One thing everyone adores is great comebacks. Rooting for people or teams to rise up in the face of adversity and conquer persistent foes, whether those foes are injuries or opposing teams, must be a common genetic trait bridging geography and culture. But often our hope for the comeback falls short in the face of reality. Sometimes reality tells us that our teams are just not good enough to persevere on a given day, or in the case of Charlie Davies, that our miraculous recoveries may just need a little more time to reach the triumphant end we all hoped for.
Bob Bradley’s exclusion of Sochaux striker Charlie Davies caused quite the commotion. But the commotion wasn’t a function of reality, but rather a function of hope, for most of us do not truly understand the medical reality of his situation. U.S. soccer fans were hoping, as was Davies, not just that he would be included in the provisional 30-man roster for the U.S. World Cup squad, but also that he would be ready to perform at a top level without jeopardizing his career for short term gain. Turns out, our wishes have not been granted.
But there’s good news. Before getting caught up in the roster selection madness (which I did for a minute), I sat back to try to regain some perspective. Here’s the reality. Charlie Davies may have never played again. In fact, Davies may have never done many basic things again that we all take for granted. Not very long ago, Davies was inches away from a tragic ending, not a roster spot on the U.S. national team. So the good, non-soccer related news is that Charlie Davies, a player we’ve all grown to love, is alive and well. For that, soccer aside, I can afford to smile, even after hoping that he would be able to defy the odds.
But there’s more good news. Never before in the United States has a soccer player’s omission from anything, especially off the pitch, caused a stir like this. It tells us not only that Charlie is in good shape, but so is the growth of U.S. soccer. I’m disappointed like many that I probably won’t see Davies in South Africa, at least on the field in a U.S. national team jersey like I hoped. But looking at this in a different light, I am excited that our soccer stories are starting to matter more. We’re not in LeBron territory, but we might be getting close to Luke Walton territory where we’re not the hottest thing around, but we’re starting to get to hang around in some pretty important places on a semi-regular basis.
We haven’t seen the end of Charlie, we’ve just seen the beginning. The same can be said about U.S. soccer.
And now, on to South Africa …
