Jozy Altidore’s latest injury setback will once again keep the U.S. Men’s National Team forward out of an international tournament.
Toronto FC announced on Monday that Altidore is set to miss six-to-eight weeks after injuring his hamstring over the weekend. The injury timetable will all but certainly keep Altidore out of the Copa America, which is set for June 3-26.
Altidore’s pre-tournament injury is far from the first ailment to keep him from leading the USMNT attack. The forward’s hamstring woes first struck at the 2011 Gold Cup before Altidore was knocked out of the 2014 World Cup just minutes into the team’s first match against Ghana. A similar hamstring injury kept Altidore out of the knockout stages of last summer’s Gold Cup after the forward struggled to battle the injury through the group stage.
The Toronto FC forward suffered the injury Saturday night while beginning his run up to take a penalty kick. Altidore had to be helped off of the pitch and was promptly removed from the game.
Altidore was among the 40-man preliminary roster submitted by Jurgen Klinsmann ahead of the Copa America. Forward options also listed include Clint Dempsey, Jordan Morris, Bobby Wood, Chris Wondolowski and Gyasi Zardes.
What do you make of Altidore’s injury? How will the U.S. cope without him this summer?
Share your thoughts below.
The level of pessimism is so high on this board. Justified or irrational, I don’t know, but American soccer fans at the least seem to be carrying some sort of psychological trauma with them. Figuring out why might require deep study, might make a good novel someday.
OK so our best striker is a flawed player, we rely on him anyways because we aren’t that great a team to begin with, never were, and there is no one better yet to replace him for consistent goals. Still no reason to get down ! Worse, everyone is working themselves up into a frenzy, building the totally irrational expectation that we should and need to, almost deserve to, overachieve in this tournament. So when we don’t, achieve that is, because we rarely do, or when we do it’s been a little lucky, you are all going to get upset and depressed again about how the situation is “now” hopeless. But I say no more no less than it ever was.
+1
Beautifully rational
I think it’s a combination of soccer gaining fans and popularity in the US, and the sad fact that our senior USMNT is suffering from an overall lack in talent. Some of it is made worse by expectations of “becoming a top team” put on us by some fans and by our own head coach. These are unrealistic expectations in the short term with the current player pool. Most of all, the US is lacking in star power. A truly world class player would bring tremendous hope.
I think you are looking at it wrong. This tournament, like all summer events, is an opportunity. We aren’t Italy, France, Germany, Argentina… etc. where there are expectations. Each time the team faces off against the best, is an opportunity for the guys on the field to show they are better than I (and most of the scouts on earth) think they are. I think in this particular instance, some people hope that because of this injury, young, hungry guys will seize their opportunity, where perhaps in the past, guys have not.
No one (well, no one rational) believes we deserve to overachieve… we are just fans and hope that we will. I would love to see us beat Colombia. Can it happen? absolutely. what would it take? great games from lots of players… can they do it? absolutely. 4 years ago, I would never have thought that… I would have just hoped to nick one on the counter.
What you are seeing on this board is the evolution of our fandom, in lock-step with our team. We will be better in 2 years, 4 years, and 6 years… and eventually we will be the favorites, and there really will be expectations. you won’t get to re-live this experience of cheering for America as the underdog. Don’t piss on it. Just relish it.
Besides giving more playing time to Wood, Morris, and Zardes, the best thing I can see coming out of this would be the death of “hold up play” as a tactic. Maybe we’ll be forced to try to actually move the ball through the midfield now. All the “hold up play” ever seemed to do was to give us an excuse to play long balls that turned into turnovers.
It would be great to get a chance to see Nagbe and Jones setting up the attack, with Wood up top, Dempsey underneath and Pulisic and Johnson on the wings.
I doubt you will get your wish since that would mean playing without the captain or with a 3 man back line, neither of those seem likely to me.
Pulisic scored today for BvB U19s in the German U19 Championship semi-finals, BvB went through on aggregate 3-2. The final is set for May 29th, can’t believe CP would stay in Germany after the German Cup Final on Saturday, but who knows.
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Once again JK has locked up another roster slot (this time in the 40 man) for Jozy, only to have him fall to yet another injury. This man has cost others a shot on countless times. It’s officially time to eliminate Jozy Altidore from future MNT rosters.
Wood, Zardes Morris are all hot right now, Deuce is Deuce and all of them give us plenty up top. The exclusion of Altidore is a positive and thankfully he was yet to once again hurt us by wasting another slot on the final 23.
I remember when Aron Johannsson was going to be our savior. I remember when a lot of people here said Dempsey was washed up and shouldn’t go to Brazil. Wood has had one good season in the second division in Germany. He looks promising. Maybe he will be a star. There is just no way of telling. Even if you didn’t like Altidore, he has been streaky, but is a proven commodity. The fact is that the US just doesn’t have a game changing attacking player right now so our attack will probably have to be an attack by committee and hope the defense can hold opponents down.
He will definitely be missed. We have other guys who may be ready to step in and put away a few goals (and may even be better at it), but Jozy has long been – and still is – the best passer in our forward pool. His hold up play and finishing are average, but it’s his passing that makes him a good player, and it will be missed.
Absolutely. His holdup play may not be great, but most of the time it is adequate. More importantly, there isn’t anyone else in the roster that can do it.
Anyone who thinks this is good in any way shape or form for the USMNT is sadly mistaken. Our chances of making a run in this tournament just went from slim to way slimmer.
This will call for more than just plugging in the next man up, it will (or should) mean a change in formation and tactics. The US will not be successful with the way it has played over most of JK’s tenure. An old school 4-4-2 won’t work either because we don’t have enough skill on the wings. I think it will have to be a 4-3-3 to maximize the type of players available, and everyone will have to pray that Fabian is healthy.
Pure blessing. That said, get well soon Jozy (I don’t need karma kicking my a$$)
To be clear players not on the 40 man roster are NOT allowed to play in the Copa America.
A player named to the 23 man roster may be replace 24 hours prior to the first game for an injury. I believe it must be cleared by a board to insure it is an actual injury.
The replacement MUST BE on the 40 man roster.
Not sure if Copa has the same rules as the WC tournament, but in the WC if a player was injured before the first game, he can be replaced by any player EVEN outside of the 40 player list. Of course, most coaches would choose from the 40 player list since those players are already training and bringing anyone else that is already in vacation would be ill advised.
CJ Sapong.
Not on the 40 man preliminary roster.
Again You never wish a player an injury and I wish him a speedy recovery.
but “Jozy Altidore set to miss Copa America with hamstring injury” really means “the USMNT are in a better position to score goals in the up coming COPA AMERICA”.
GET WELL SOON JOZY
We’ll see…are you prepared to eat some crow if the other forwards completely fall flat? This is essentially the moment you have been waiting/screaming for, a chance for someone not named Jozy to step up and win the spot. If they fail, then what?
WYCHIJEFF!!!!!
in all fairness if they fall flat that’s my foot in my mouth and have to do the one thing I dread….Admitting that Altidore doesn’t suck :-O
Those are unrelated events, the strikers could also suck along with Jozy, or both the strikers and Jozy could not suck. They aren’t really related.
I was going to say something similar. The other forwards not producing doesn’t mean Altidore doesn’t suck, it may mean they all suck or our team attacking sucks.
*Hint: it’s the latter.
People will say, if only Johannsson was healthy, (even tho he’s never scored at the rate of Jozy for the the US or at AZ) or Sapong who has had a good couple months should have been in the team….
A year ago people couldn’t believe Klinsmann was even calling Wood in, his manager let him be loaned to a rival pretty much saying, “don’t worry he won’t score”. now we’re pretty much putting everything on him to deliver. Behind him are Zardes and Morris who pretty much get bashed by US fans just as much, for there poor touch and lack of left foot.
If they fail, then what?
I think it means our striker pool is underwhelming at best.
Or our entire attack is underwhelming at best. If you watch US games, our forwards don’t miss that many chances, they just don’t get that many chances. IMHO our forwards’ goal scoring woes across the board are due to the larger fact that we are mediocre on the offensive side of the ball. Doesn’t matter who our forward is.
I’ve seen Zardes blow a number of chances in the last year, at least 2 point blank headers, however I guess we’re all excited he’s likely to get more time now?
I don’t think he should be a starter.
“Those are unrelated events”…lol yeah right Johnnyrazor, you’d be the first one showing his stats and on the “I thought you all said Altidore sucks” train.
“The other forwards not producing doesn’t mean Altidore doesn’t suck”… We both know wychijeff that the “Altidore fanboys” will be out in full force trying to relate our no doing well in the COPA AMERICA to Altidore not being there (because of his scoring average or being the 3rd all-time scorer for the USMNT lol)
This is likely.
bizzy–you should take a course in logic and/or learn how social science looks at things. Of course they are unrelated because the variables will be completely different. Also, you can’t generalize from the absence of something that a result would differ or be the same if that something were present.
“should take a course in logic and/or learn how social science looks at things”
…as smart and educational as that might sound Gage that is not how thing as going to be broken down and analyzed by the Altidore fanboys. With them all Logic is thrown out of the window, so approaching a situation and examining the variables methodically is an absolute WASTE OF TIME (Altidore’s international scoring average and being the third highest goal score for the USMNT trumps all lol). One way or the other they (fanboy nation) will relate our no doing well in the COPA AMERICA to Altidore not being there (just like they always do for his absence in the world cup)…. I’ll remind you again when it happens (because it will).
Bizzy
“One way or the other they (fanboy nation) will relate our no doing well in the COPA AMERICA to Altidore not being there”
If you consider me a fanboy then you are incorrect. As already stated, us not doing well has no affect on the historical past of altidore doing relatively well for us. Jozy “sucking” is a perspective question based on interpreting factual events. Those who understand these events correct know he does not suck; and that is true regardless of how we do in the copa. The only thing doing poorly might prove is that Jozy is our best current striker not named Clint and that would make a lot of “Jozy haters” upset to admit.
I hope we do well at the copa; knowing that it can’t take away the historical truth of jozys career to date and that it will only strengthen our team…..
Bizzy- You are actually wrong, what would make me say Altidore doesn’t suck is Altidore not sucking, since he will not be playing it will be hard for him to do that. If our forwards struggle I will be disappointed. The success of Wood or Morris or Wondo is not related to Jozy’s play if they are not on the field together. There can be more than one good player on a squad.
And this will be the last time I respond to you in anyway about Altidore. There is no use discussing the issue with you when you openly admit that you are not going to be logical in your discussion because the facts the other side uses don’t support your conclusion. It’s just a waste of time. You are welcome to your opinion and I look forward (I really do, I do appreciate your passion) to discussions on other topics.
Thanks Old School for reminding me of my own advice.
Zardes can play a lone centre-forward, better than Altidore, he can also played a winger or in the right or left midfield. He can played paired with another forward or with two others. and If he didn’t have an inconsistent first touch, he would have replaced Altidore long ago. As it is he has 4 goals in the MLS this season, despite sharing goal scoring with Dos Santos. Magee and Keane, all of whom have 4+ goals. Zardes is fast and has a tremendous work rate, tracking back to cover on defense almost too much. When Arena has him up top (when Keane was injured) he constantly had to remind him to not track back on defense and to stay up top on those occasions when the Galaxy do not have the ball. His sliding 40 yard pass to the feet of a full sprint Dos Santos for the goal against SKC shows h is developing a good talent for insightful passing.
While there are many who say that losing Altidore is a blow, losing an in-form, top of the game Altidore would be a blow. That is not what has happened. Player like Zardes have been given an opportunity that I hope they embrace and excel.
Jack: Johannessen did better than expected at AZ, he didn’t have the benefit of having the stronger supporting cast that Jozy did when he was there, wasn’t he only like 3 goals short of what Jozy did the previous year? As to his number for our National Team is all relevant to who gets the lion’s share of minutes, that was never in dispute. You can’t hang that on Johannssen since he can only do what he can when he is called and when he is healthy.
Given the unfortunate injury news most coaches would probably go with hottest, most in form striker AKA Bobby Wood; but it’s Klinsmann. I guess we’ll see Alan Gordon getting a lot of first team minutes this summer.
While disappointing, Altidore is still on course to score the same amount of goals in the Copa Centenario prior to the injury. So, he has that going for him.
As much as I agree, Johnnyrazor and DLOA certainly will have a lot to say about that…lol
Unfortunately, I think we’ve seen the best Altidore has to offer and I don’t foresee some miraculous upward trend in his career. I like Altidore, but there’s been something missing his entire career. After going to Sunderland, an absence of confidence has made that even more glaring.
Despite my hyperbolic sentiments, I do think his absence will be felt initially and I would have preferred him having a place on the roster (perhaps not the starting line-up). However, for the national team sometimes a step backwards is a step forwards.
Time for the next man up and to grab the job with ferocity leaving no doubt who’s place it is going forward. If no one takes that opportunity, count on seeing Altidore as the mainstain again when he returns from his health issues.
Be careful what you wish for, when its Wondo is starting against Colombia.
I sure hope not – Wood has to be next in line no?
Tune-up games will be telling.
I’d bring Agudelo for his individual skill up front to beat players 1v1. He might not have Altidore’s strength to ride through tackles, but Agudelo’s tricks will get people to foul him in/around the box.
Wondo has already blew his chances in Brazil’14.
Agudelo wasn’t on the 40 man roster. He can’t be brought in…I think.
I’m sure, I mean Wood is kind of everything Klinsmann goes on about, a young player, out of his comfort zone, pushing through the ranks of the German system. However Klinsmann contradicting himself wouldn’t be a first either.
This is my biggest fear. Jozy goes down and JK turns to the veteran Wondo.
For some reason people dislike Jozy….one of the top scorers for the USMNT….and LOVE Wondo. Hopefully when Wondo proves once again that he isn’t capable of playing at the international level we can finally stop seeing him get called up.
Wondo is no world class finisher. He has proven it over and over given the chances he’s had. Still have your doubts? Go back and watch the Kazakhstan (or maybe a different Central Asian country) friendly before the World Cup. He missed an easy header by heading straight at the gk; come on, if you are a pro, nonetheless national team player, you should be aiming for the ground for the ball to bounce pass the gk.
That was the defining moment that I realized this guy is not going to a match winner for anything
that counts. It proved true against Belgium.
Helium- Agudelo can’t even solidify himself as a starter for New England, although he has played well the last couple of games for NE and should benefit from Kamara attracting attention as long as he doesn’t take too much of his service.
But Helium once saw Agudelo do something good, and he once saw Wondo do something bad, so his mind is made up, regardless of what either of them does regularly. Wondo is certainly not the answer, but neither is Agudelo at the moment.
Don’t know how long you’ve been watching Wondo, but the guy has missed the easiest of sitters over his long MLS career. If you play soccer, not just watch it, you will know immediately his deficiency is his technique. Granted, he is a very good Johnny on the spot goal scorer due to his vision and intelligence in the box, but technique is what is preventing him becoming world class.
Would never wish an injury on someone, BUT…….this is flat out a blessing in disguise. More time for Wood and Morris to see what they really have against legit competition. Can’t wait to see what they bring to the table.
Well I guess he wasn’t faking it. Makes you wonder what it is about Jozy physically that this keeps happening. When he went down in Brazil I was pretty sure it had something to do with JK’s conditioning plan.
Indeed, injuries happen. Altidore and Johnson have both had hamstring injuries since the World Cup, while playing for their clubs.
I’m not familiar with Johnson’s hamstring issues since the Gold Cup. Has he missed more time due to hamstring specific issues?
He missed the Guatemala qualifiers and has missed the last three games of the club season (subbed on for 9 minutes in fourth to last game), I believe technically its a groin injury not hamstring. Also, missed a month in the fall with a hamstring shortly before Concacaf Cup.
I don’t wish him any injury or anything but am glad that it will force JK to look at other options. As long as that other option isn’t Zardes, I’ll be happy. I guess my first choice would be Wood at this point. He’s moving to a better team and actually is a forward that scores goals
.
“I don’t wish him any injury or anything but am glad that it will force JK to look at other options.”
+1
i’m firmly in the “our other options aren’t likely to be better than jozy” camp, but i’d love to be proven wrong, and i think the copa america is a great time to look at new players (meaningless tournament, but top teams). agree that wood should get starts, to see if he can keep his form for entire games.
Great opportunity for Wood, Morris, and Zardes to shine on a big stage. If one or more of them step up, it should mean the end of Altidore’s guaranteed starting spot.
Is it time to declare Altidore officially injury-prone?
Coincidentally, Bobby Wood moved up to the Bundesliga today as he signed with Hamburg.
Changing of the guard?