It’s been over one year since Daryl Dike last appeared for the U.S. men’s national team, but after overcoming a lengthy spell on the sidelines at English club West Bromwich Albion, Dike is ready to make the most of his latest opportunity after finding his groove at club level.
Dike comes into the March USMNT window riding strong form in Carlos Corberan’s squad this English Football League Championship campaign. The 22-year-old leads the Baggies with seven goals this season, with six of those coming in his 14 appearances this calendar year.
After missing out on the USMNT’s involvement at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as well as the opening matches of the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League, Dike is focused on making up for lost time against Grenada and El Salvador.
“I’m not going to take it for granted,” Dike said about his first USMNT call up since the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup. “You always want to be the striker, you always want to come in and play whenever you have the chance. You always want to be part of the squad, help the guys and be a part of every camp. For me throughout that time [being injured] it was fuel to get to where I am today. It’s another opportunity for me to show what I can do.
“I think I have changed a lot because I had a lot of adversity at the beginning part of my career,” Dike added. “I think things were going smoothly but you’re always going to have a little blip and for me it was about finding myself off the pitch. I like to do what will relax me and what will make me happy and throughout the past two years I have started to grow at that which I think will help on the field as well.”
Dike made the move to West Brom from Orlando City in January 2022, but was reduced to only two appearances due to a long-term hamstring injury. Steve Bruce’s firing in October led to Corberan’s appointment last fall, a move which has helped Dike get back on track and West Brom remain well in the race to earn a promotion playoff spot.
Corberan has led the Baggies to 14 victories in his 24 matches in charge this season, while also relying on Dike to lead the line on a regular basis. Dike has rewarded his manager by scoring four goals in his last five appearances for West Brom, an impressive run of form that contributed to his March call-up.
“Carlos has been great, you can see everything throughout the squad and how people are playing individually,” Dike said. “I think he’s someone who has helped me tactically and becoming a more complete player. Looking at me I think everyone sees the physical side, but I think he is someone who has gotten me to work more on the tactical side and the technical side of the game.
“He keeps pushing me every game and I think as a young player it’s important to have someone like that in my career,” Dike added.
March’s two-match window will also provide Dike with the chance to return to Orlando, the city that kickstarted his professional career. Dike was the No. 5 overall selection by the Lions in the 2020 MLS Draft, before proceeding to tally 19 goals in 41 MLS appearances.
Dike is not only glad to be back with the USMNT for the first time in 19 months, but also to return to Exploria Stadium and represent his country in front of his former supporters.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Dike said. “I haven’t been to Exploria since I left to go overseas but I know it’s a great place. I love the stadium, I love the fans and city, so being able to come back and play in front of everyone is something that’s so important to me. I’m super excited to be back in front of everyone.”
This guy has the mentality to succeed at any level.
Also, the stats provided show a consistency of 1 for 2 ratio of goals to games, which is the mark of a great striker. Keep it going DD!
he needs to not look like a nervous wreck when he gets his chance. and he needs to escape the “zardes trap” where he’s good for a group round goal or two in gold cup against a third-rate team we won’t see again, but doesn’t score in knockouts or important games. people forget he got his chance in gold cup ’21, started the quarters and semis, zip, we had to squeak games 1-0.
to be real, the proof of concept wouldn’t even be these games — it would be he scores now and then also scores on mexico and costa rica, and becomes the real deal.
to me it either works on mexico or so what. but this is “qualifying” to even be around for those games.
Umm he did score against Costa Rica.
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He injured his shoulder in the GC. Missed month of August with Orlando after his return.
Mr. Voice
“he needs to not look like a nervous wreck when he gets his chance.”
How he looks is irrelevant. How he actually plays is what matters. And Dike hasn’t had a lot of chances.
” and he needs to escape the “zardes trap” where he’s good for a group round goal or two in gold cup against a third-rate team we won’t see again, but doesn’t score in knockouts or important games. ”
That’s not the Zardes trap.
That’s the Jozy trap.
Which is where Jozy scored most of his goals against minnows and failed to score vs. the big boys in meaningful games.. It’s largely a bullshit concept.
In Jozy’s time ( and in Zardes’ time as well) they played a LOT of minnows. So yeah, he scored a lot vs. them. But they played very few meaningful “big boy” games. And usually the best chances in those games went to either Deuce or LD. When the pressure is on you revert to basics . And that means your scoring options are LD/Deuce and then Jozy and later Zardes.
Zardes had a nice productive run for JK as a substitute winger who used his physicality to push people around or run them ragged. The role , where his athleticism and physicality was emphasized, he did not touch the ball that much. It did a good job of disguising some of his touch deficits. That got more exposure when he moved to center forward.
Ever since the Nations League started there has been this myth that all of a sudden the Gold Cup is some high level competition.
It’s not. It’s sub level garbage . Playing well in the Gold Cup (see Shea, Brek) means little when you step up to Copa America or World Cup level. We have tons of data on that
The Nations Cup is sub, sub level garbage. It was established for the competitive benefit of CONCACAF nations not named Mexico or the USA. The idea is to get them regular decent competition.
It’s actually great for them but not so much for the USMNT , Gregg never really got to put his team to the test vs real opposition before Qatar.
Unless they get to play in Copa America, he’ll have the same problem this time around.