¿Dónde está Charlie Davies?

It's 9:30 PM. I'm sitting on the counter in my all-too-small kitchen, preparing to Ronaldo four hot dogs, an apple and a glass of milk, and I'm still mad. Spit-pissing mad. Earlier today, Bob "Thousand Yard Stare" Bradley released his 30 man preliminary roster for the USMNT squad. Peruse the list for your own pleasure here, complete with some other rube's opinions.

After reading the over the list a couple of times, I'm only left with one question: WHERE in the FUCK is CHARLIE DAVIES? In the coming weeks, there's going to be a great deal of arguing over the US lineup. I'll save my opinions on everything but the forwards for another day.

(For those of you not familiar with the plight of young CD9, you're an idiot. Use your favorite search engine to find out his back story, paying particular attention to how they PEELED OFF HIS FACE during surgery. For our immediate purposes, suffice it to say, Charlie Davies was injured.)


Onward to THE FORWARDS! - Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles Galaxy), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Puebla), Eddie Johnson (Aris Thessaloniki).

Out of that set, it is almost certain that four will be selected for the final roster. Let's start by ranking the six strikers selected (alliteration!).

1. Jozy Altidore - Best option, at the moment. Still raw; getting better.
2. Herculez Gomez - Sleeper pick! Lead the Mexican Primera in goals.
3. Eddie Johnson - Unfortunately, he's back. Great form for Aris.
4. Brian Ching - Only because he has more experience than Buddle.
5. Edson Buddle - He's been on a tear in MLS, but it's just MLS.
6. Robbie Findley - Umm... he's fast. That's about it.

Now, let's decipher the gobbledygook reports on the current state of CD9's physical health. He's back in full training with Sochaux, but he hasn't been medically cleared by the club to play, and as such, did not have full medical clearance at the time for the US training camp. Bradley thinks "...it is in Charlie's best interest to continue his rehabilitation and focus on getting fully prepared to resume his professional and international career."

Rebuttal: Why would he be medically cleared? He won't be fit enough to factor in the final League 1 game this Saturday, so why bother? And honestly, don't you think that's just a formality? If Rooney's groin problem kept him from being medically cleared to be in Capello's camp tomorrow, do you think that would have kept him off the roster? If Bradley had called punched Davies's ticket, Sochaux would have let him go. Simple as that.

It's all down to a numbers game. How fit do you think Davies could be, one month from now? My answer is 60%. Fit enough to start? No. Fit enough to come off the bench and make an impact? Definitely. For the sake of argument, however, let's say that he would only be at 30% (which is an extreme estimation) by June 12. Let's rank the forwards again, under than assumption.

1. Altidore
2. Gomez
3. Johnson
4. 30% Davies
5. Some
6. Fucking
7. Guys

Even at 30% fitness, I still believe he would be an asset. Put him in for ten or fifteen minutes. Let him run his heart out. Let's ignore the obvious argument of how much it would mean to the team, how much it would boost morale and unit cohesiveness for a second. Let's just focus on the simple fact that he is acres better than any of the other pretenders on Bradley's list, especially as a fourth option. If he's at 60% fitness? He takes over the third spot, in my book.

Last hypothetical: Maybe there's shit going on here that I don't know about. Maybe he isn't as far along as, well, everyone says he is. And maybe he won't be at a level where he can contribute in South Africa. Stacked up against all that "evidence," I still can't see why Bradley left him off the squad. He still deserves to be there, if only as an emotional tool. Cut one of the MLS lightweights. You know you're going to do it, anyway. Bring Davies to camp. Throw a barbeque that night, gather everyone around the bonfire, sing "The Only Living Boy in New York" and jerk each other off.

At least that way, you can't say you didn't give him an honest look, Bob. At least that way, I wouldn't be up at night, plotting ways to bring in Gus Hiddink for the next run. At least that way, you would have given an incredible survivor his due.

-ZGS