By FRANCO PANIZO
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Joe Gyau was not on crutches while walking through the mixed zone, and the initial outlook on his injury is that he escaped a serious one.
Gyau had his night cut short on Friday, suffering what looked to be a serious left knee issue in the first half of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s 1-1 draw with Ecuador. Gyau had to be removed from the friendly at Rentschler Field in the 22nd minute and was on crutches on the sidelines and with a bag of ice on his knee shortly thereafter.
U.S. Soccer officials immediately called it a left knee sprain, but there were fears that the injury was much worse and he would miss substantial time.
It appears, for now at least, that that won’t be the case.
“I’m all right. I’m all right,” said Gyau. “It’s just a little bit of meniscus. When I beat the guy down the line I cut it in and my leg kind of gave out on me. They said it’s nothing too serious, just got to get the MRI in Florida and we’ll see what’s up.
“Hopefully it’s just a sprain. They said the worst-case scenario maybe like four weeks (out).”
U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann was disappointed to see Gyau suffer the injury, especially because the the 22-year-old winger looked poised for a strong showing after performing well in last month’s friendly vs. the Czech Republic and the past few days in the Americans’ training sessions.
“We hope it’s not so bad, but he looked really good the last couple of days in training,” Klinsmann said. “I think he showed that in the first couple of minutes, that he was full of energy. That was a bit of a bummer.”
The Borussia Dortmund speedster will now travel with the U.S. to Boca Raton, Florida, to undergo further testing that will determine if Gyau indeed escaped ligament damage and how long he will be sidelined.
The Americans host Honduras on Tuesday at FAU Stadium.
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What do you make of Gyau’s comments regarding his injury? Still waiting until you hear the official diagnosis before breathing a sigh of relief? How disappointing is it to see his night and likely his appearance in this camp cut short?
Share your thoughts below.
hope he’s OK and recovers fully, kid’s got some game
New drinking game: Every time JK says “Bummer” . . .looks like his time in Southern California has really made an impression!
Stadiums not seasons.
If the federation wants to schedule games at football seasons, it should restrict them to the offseason for college or NFL football. The field in Hartford was atrocious and IMO probably responsible for Gyau’s injury. There were also so terrible bounces in the middle of the field between the football hash marks.
I thought he was involved in a collision then he tried to go again and finally went down and came out? There were two parts to this injury… not just when he went down the last time
I’ve said this countless times but it annoys me to no end that we have a sufficient amount of SSS’s in the country capable and willing to host National Team matches, and we continue to play in football stadiums.
I get the aspect of higher attendance and more money with some of these circumstances, but not all. Additionally, I think it’s a great way to get fans to start attending their local MLS matches. If nothing else, playing in these MLS stadiums will allow the casual fan to (literally) identify where their local club plays and maybe catch a game or two that season as result. Essentially marketing the stadium to the local public.
agree Old School, or in football stadiums hat present soccer well, like Stanford Stadium for example
Is it me or did that field look horrible last night. There were players slipping everywhere. That’s what happened on the play he got hurt on.
I agree. It looked like it especially affected Joe Corona. He looked like he was playing on ice. I can’t figure out why they were watering the field before the game if it was already so wet.
It would be a shame to see a speedster like Gyau suffer a knee injury. We don’t want to see another Gatt 2.0.
I wouldn’t breathe easy yet. Non contact knee injury is an ACL until proven otherwise. Most people don’t get real sore for 12-24hr once it swells. I hope his MRI says otherwise…
I would normally feel the same, but he was grabbing the outside of the knee which wouldn’t normally indicate an ACL issue. I also don’t think he’d be walking without crutches so soon based on what I’ve seen with other ACLs.
phew.. I was super bummed seeing the injury. hope he knows his knee.. was most looking forward to seeing that speed.
Tough luck for Gyau. It seems that every time a new cycle starts and we have a player with world class speed some ish happens.
Are there player ratings for this game? i forgot to watch it. How did the new kids look? Yedlin had an assist and Mix scored the goal I heard.