The injury crisis in the U.S. national team camp
by Steve Davis on May 24, 2010 10:11 AM EDT
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As a writer, you can’t be high on the wishy-washy factor. You can recognize the nuance of a situation but still take a strong stance. That’s part of the biz.
So, here’s a little mea culpa … a “my bad” for some recent waffling.
I wrote an SI.com piece last week about the upcoming (and muy importante)
I mean, they came into camp with too many guys “working on their own.” That might be OK under normal circumstances. But with important guys on the side and soccer’s most important moment (the World Cup!) closing fast, these hardly qualify as “normal circumstances.”
But as I began chewing on the piece, Carlos Bocanegra got back on the field. Tim Howard’s little niggle didn’t appear bothersome. Oguchi Onyewu was downplaying a little hitch in his get-along that may or may not have truly existed. Jay DeMerit’s vision issues were surely a concern, but not as much so long as Bocanegra was healthy. Besides, a couple of the injuries were to roster long shots anyway,
So I called a late audible and took the emphasis of injuries in camp away when I filed the story.
Well, maybe that wasn’t my best moment. Heck, what did we all learn long, long ago on standardized testing in schools? Yep, trust your first instinct. Talk yourself out of your first-thought response and you’re on the fast track to
Now we find out that Bocanegra had sports hernia surgery on May 5, just a little more than a month out of the
Again, everything may be OK – but things just aren’t as stable as they need to be at this point. Plus, word from camp now is that Bocanegra may be rested Tuesday. That’s OK on the surface, because Bob Bradley may want a little more information to make 11th-hour decisions on some of the other guys. The problem in the bigger picture is that Bocanegra is a hinge for so many things. If he can’t play, and DeMerit isn’t ready, then Clarence Goodson may be a World Cup starter. Goodson’s rise in the player rankings has been impressive, and he’s not a bad player at all. On the other hand, you’re handing a lot of responsibility to a guy with a grand total of just one match of World Cup qualifier experience.
Funny, we went into this camp wondering what would happen at forward. Now, more and more, we're left wondering what the U.S. will look like in the back.
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And that's what makes it fun!!!
This is definitely a concern, but I’ll bet there are 31 other nations who have the same concerns. All of the players are coming out of a long Euro season or starting new season in America or Scandinavia. Injuries are rampant everywhere. It’s what nation handles them the best that will go far.
Chad the Ref
Much of the Injury List
is made up of players who’ll be fit for the tourney. A wee lay-off is no bad thing, frankly…
What to do, what to do?
Ehm…I think Bob needs to play these boys that have either been trying to get healthy or recently picked up an injury and need playing time…FAST! Ex: Onyewu, Dempsey, Bocanegra, Johnson.
I would also like bob to start these midfielders and see if they would be worthy of the bench in South Africa. The likes of Beasley, Torres, and Klestian (I highly doubt he will make the squad). I want to see these midfielders play when there is cohesion and flow to the game. We all watched that disaster that was the late stages of the Holland match. There wasn’t much flow or cohesion because of the amount of substitutes on both sides. I expect to see that from the Czech’s but don’t know how much tinkering Bob will end up doing. Bob just give these guys a shot and see what you can come up with. We already know many of the 23 that are absolutely going.
Why not throw a backup GK or two in this game AND bench Landon Donovan. Tim doesn’t need 3 90s to get into shape. So why risk injury?
