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Injury puts Gold Cup in doubt for Feilhaber

Benny Feilhaber 1 (Getty images)

 

Four years ago, Benny Feilhaber was one of the main players responsible for helping the U.S. men's national team win the Gold Cup and secure passage to the Confederations Cup. It looks like he won't get a chance to repeat that this summer.

Feilhaber is likely to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks after suffering an ankle injury in New England's 1-0 loss to Los Angeles last Saturday, according to Revolution head coach Steve Nicol. If that timetable is correct, Feilhaber is doubtful to participate in the Gold Cup, which begins on June 7 for the Americans.

U.S. head coach Bob Bradley has yet to replace Feilhaber on the Gold Cup roster, but he has called in Alejandro Bedoya as a potential replacement should Feilhaber be out for a significant period of time. Bradley has until 24 hours before his team's first group match to replace Feilhaber if necessary.

What do you think of this development? Do you see the U.S. team sorely missing Feilhaber? Think Sacha Kljestan, Bedoya and/or Freddy Adu can pick up the creative slack?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. This is such a shame. Benny is a skillful player and I was really looking forward to seeing him inject some creativity into the team when he was on the field. Yeah, he turns the ball over sometimes, but he turns the ball over while trying to make incisive passes, whereas most of our other players turn the ball over while mis-hitting square balls. He’s one of our few players who looks to attack rather than to make the easy pass. Though he probably wasn’t going to get a lot of time, he’ll be missed.

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  2. If I’m wrong about what took him out of the game, so be it. But I think it is easy to argue there was an accumulation of things on Beckham’s part. See Rob’s comment below. Furthermore, the broader point I was making is that there is a consistent pattern in Beckham’s play & attitude which quite simply sucks.

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  3. Don’t forget that there might also be additional injuries in the game against Spain (hopefully not, but you cannot preclude the possibility) so it is nice to have Bedoya ready to go and having practiced with the rest of the team in the camp.

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  4. Who cares, he hasn’t been the same since his goal vs mexico 4 years ago anyways. One less thing for me to screw up. I will just play my son who has played like 110 minutes of competive football in the last 6 months anyways.

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  5. It wasn’t Beckham’s tackle that resulted in the injury, but it is true that he was after Benny repeatedly. In particular, about 5 minutes before the injury, Soares neatly disposesses Beckham and passes to Feilhaber nearby, who gets two-footed almost instantly. Nasty foul.

    It galls me to no end that half of Gillette gave Beckham an ovation as he came off shortly thereafter.

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  6. Just more SBI hate on Beckham by putting a misleading photo… Typical.

    I’ve read such harsh critics of him all season when it’s this season that he’s stepped up, and without all his assists, LA would be deep in their own filth.

    Can we not show bias on a site that tries to keep away from opinion?

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  7. Ahh totally disagree. Have watched him closely since he’s joined the Revs and he is much better than I thought when I only saw him with the Nats. He does make very good passes and has very good skills.

    Turnover machines would be Sacha and MB

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  8. He just rolled it. I like to think this kind of thing happens more often on turf than grass but who knows.

    Has Torres fallen off the BB radar screen? Benny is a skill player and Torres offers similar skills. Do we really need 4 similar CM players with no creative mid?

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  9. As long as Feilhaber plays for the USMNT, we’ll be a loser. This is a guy who was an ordinary player at the second division level in Denmark. That’s BELOW MLS by a long shot. Apart from Onyewu, Feilhaber is the biggest turnover machine in American soccer. The USMNT will be an embarrassment until it learns to develop players that FAR exceed Feilhaber’s talents, whatever those slim talents may actually be. Damn, we have to get rid of Bob Bradley and his boss. Until then, you’ve got to root for the US to lose.

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  10. this sucks that he’s hurt. he’s a big part of the USMNT, has manned that supersub role for some time and done it well, and has become a trusted member of the team

    it opens the door wide for someone else to step up and make a positive difference, an impact

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  11. Freddy Adu . . . if you don’t take the torch and run with it right now .. . you’ll probably never get the opportunity again.

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  12. See above. He was not hurt by Beckham. The photo above is not when he was hurt. He got hurt by rolling his ankle over the ball.

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  13. “pull the strings in the midfield, without excessive defensive responsibilities.”

    bob bradley’s not going to be managing?

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  14. Who cares? If we can’t win without Feilhaber, then we don’t deserve to win the Gold Cup anyway. I think Adu will do a great job if given the reins to pull the strings in the midfield, without excessive defensive responsibilities.

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  15. Maybe Bedoya will be the Benny of this years GC with an amazing goal to win it for the US. I guess it’s possible but unlikely that Sasha will notch an important goal. Robbie Rogers doesn’t stand a chance.

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  16. I just watched the replay and you have no idea what you’re talking about. Benny and Michael Stephens were battling for a ball and Benny suffered a nasty ankle roll. There is a Getty image out there that shows Benny flying through the air in pain after a Beckham tackle, but that’s not what caused him to leave the game.

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  17. Bob brought Bedoya into camp as they waited to hear the extend of Feilhaber’s injury. So it was possible that Feilhaber’s injury would just be a knock I guess and then Bedoya would have gone back to Sweden.

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  18. As a fan of the U.S. Nat’l. team, I’m pissed about Beckham’s foul in the Revs game v the Galaxy. It was at least the 2nd or 3rd time he had gone after Feilhaber and he seemed to have clear intent to rough him up. And then he had the gall to complain to the ref about how it wasn’t a foul. Revs fans should also be ticked off with Beckham for taking Feilhaber out. I was pleased when Becks came to MLS but he consistently displays a negative attitude toward the league and appears to think he is above the level of play. It is time for us to be done with him.

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  19. It’s crazy to think that the USA has several creative midfielders playing in Europe that we can call on. We’ve come a long way since the mid ninties where it wasmpretty much just Reyna or Ramos.

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