Photo by ISIphotos.net
One of the storylines of 2008 for the U.S. national team was how well the back-line played and how many quality performances the foursome of Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo and Heath Pearce have put together.
That group will be missing a player when the U.S. team takes on Mexico on Wednesday. Yanks Abroad is reporting that Cherundolo will miss the Mexico qualifier after an official from Cherundolo's club team, German side Hannover 96, confirmed that Cherundolo has not trained in four weeks because of a hip injury.
"He's been out of training for about four weeks and it's a long time, and he needs to go back slowly," Hannover 96 press officer Andreas Kuhnt told Yanks Abroad. "I don't think he will be back on Wednesday for the game. That's too early for him to return."
This news wasn't completely unexpected and now U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley will need to replace one of his veteran leaders. Frankie Hejduk looks like the obvious choice, both for his experience and his past success against Mexico. Marvell Wynne should also merit consideration for the 18-man roster for the Mexico match and appears to be No. 3 on the right back depth chart. He is also coming off a good performance against Sweden last month.
What do you think of this news? Worried? Confident that Hejduk can do the job? Think Marvell Wynne is ready for a game of this magnitutde?
Share your thoughts below.
