Jozy Altidore is one of the stars of the US Men’s National Soccer team. He is a strong, powerful forward who can possess the ball and score big goals. Now they have to play without him after he suffered a pulled hamstring 21 minutes in to their opening match with Ghana last week. They will be without him at least for the rest of the group stage and must get a win or a draw against Germany to insure that they advance. The US hopes that he will be available later in the tournament if they can get past the Germans. How can they replace him and how can they clinch a spot in the round of 16 without one of their key offensive threats? How can they replace such a key component?
The short answer is that they can’t replace him. There are no substitute players on the roster that have the same skill set as him. The US lacks another powerful target striker who really takes the attention of the defense the way that Altidore can. So as they did in the match with Portugal, they must adapt their attack and focus on other areas of strength. The US used Clint Dempsey as a sole striker against Portugal with 5 midfielders to complement his attack. They stretched the field quite a few times with through-balls to Dempsey to give him a few chances on goal. The outside midfielders become a much more important part of the attack with a lone striker, and this was never more apparent then on the way they worked the ball to the corner to setup their second goal against Portugal. This is the way they will need to try and attack Germany since Altidore will not be ready to go.
Hamstring strains
There has been no official comment on the severity of the injury, but Altidore says he is focusing on getting himself healthy as quick as possible and staying mentally prepared according to an interview with ABC. Hamstring injuries are both common and very painful and you could see the pain on Altidore’s face when he went down against Ghana. It is caused by the leg muscle being over stretched. Depending on the severity, the treatment is likely to be rest, ice, compression and elevation. There was no timetable provided for Altidore’s return, but with an aggressive treatment regimen, he might be able to quickly be match-ready again.
World Cup Outlook
The US is still in a good place to advance even with the heartbreaking last minute goal that they gave up to Portugal to end in a draw. If they win or draw in their Thursday match with Germany, they will automatically advance. If they lose, their chances will depend on the outcome of the game between Portugal and Ghana and may come down to goal differential. After some disappointing World Cup exits in recent years, the US would love to surprise the world to go deep into the tournament after coming out of “the group of death”. Whatever happens, we can be sure that national pride will be very high on Thursday as the whole country awaits the outcome.