Haji Wright will play no further part in the U.S. men’s national team’s CONCACAF Gold Cup involvement.
Wright has left USMNT camp and headed back to his club Coventry City for treatment and rehabilitation, U.S. Soccer announced Saturday. The forward has been sidelined with an Achilles issue, which has forced him out of action.
The 27-year-old did not feature in the USMNT’s 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia on Thursday due to the injury. Wright came off the bench and scored once in a 5-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago last Sunday.
In total, Wright played 42 minutes in two appearances during the June window.
“Always sad to see a player leave, because the group was very good, and he’s a very good guy, and adds very good quality to the group, [a] different option,” USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino told reporters on Saturday.
“He’s a player that can play in different positions in the attack,” Pochettino added. “Yes, sad situation, sad for him, sad for the team, but I think we need to prioritize his process to recovery.”
Wright entered camp fresh off a 12-goal haul for Coventry City in the EFL Championship. The California native has scored 31 goals for the Sky Blues in two seasons and overall has eclipsed 10 goals or more in each of his last five seasons at club level.
The USMNT will now rely on Patrick Agyemang, Damion Downs and Brian White to lead the line for the remainder of the tournament.
Pochettino’s squad faces Haiti in their group stage finale on Sunday before taking on either Mexico or Costa Rica in the quarterfinal round.
Sure would have been nice to have Josh Sargent on this roster. At least for the knockout round. ESPN has him ranked 7th among strikers in our pool. 7th!!! At least he is one pip above Brian Vasquez A solid MLS talent.
Ok I heard on several podcasts that the USMNT wants to massively rotate players for this game against Haiti. I know we’ve qualified for the next round all and we need to rest players to avoid injury but to have certain players out there running around like a team with no plan, it’s not a good look for USSoccer…..so note to Pochettino (just in case he has short memory lol)
——————–White—————–
-Aaronson—Aaronson—–Sullivan
——–Cardoso——Berhalter———
Arfsten—-Mcken—Zimm—-Harriel
——————Turner———————
……THIS IS THE TEAM THAT SWITZERLAND RACKED UP A BILL ON!!!! Lol
Against a Physical and fast Team like Haiti, a double order of Aaronsons and a young player like Sullivan…..only means these players will spend most of the 90 mins inspecting the turf than playing.
Lol, Mauricio Pochettino, brother I hope you execute a mild player rotation….. The world is watching
Ok, only Tolkin, big Aaronson and Sullivan……
Luna and Berhalter likely sitting because of yellow cards that don’t clear until after quarterfinals. If he is sitting them today prob will sit them to start the next match also.
Oops. No round of 16 so would clear after next match regardless.
bizzy,
“THIS IS THE TEAM THAT SWITZERLAND RACKED UP A BILL ON!!!!”
I don’t know about you but Haiti and Switzerland?
I struggle to see the similarities.
Lol …simple. Switzerland will not be able to score 4 goals in the first 45 mins on that Haiti team lol
Soooooo why on God’s green earth would you even think of fielding the WEAKEST USMNT starting 11 EVER KNOWN TO THIS COUNTRY in an International tournament like the Gold cup?
Simple compare and contrast
bizzy,
That’s hyperbole. I’ve seen some godawful lineups in my time. The 2009 Gold Cup final team that got pasted 5-0 in Giants stadium by Mexico comes to mind:
They had players who would eventually be pretty good ( Stu Holden_) as I’m sure some of the current players will come good, but they were not good yet. Getting blasted 5-0 in the final by El Tri tells you something:
1Troy Perkins
4Chad Marshall
3Clarence Goodson
16Jay Heaps
2Heath Pearce
8Logan Pause subbed by 20 Santino Quaranta
5Kyle Beckerman subbed by 15 Sam Cronin
7Robbie Rogers
10Stuart Holden
22Davy Arnaud subbed by 17Kenny Cooper
11Brian Ching
Substitutes
23Jon Busch
14Michael Parkhurst
13Colin Clark
21Brad Evans
Coach: B. Bradley
Can he call in a replacement before knock out stage?
No. In 2023 you could replace an injured player after the group stage, but they have taken that out.
we could have swapped up to a day before the first match. we cannot swap now. that’s why i made a fuss about risktaking and making decisions upfront. setting aside the physical wisdom of playing hurt guys, or seeing if a hurt guy can rehab in time………..if they limp out you burn a slot since they can’t be replaced. we had dest in camp hurt, and are still carrying adams and wright with knocks. adams is being used for short subs and wright is done.
Canada lucky to cokebaway with a tie against Curacao. Thought Curacao battered Canada.
Curacao did batter Canada….they disallowed 2-3 “goals” so close that VAR had to intervene……like all over them in the second half
Agye and Downs! Let’s go boys. Don’t get sucked into the negative fan comments.
repeating myself for the 20th time, quit calling hurt players: “He already arrived with some problems in his Achilles, and then we cannot fix the problem; he increased [his] pain,” Pochettino added Saturday. “That is why that [this] is the decision that we take.”
He played 77 minutes or more in his final 12 matches (full 90 in eight of those and all 120 in his final match). Only missing 19 minutes total in the final 12 matches. So that wouldn’t scream, “oh he’s injured leave him off.”
-There’s a rumor that his transfer is coming in the next few days so perhaps he’s really going so he can be cleared medically. That’s pretty unsubstantiated though, just fan rumors that he’s moving.
reread the coach’s quote. i don’t care if he played a game on 5/3 if at the end of that same month he “arrived with some problems in his Achilles.” you understand, he reaggravated it?
i had a lingering hammy issue one year in men’s league. i redid the hammy one time after scoring the winner at the end of a game. by your analysis i was fine because i was playing and scored. my hammy would tell you otherwise.
you know when it stopped being a problem? season ended that day and i got a few months off. which is what i think wright needed.
One reason why Gold Cup injuries are so bad is, given the timing, they tend to ruin your preseason which is really important to get off to a good start.
In a World Cup year, that is critical.
If it’s bad enough it puts his World Cup inclusion at risk. Patrick’s spot is now more secure.
How much money has Haji just lost?
you do understand this was a lingering knock from before, and that the best approach if you actually care about their preseason is shut the player down for GC?
put differently, this wasn’t our fault towards coventry until we chose to make a bad bet on it. which then drags the issue out with the implications you outline.
you act like you care on this one but i say this 20 times and you resist about every time. then suddenly it’s look what this decision risks for our tournament roster and then his training and season. odd. thanks for catching up on why i say what i do.
IV,
“you act like you care on this one but i say this 20 times and you resist about every time.”
You poor baby. Get off your high horse, you’re full of shit.
You read minds, know more about soccer than anyone who ever lived but you are not a medical professional.
I’ve never opposed leaving players out ,even if only as an injury precautionary measure. I was and remain opposed to any A team person being at the Gold fucking Cup and if they want to leave Pulisic out until the World Cup opener I’m fine with that.
The fact is the Gold Cup and for that matter almost all international tournaments, are scheduled at a time when our euro players SHOULD be resting.
Even if they have played without incident at the tail end of their season it is obviously a time when the wear and the tear of a long season has built up. At that time of year no one who plays regularly is “100 % healthy” .
In the case of the NL at least the players are still in “game shape” . The Gold Cup in comparison, gives the euro players a chance to get out of “game shape” and increase the chances of pulling a muscle or whatever, unless they put in prep work at least a week or two before the Gold Cup.
So if you’re an American euro, playing in the Gold Cup means almost no off season time.
There’s a reason why over the years MLS participation in the fucking Gold Cup tends to be higher.
There is a reason why a lot of club managers hate national teams. It’s because they increase the likelihood of player injury and shorten their club careers. Look at Gio.
Do I give a shit that the poor softy, unpatriotic millionaires don’t get a break? No. I could not care less about their fucking vacations and neither do you.
Them getting injured as a result of the Gold Cup is very bad timing and makes the team weaker for the World Cup. That is what matters to me.
That said the players should be judged on a case by case basis.
Dest missed most of the season and it ended while he was still in the midst of his injury comeback. In his case it made sense to let him continue his rehab elsewhere.
In Haji’s case he was out injured for some time , came back, NO DOUBT pressured by the promotion battle. Yet he seemed to be okay and it only made sense for the USMNT to bring him in and evaluate him.
Beggars cannot be choosers and the USMNT are always beggars.
International managers are forced to take chances with players of questionable fitness.
Especially when it comes to an important player like Haji., our third best #9. It was important for guys like Patrick and Downs to see what the real deal looks like , or at least as close to the real deal as the USMNT can find. It also gave Pochettino an ace in the whole if Patrick and Downs were shit, an ace he now has lost. Now he has to rely on Brian White a guy you love.
International football has its perks and rewards but it comes with a cost. It is bad for the health and longevity of any player.
Ask Brad Friedel.
this is very simple. the only time you carry a hurt player — and not many — is a world cup. that’s the only event that means that much and where you have all the top players you can manage if the injury proves too difficult.
otherwise, i don’t see the point in carrying dest through camp, or adams and wright to the event, to play with a second rate A/B squad on a team that will struggle at about the semi level of this tournament.
it’s not big enough a deal and it affects their ability to be healthy, fit, and sharp when we need them next year. it reflects a degree of desperation to win every stupid haiti or trinidad game that feels very very insecure.
IV,
“otherwise, i don’t see the point in carrying dest through camp, or adams and wright to the event, to play with a second rate A/B squad on a team that will struggle at about the semi level of this tournament.”
That’s because you are only looking at what supports your false narrative that you are the biggest smarty pants in the room.
They did not carry Dest “through camp”. They brought him in and , along with a number of others players, their fitness “experts” ( the only “experts” that you respect are the ones who support your narrative) decided that he was not ready for the final 26 man Gold Cup roster. He was playing for PSV at season’s end so he did not report to camp in crutches or on a gurney. It was probably good for both parties to catch up with in person. With the season over there was no disruption to Dest at PSV.
“this is very simple.”
Apparently not simple enough for you to understand.
” the only time you carry a hurt player — and not many — is a world cup. that’s the only event that means that much and where you have all the top players you can manage if the injury proves too difficult.”
You are not a medical professional.
You don’t work for the club (PSV in Dest’s case.)
And you don’t work for the USMNT.
You don’t get to define a “hurt player”.
As best as I can tell that definition is determined by:
the player and his “people”,
the club and their “people”
the USMNT and their “people” .
Each with their own agendas.
+ Players tend to exaggerate how healthy they actually are.
+ Clubs sometimes tend to a more conservative POV, unless something like , in Haji’s case, a promotion to the EPL is involved. Then they get a little cold-blooded.
+ National teams, in this case, have to balance team building with the need to have the healthiest squad possible going into WC roster decision day next year.
Those are the people who will decide just how “hurt” a player really is.
What are the percentages in terms of who has the most “clout” ?
It is different for every player.
“it reflects a degree of desperation to win every stupid haiti or trinidad game that feels very very insecure.”
No it doesn’t. That’s more you projecting your own insecurities onto others, classic stuff.
I’ve never seen this USMNT desperate to win anything; that’s one reason Pochettino is having a hard time with the leftover Gregg country club culture.
As far as I’m, concerned, compared with other national teams, the USMNT are very cautious with their players. That’s probably because their player pool is very thin and can ill afford any injury especially to proven, accomplished players. Every injury hurts them more than a comparable injury hurts one of the legit big boy teams.
Dang it, glad he was able to get a goal in Trinidad game. Wishing him a speedy recovery.
playing a hurt guy was not bright but the one upside is in his brief cameo he got a goal and looked effective, which will help with poch if he can get healthy later. poch should already know his quality from the panama win last fall, but with our ADHD 5 second memory right now, which resets every time we get a new coach, and keeps getting distracted by some new hype argument (eg, “sargent is scoring a lot for norwich, let’s flog that supine equine some more”), recent reminders are good.
TIV I agree and GGG did same calling up injured or player coming off injury.
And Downs is still said to be day to day, after that hard tackle in the Saudi match.
they had 4 strikers, meh, the issue is more that the odd selections we made begin to be exposed as we move beyond regular injured players who get shelved, ie, the ineffective white — who had one good january game and not much value since — is potentially the backup.
Your other striker options are Vazquez and Sargent. Not on the Provo list you would have Dike (who has the same recent return from major injury issue as Dest), Cowell (playing out of position) and …. In MLS the next highest goal scorer is Christian Ramirez who doesn’t even start for last place LAG. Striker is our weakest position in our youth teams so there’s no one there. Balo, Pepi hurt, Ferreira, Morris, and Weah CWC. The options were not outstanding. Do you want 34 yr old Aron Johannsson (I guess he’s a CM these days)? Maybe your guy Sebastian Soto who hasn’t played in over a year and has 2 total goals in the last 5 years. Maybe Eduvie Ikoba who had 0g in Slovakia this year. Johan Gomez 0g 1a in German 2Bundesliga.
JR
“Do you want 34 yr old Aron Johannsson (I guess he’s a CM these days)? ”
Had they called him in, the headline could have read:
” Bacon vs Turkey /Swiss ”
The kind of thing you see at a Waffle House. Or better yet a Sheetz.