18 Apr
Matt Mathai (I swear I will get your Argentina and Paraguay match pics up shortly Hansel Adams) passed along this photo today of the traditional starting eleven shot prior to DC United’s match against Toronto FC.
Either write your own caption or just acknowledge that intensity measures ten of these players except one….he’s just happy to be here.
24 Mar
Guess who’s shooting USA vs. Argentina for TSG again. That’s right. Hansel Adams. He’s so hot right now.
Actually, it’s Matt Mathai.
And apologies…I just went through my inbox. Mathai with some gems of that special match last Saturday.
DC United’s Charlie Davies precious moments as he scored two goals in his first league game.
12 Mar
This is a guest post by Atlanta’s Jacob Austin.
Thanks for sharing Jacob….& congratulations.
Everyone always talks about the inspiration athletes can bring, pointing to guys like Jason McElwain, the autistic team manager that scored 20 points for his high school basketball team on their senior night.
#Winning....Jacob Austin
Soon enough, they may say the same sort of things about the USMNT’s heart-on-sleeve wearing striker, Charlie Davies.
I already am.
A couple of years ago, during a routine checkup, a doctor told me that I needed to either get fit, or run the risk of diabetes.
I was 20 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighing in at 230 pounds. I did nothing about it, went on living my life, playing the random game of pickup basketball or soccer, and eating when I wasn’t. I grew to love soccer, and became passionate about it quickly. That passion led me to Washington, DC to see the Yanks play Costa Rica in their final World Cup Qualifier. As my brother and I turned off I-395, onto 14th street, and into traffic, I saw the news about “The Accident” on my mobile.
I was in the crowd at RFK, holding up my #9 sheet, and saw the inspiration the players found late in the game that night. How the two could have possibly coincided never really occurred to me.
This Christmas, I was looking at the pictures from my family’s Thanksgiving and Christmas activities, and decided it was time to take the doctor’s words to heart. I was going to get fit. I started by running a little bit on the treadmill each day, and trying to eat less. It worked, and the pounds started dropping.
After being at it for a little while, the notion of “just needing to get healthy” started to wear off in it’s effectiveness of driving me to the treadmill each day. As I was scratching and hurting my way through the end of a long run to nowhere (how I was starting to look at that blasted machine), my iPhone chose to shuffle to Weezer’s “Represent”, the unofficial World Cup anthem about never giving up, no matter how hard it is, how much it hurts, or futile it feels.
That’s when it registered with me: If Charlie Davies could get back to playing shape after the damage done to his highly tuned body, what excuse did I dare come up with not be able to just skinny myself up a bit?
The man known as CD9 has a foot-long scar down his stomach from a surgery to repair an organ.
Me? I just had a giant stomach.
1 Feb
The full statement from DC United:
“Charlie Davies is expected to join D.C. United in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday for a week-long evaluation period, which will include training and game time with the first team and a full medical evaluation by team doctors in DC. Details of a 12-month loan have already been negotiated, but nothing will be official until D.C. United is satisfied Charlie is physically capable of playing at the level required to be successful in MLS. United currently holds the top spot in the League’s allocation ranking and would therefore have first option to acquire Davies.”
26 Sep
Our friends over on WFD had Charlie Davies on their show on Friday.
Nothing earth shattering in the interview, but a few new tidbits:
• Charlie refutes a Soccer America report that he’s completely out of sorts in his comeback. Says the journalist who issued the report only watched him one game.
• Charlie says his goal for a return to the U.S. team is next summer’s Gold Cup.
• Davies said he had doubts about his World Cup candidacy in April when Sochaux shut him down for the season.
15 May
Update 05/15: Finally conversed with Neil Buethe at USSF. Neil is a class act; frankly (and I wrote this in an email back to him) he didn’t have to take the time to answer my questions since TSG is looking for commentary from Sunil Gulati or Bob Bradley, but he did. Thank you Neil.
TSG: MGT: Was the decision not to put Charlie Davies on the 30-man roster in any way influenced by Sochaux management?
USSF: Bob has provided detail on this in his comments.
TSG: MR: Was the decision not to put Charlie Davies on the 30-man roster in any way influenced by Sochaux medical reports?
USSF: Same.
TSG: If there any statement today on the Charlie Davies radio interview that was published online earlier today?
USSF: No.
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