Charlie Davies’ Horrifying Crash, and What It Means for the USMNT

In the wake of something as awful as the horrific car crash U.S. Men’s National Team forward Charlie Davies was involved in early Tuesday morning, talking about soccer is almost an afterthought. One of Davies’ fellow passengers was killed, the driver was also taken to the hospital, and the photo to the right, from WTOP, shows the car involved mangled beyond recognition.↵↵But proximity adds importance to this Icarus-like tale of great tragedy following great triumph: Davies was just two days removed from playing 78 minutes in victory in Honduras that secured the U.S.‘s spot in next year’s World Cup. It is almost certain that his injuries, which have already required five hours of surgery, will keep him sidelined until a while after the World Cup. That means that his teammates will play Costa Rica tonight in a game that will help determine both seeding for the tournament in South Africa and begin a search for the soul of the USMNT without Davies. ↵

↵↵That latter part is more important, really: Though a high seed would probably give the U.S. an easier path to the depths of the Cup, a Davies-less team might not be able to cruise through the simplest route. So what must the USMNT replace, and how will they do it?↵

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Davies was instrumental in the comeback from the brink at the Confederations Cup this summer primarily because of his speed. Only he and Landon Donovan have demonstrated the top-line quickness to trouble top-flight defenders consistently, and none of his probable replacements (Conor Casey, Jozy Altidore, or Brian Ching) come close to that level. ↵↵Those choices all have flaws related to inconsistency: Casey was a revelation in Honduras, scoring his first two international goals and drawing the foul that led to the U.S.‘s third, but has been a non-entity in nearly all of his other 14 USMNT appearances; Altidore is the future king of U.S. soccer if he can harness his supreme physicality and add consistent deftness near the goal and in the field, but has conditioning issues and is struggling to get on the pitch with Hull City; Ching is the oldest of the three choices, at 31, and has just one goal in international competition away from U.S. soil.↵

↵↵Fortunately for the U.S., even though less than a year between now and South Africa will have them scrambling, it is probably enough time to put those players in situations to prove their mettle and tap others (Freddy Adu?) if their contributions are underwhelming. And Davies wasn’t the USMNT’s best player (Donovan), probably struggling to get into the top three with the bruising Oguchi Onyewu and stellar keeper Tim Howard still on the roster.↵

↵↵But Davies was a spark, and the team had found a level of play with him that it had not reached before his rise to prominence, beating Spain and hanging with Brazil at the Confed Cup, challenging Mexico at the imposing Azteca, and handing Honduras its first home loss in this round of World Cup qualifying. That team simply does not exist without Davies, and whatever momentum and chemistry it had will be nearly impossible to recreate without similar tournament or qualifying environments as testing grounds.↵

↵↵On Saturday night, with a momentous win behind them and South Africa assured, the USMNT had earned some exclamation points. Now, tragedy and fate have changed those all to question marks.↵

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