U.S. World Cup team gets plenty of good news
Silver linings are suddenly appearing where once there were only dark clouds.
On Saturday, the Galaxy’s Landon Donovan helped Everton upset Manchester United, 3-1, after earlier helping the Merseyside club tie Arsenal and defeat Manchester City and Chelsea. Donovan, Everton’s player of the month, is making the most out of his loan spell in the English Premier League and now has a Manchester United scalp to hang on his belt.
On Thursday, Fulham Coach Roy Hodgson said that Clint Dempsey is well on the mend from a knee injury.
“His progress is good and he is working very hard to recover,” Hodgson said. “The medical staff is very happy with him.”
Also on Thursday, AC Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu made it back onto the training field for the first time in four months when he worked out with the U.S. team in Carson.
“It felt good just to feel part of a team again,” said Onyewu, who wrecked his knee in a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica in October. “It was a big milestone in terms of my comeback.”
On Wednesday, MauriceEdu returned from knee surgery and a subsequent ankle problem to help Scottish champion Rangers defeat St. Mirren, 1-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup.
Also on Wednesday, Freddy Adu scored his second goal in four days for his new club, Aris Thessaloniki in Greece, as it beat Xanthi, 3-0, to advance to the semifinals of the Greek Cup.
So, things are looking a bit brighter on the World Cup front for the U.S., but the best news of all for Coach Bob Bradley came from Sochaux in France, where Charlie Davies is preparing for a return only four months after being injured in a car crash.
Davies, who suffered a broken leg, multiple facial fractures and a lacerated bladder in the October accident in Maryland that claimed one woman’s life, had been expected to be sidelined for a year or more. Now, he has his sights set on South Africa 2010.
“Deep down, I’m thinking about the World Cup, but I first want to return before the end of the season for Sochaux,” he told reporters in France. “Bob Bradley told me to take my time. He knows that I still have some way to go.
“I would say that I’m a month away from being able to train with the team regularly, and then I need a little time to get match fit again.”
Czechs and balances
The U.S. has decided that the best way to prepare for playing England, Slovenia and Algeria in the first round of the World Cup in June is to play the Czech Republic and Turkey in May.
Bradley’s squad will play the Czechs on May 25 at an East Coast venue to be determined -- possibly East Hartford, Conn. -- and will play the Turks on May 29 at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia.
Prior to that, the Czech Republic will play Turkey at the new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., on May 22.
There is talk of a final U.S. warm-up game to be played June 5 in South Africa, one week before the opener against England.
No opponent has been mentioned.
Other than that, the only other games on tap for the Americans are Wednesday’s game against El Salvador in Tampa, Fla. -- when Bradley will field pretty much a second- or third-string team -- and a March 3 game against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
All in all, it doesn’t seem like much in the way of preparation.
Conversely, Mexico, which will play South Africa, France and Uruguay in the first round of the World Cup, has a string of games ahead of it, starting Wednesday against Bolivia in San Francisco.
Also in store for Coach Javier Aguirre’s team, if plans come to fruition, are games against New Zealand (at the Rose Bowl on March 3), North Korea, Iceland, Ecuador, Senegal, Chile, England, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy, with one or two others also being considered.
It seems like far too much in the way of preparation.
High-stakes soccer
When highly paid players in the English Premier League aren’t out getting drunk or womanizing, what’s there left to do?
Gamble themselves into trouble, apparently, and at some clubs the problem is far worse than others.
Stoke City winger Matthew Etherington, now attending Gambling Anonymous meetings, told the Mail on Sunday newspaper in England that he had lost more than $2 million playing cards with teammates when he played for West Ham United.
“It did get a little bit out of hand,” he said. “People were taking three, four, five grand on the bus with them. When that was gone, you borrowed more.
“You could win 20 grand or lose 20 grand on a single journey, which is ludicrous. Then some would play in their rooms. It wouldn’t just stop on the bus.
“It can’t be good for team morale. Any normal human being, if you are losing a lot of money, you’re not going to be happy about it and you’re going to resent the person taking it off you.
“You could be going out onto a pitch knowing that your win bonus or appearance money that day is more or less down the drain because you have lost it already.”
grahame.jones
@latimes.com
