Moenchengladbach dropped a 3-1 home decision to Energie Cottbus.

Borussia Dortmund defender Neven Subotić was sturdy as his team battled visiting Wolfsburg to a 0-0 result.

Down in the 2.Bundesliga, David Yelldell was strong in net and forward Matt Taylor stirred the drink for 90 minutes as Koblenz roughed up guests Ahlen 4-1. Grover Gibson worked an ineffective half for the visitors.

Kaiserslautern keeper Luis Robles kept his side in the game, and they rewarded him with a last gasp leveler to draw Alemannia Aachen at ones.

Gregg Berhalter and 1860 Munich had a bit of a meltdown, blowing a three-goal lead at home to settle for a 3-3 share with Wehen.

Next door in the Dutch second flight, Charles Kazlauskas went eh route in midfield and went close to scoring early as TOP Oss snapped a winless slide by besting nearby rivals Den Bosch 2-1.

In Belgium, Oguchi Onyewu saw yellow as holders Standard slipped to third place after a scoreless stalemate at Mechelen.

In France's Ligue 1, Carlos Bocanegra worked his usual 90 as Rennes moveed up to second with a 1-0 victory over Paris St. Germain.

In Austria, Kapfenburg forward Preston Zimmerman went the distance as the club fell 2-1 to Austria Vienna.

Finally, in Denmark, Danny Califf helped FC Midtjylland score a 3-0 win over FC Nordsjælland.

Soccer365 reporter Greg Seltzer blogs daily over at No Short Corners.

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