Brek Shea impresses in Stoke City reserve match

So I wander over to Stoke City’s official site for a little pre-lunch drive-by. I know the Potters have a reserve match today, so I hope to find perhaps a lineup or a tidbit in the text on Brek Shea.

I just want to know if the guy made the field. He has, after all, only recently arrived and is not far off major surgery.

Turns out, he’s done more than arrived. Here was the headline I saw on the front page of Stoke’s site:

“Shea’s impressive start”

So, yeah. I guess the big left winger played.

Shea, who moved to Stoke two weeks ago on a $4 million transfer, scored on a header during a close-door reserve match against Burnley. (Thanks to Stoke City for the photo.)

The Stoke report spoke glowingly of Shea, great news for U.S. Soccer supporters and manager Jurgen Klinsmann, whose team lacks width and could certainly use a version of Shea that looks more like the emerging force from his 2011 breakout season.

City were much improved in the second-half and managed to get on the score-sheet through debutant Shea. The tall left winger, who looked lively throughout the match, met Adam’s corner and placed his header into the bottom corner of the net.

“… But the impressive display of Shea on his return from a long injury lay-off will excite Potters fans with the winger making lots of neat touches and powerful runs, so supporters will be hoping to see the new signing in first team action in the coming weeks.”

Stoke has a week off (it’s FA Cup fixture weekend) before traveling to London to face Fulham at Craven Cottage. The extra time makes it that much more likely he would get into Tony Pulis squad and into the match in West London.