U.S. soccer team’s fortunes could be playing out in Europe
As the days draw down toward the 2010 World Cup, only 137 to go now, every incident involving a potential U.S. team member is magnified, whether for good or bad.
So it was last week that there was a scare for Clint Dempsey, a defeat for Landon Donovan, a bit of good news for Ricardo Clark and new reason to hope for DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu.
Similarly, Freddy Adu and Eddie Johnson scrambled to find a lifeline that would put them back in the roster reckoning, while Stuart Holden was poised to join a new team.
Others, such as defenders Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit, were on the mend from injuries and surgeries, hoping to be back in time to reclaim their starting places.
It all left U.S. Coach Bob Bradley having to split his focus between Saturday night’s match against Honduras at the Home Depot Center and developments across Europe.
First there was Dempsey, who injured his right knee last Sunday while playing for Fulham against Blackburn Rovers. Initially, it was feared Dempsey had suffered a torn ligament, which would have ended his World Cup hopes, but a scan revealed only “moderate damage” and no operation is planned.
“I watched the game, and whenever you see one of your players limping off the field and holding his knee, then that’s a concern,” Bradley said.
“You just have to wait and see. Like everyone, we were worried the first day, [but] once they got a complete scan and a read on it, I think it ended up being as positive as it can be.”
It is doubtful, however, that Dempsey can be back in time for the U.S. team’s most significant pre-World Cup test, a March 3 match against the Netherlands in Amsterdam.
“I’m not sure about that,” Bradley said.
Meanwhile, central defender Onyewu continues his rehabilitation following surgery on his left knee for an injury sustained in the U.S. team’s final qualifying match, against Costa Rica in October.
“The initial steps have all gone really well and he’s close to getting back to doing some field work,” Bradley said. “The hope is that by the beginning of March he’s ready to get back into training.”
Defeat for Donovan
Donovan, on loan from the Galaxy to Everton, suffered his first defeat in England on Saturday when the team was beaten, 2-1, at home by Birmingham City and knocked out of the F.A. Cup.
The loss followed a tie against Arsenal and a victory over Manchester City, with the American being praised for his performance in both matches.
Bradley said Donovan will benefit from the loan spell simply by being surrounded by top-caliber players day in and day out and realizing that he is not a fish out of water.
“Everton is a hard-working team,” Bradley said. “In order to be successful, they’ve got to have the right mentality and they need everybody to contribute.
“Landon understands that to be on a good team at a high level, everybody’s got to do their part and that there’s no room for somebody who’s just picking and choosing” when to step it up a notch.
Everton has employed Donovan on the right flank, using him more as a provider than a finisher, but Bradley said the English club could equally well use him on the left or up front.
“Those are all the roles that at one time or another we’ve tried to talk to him about,” Bradley said. “The most important thing is just to see him continue to have the confidence and mentality that [he can play] in these kinds of games and that he’s going to be part of them.”
On the move
With national team careers of Adu and Johnson having taken a sharp downturn over the last year or more as both players struggled to find playing time, the players have abandoned Portugal and England, respectively, and have joined the Greek club Aris Thessaloniki on loan from Benfica and Fulham, respectively.
At Aris, they will come under the guidance of Hector Cuper, a well-respected coach with top-flight experience in Argentina, Spain and Italy. If Cuper can’t raise their level of play, no one can, and Adu and Johnson can forget about South Africa.
Meanwhile, two other players who possibly already have been penciled in on Bradley’s World Cup roster -- midfielders Clark and Holden -- also are trying to establish themselves in Europe after ending their time with the Houston Dynamo.
Clark, the likely partner for Bradley’s son, Michael, as the defensive midfielder for the U.S., has joined Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga on loan until the end of the season.
“If Ricardo can adapt to the Bundesliga, he will be a useful player to us,” Eintracht Coach Michael Skibbe said on the team’s website. “He is a good runner, powerful, and is good on the ball.”
Reports in England on Saturday suggested that Holden was about to join Bolton Wanderers of the Premier League. Bolton’s coach, Owen Coyle, said he liked what he saw of Holden during a brief trial with the club.
Bradley, meanwhile, said he was not disappointed that Holden was trying out in England rather than being with the U.S. team for the Honduras match.
“Disappointment is not the word I would use,” Bradley said. “We’ve gotten to know Stuart and he’s at that point now where he’s eager for a new challenge and hopefully he can lock himself in with a team and it will be good for him as he moves through the next five months.”
Bradley also said that the Glasgow Rangers pair of Beasley and Edu, recovering from knee and thigh injuries, respectively, remain in the running for a World Cup roster spot.
