Bocanegra Had Hernia Surgery
Something's strange here.
For a while we had been hearing about Carlos Bocanegra's injury issues. A knee injury turned into an abdominal strain, which had him rest for the end of Rennes' Ligue 1 season. We were told Bocanegra was working through said strain during the opening of training camp, earlier this week.
Today, it seemed like Bob Bradley slipped when he told the media that Carlos Bocanegra was dealing with some slightly more significant that an abdominal strain. Apparently, the U.S. captain is recovering from hernia surgery:
U.S. coach Bob Bradley revealed Saturday that captain Carlos Bocanegra underwent hernia surgery before reporting to World Cup training camp.
Bocanegra, a defender for Rennes, was kicked on the left knee on March 28 in a match against Le Mans. Because of stomach pains, he didn't play after the May 2 game against Sochaux.
He had sports hernia surgery on May 5, with Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck operating in Munich, team spokesman Michael Kammarman said following Bradley's announcement.
I admit that I may be reading too much into this when I say Coach Bradley "slipped," but look at how the Associated Press reported the sequence of events. Bradley "revealed," then spokesman Michael Kammerman confirmed.
Why is this coming out one week into the national team camp?
Tuzo Gomez
While we've yet to agree on an explanation as to why Herculez Gomez can go from Major League Soccer nomad to the Bicentenario's leading scorer, Primera Division powers Pachuca, nicknamed the Tuzos, seem convinced that Gomez is for real, signing the out-of-contract forward after Gomez put up a league-leading ten goals in the last tournament's qualification period.
Gomez's scoring title marked the first time an American player has won a scoring title in a foreign league, earning him a call into the national team camp. Gomez had not figured in any of this cycle's World Cup Qualifiers and had not figured in the team since Copa America in 2007, when the team took an experimental roster to Venezuela. Now, Gomez is in competition for one of the forward spots on the final roster.
Video: Tim Howard, Interviewed After Training
All Present And Accounted For
This is something that you could infer from previous updates: Add in the arrivals of Oguchi Onyewu and Alejandro Bedoya, the prognosis for Jay DeMerit and Carlos Bocanegra and you had the whole team in full training by the weekend.
And that's what's happened, noteworthy because the U.S. team has been injury-riddled for the last eight months, and while the camp doesn't have every player it could possible want, it has everybody's it's going to get. Thus, the full preparation can begin.
Opponents For Upcoming Friendlies Face Each Other At Red Bull
Turkey and the Czech Republic will help the U.S. prepare for South Africa with friendlies before the Yanks hop the pond. Today, the two nations played at Red Bull Arena, with the Turks getting a 2-1 win over a Czech team that failed to bring a number of notable players. Turkey however, had Arda Turan and Nihat Kahveci, both of whom scored.
The United States plays the Czech Republic in Hartford on Tuesday, after which they are expected to finalize their 23-man roster. The Yanks will then take on Turkey in Philadelphia on Saturday.