General

United States 2010 World Cup Daily Update: The Bid Is In, Gooch Could Play, DeMerit Could Move

May 14, 2010, 7:07 PM UTC

And The Bid Is In

The United States has submitted its official bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

A delegation from the States' bid committee presented FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Secretary General Jerome Valcke with the nation's bid book on Friday in Zurich, Switzerland. The delegation included the likes of U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and team captain Carlos Bocanegra.

The bid includes plans for 18 potential host cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, D.C.

“Submitting the U.S. Bid Book to FIFA is a major milestone in this process and the result of months of planning and hard work,” said Sunil Gulati, Chairman of the USA Bid Committee and President of U.S. Soccer. “But it also marks the beginning of the most critical portion of this bid in which we must make a compelling case to the 24-member FIFA Executive Committee that the United States is the right country to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022. The support our effort has received from the people and civic leaders of this country has been tremendous and strengthens our faith in our ability to bring the World Cup back to the United States.“The committee has also released another video promoting the States’ bid:

"Gooch" Could Return Saturday

It’s buried in the middle of other team news (which we’ll get to, below), but unlike the AP story used by the linked site, we won’t not bury the lead.

Oguchi Onyewu is the national team's best defender, but out since October with a cruciate injury in his knee, his fitness and form are huge questions headed into South Africa.

The first step to answering those questions might come Saturday, as “Gooch” could dress for Milan against Juventus in the team’s finale Italian Serie A match of the season:

American defender Oguchi Onyewu was among 22 players selected for AC Milan’s season finale on Saturday night against Juventus and could play for the first time since injuring a knee in October.
Onyewu traveled for last Sunday’s Serie A game at Genoa but didn’t dress.

DeMerit To Leave Watford

Central defender Jay DeMerit overcame a freak eye injury to help keep English Championship-side Watford out of League One, but with his contract expired and the team struggling financially, the Hornets captain is likely ended his six year run at Vicarage Road.

Hornets’ boss Malky Mackay said: “Jay is out of contract and financially we are not in a position to offer him a new contract and he has the World Cup.
”Jay also has an awful lot of other things in his life outside football that he is going to think about and even what country he is going to be in next year.
“I don’t even think Jay knows what is going to happen after the World Cup yet but he goes with my best wishes.”

The 30-year-old defender has spent his entire professional career in England, moving in 2003, going undrafted and unsigned by Major League Soccer after graduating from the University at Illinois, Chicago. He started his career at Southall in non-league football, eventually signing with Watford in 2004.

Injury Had Bocanegra's World Cup In Doubt

Perhaps doubt is too strong a word, but captain Carlos Bocanegra’s knee injury, groin problem and stomach ailment were enough to have the veteran defender scared for his World Cup.

Bocanegra missed Ligue 1-side Rennes’ last two league matches. Unable to diagnose the issue, the club rested their left back, and eventually the ailment cleared-up.

“Obviously, I was scared,” he told The Associated Press on Friday. “I just got fatigued and had to take a few weeks off.”
Bocanegra’s problems began when an opponent kicked his left knee in a March 28 match against Le Mans.
“I was overcompensating because I wasn’t running properly,” he said.
The 30-year-old from Alta Loma, Calif., tried to play through groin and abdominal pain against Lyon the next week.
He became alarmed with the approach of the U.S. team’s World Cup opener against England on June 12 in South Africa.
“I came to a point where I thought, OK, I need to think about the World Cup a little bit now,” he said. “It’s not far away. What’s going on here? So I had to shut it down.”
Bocanegra got his club’s approval to train at his own pace. By skipping Rennes’ final Ligue 1 match, he was free Friday to join U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati at FIFA in presenting the five-volume bid book to host the World Cup in the United States for a second time in 2018 or 2022.