PRINCETON — Defensive breakdowns usually end teams’ World Cup dreams. And no matter how brave a face they put on or how much they denied it, the U.S. came into their pre-World Cup camp facing very real and worrisome questions about the heart of their back line.
AC Milan’s Oguchi Onyweu is recovering from a torn patella tendon on Oct. 14, captain Carlos Bocanegra from hernia surgery May 5 and Jay DeMerit from an abdominal injury. And while all could be better going into tomorrow’s tuneup tilt vs. the Czechs in Hartford, the team knows it sure could’ve been a lot worse.
“There’s no question we had a little situation at centerback,’’ admitted fitness coach Pierre Barrieu. “Jay’s progressed real well. Gooch is someone who, let’s face it, hasn’t played a game in seven months. From this point on we do everything we can to give him the intensity, the work volume.
“He looks like he’s doing pretty well. Carlos is doing real well. For the centerback position, it’s been a positive week. We were all concerned that it could be worse, and we’re pretty happy where these guys are at right now.’’
Onyewu is a physical specimen at 6-foot-4, 210-pounds, and he brings an element that no other U.S. centerback can provide. But the man his teammates refer to simply as “Gooch’’ hasn’t played since the final qualifier against Costa Rica. Clearly all eyes will be on him tomorrow; just how much rust will they see?
“I’ve been back in full training for the past month, two months now; this is nothing new in terms of the intensity. (I’m) just happy to be back with the national team, and just start the training and getting ready for the World Cup,’’ said Onyewu, who insists he’s not worried about rust.
“No. Not from that point of view, no. Obviously right now this week it’s been focused a lot more on fitness and getting our physical shape even across the board from all the players. But in terms of the training, I haven’t had to sit out any training, there’s been no physical setbacks in terms of my conditioning, so I’m feeling really good right now.’’
They surely hope so, because a back line with other nagging health woes can ill afford to have its most physically-dominant player banged-up.
“(He looks) petty good. He seems like he’s progressing each day, little by little, kind of getting his ‘soccer feet’ under him, so to speak, his game speed, his thinking. I mean, athletically, he’s always going to be fine, you know? He’s been looking good to me,’’ said Bocanegra, making his own comeback.
He suffered his injury after being kicked in the leg while playing for Rennes on March 28, a 3-1 victory over Les Mans.
“It was above my knee, coming from my low quad, and I couldn’t flex my leg properly for three days. So I was kind walking really awkwardly, and then tried to run on it like that,’’ said Bocanegra. “I think the body’s just connected. One thing hurts, you compensate another way and I think that’s usually how most guys are getting injured, kind of indirectly, now.’’
Underscoring his value as a leader, Rennes was on a four-game winning streak before his injury. But after he was hobbled, they did the same, closing the season winless in their last eight games, only three of which he gimped through.
Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck — an expert renowned for getting players out on the field in record time — performed her unique surgery on Bocanegra in Munich, and he practiced with the U.S. exactly two weeks later.
“I think it’s just she stitches the muscles back together, individually. I don’t know, precisely, what she did, but literally, she told me it’s going to take 15 minutes,’’ said Bocanegra. “I think she stitches the muscles back individually, so they can move freely. I don’t know, I’m not exactly sure how they do with other hernia surgeries. But that’s the gist of what I got.’’
If Bocanegra can play, does coach Bob Bradley pair him with Onyewu and use attack-minded Jonathan Spector at left back, or move Bocanegra wide to make room for DeMerit, the lineup for their 2-0 upset of No. 1 Spain in last summer’s Confederations Cup semi?
“Fortunately for me, I can play either position, so that gives me a better opportunity to get on the field,’’ said Bocanegra. “I do like being in the middle; you’re in the action more, right in the heart of the team (so) you can organize. But honestly if I have to play on the left, I’m fine there, as well. It doesn’t matter.’’
And the team captain said whatever centerback combination the team uses, the defense will be in good hands.
“We try to have the same styles, where we’re getting the lines up and we clear balls out, we try to organize as well,’’ Bocanegra said. “Gooch is a bit more of a ‘monster,’ so to speak, where he can take all the big guys and he goes into the physical battles… and if I’m playing off him, I can, sort of, clean up and organize things around him like that.
“With Jay, we’re a bit more similar, and we work hard and we’ll give everything we have, but maybe it’s not such a dominating physical presence in the middle, like with Gooch. But when all three of us are back there, I think that does a good job too, because it’s like three center backs and the right back can go forward and we can build our attack like that.’’
It apparently worked pretty well in their last trip to South Africa, smothering a top-ranked Spain team that features Xavi, Fernando Torres, and Xabi Alonso. They snapped the Spaniard’s world-record tying 35-game unbeaten streak, and will need to replicate that kind of defensive effort again in a South African encore on an even bigger stage.